Charges Filed in Middle School Bomb Threat Case

The Wellesley Police Department has filed charges against an 8th grade Wellesley Middle School student for emailing two bomb threats against the school on two separate occasions.  

 

The first bomb threat was received by email on Friday, May 22, 2009 and resulted in an evacuation of the school and a search.  No devices were located during the search.  The threat resulted in classes being disrupted, as well as Kingsbury Street being shut down. Officer Janet Moura and Chris Connelly were able to obtain a copy of the email and began the investigation into the matter.

A second bomb threat was then received by the school on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, also via email.  Again, the school was evacuated and the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad was contacted.  Once again, classes were stopped as students were evacuated to the Wellesley High School football field.

 

Wellesley Police Detective Peter McLaughlin, began an investigation and started investigating the origin of the email address.  Detective McLaughlin is the department's computer expert, and has extensive training in the area of computer forensics.  In addition to his duties at the Wellesley Police, Detective McLaughlin is also assigned to the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council's Computer Crime Unit.  This unit serves the area cities and towns that belong to the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council.  The computer crime unit has an extensive computer forensic lab, which is located at the Norwood Police Department.

 

During the investigation, Detective McLaughlin was able to trace the emails and discovered both had originated from inside the Wellesley Middle School.  The Norfolk County District Attorney's Office assisted Detective McLaughlin by providing subpoenas to various internet providers and services.  This allowed Detective McLaughlin to navigate through the often complicated and multiple layers of  a forensic computer investigation.

 

Detective McLaughlin was able to identify the sender of the emails, an 8th grade student at the Wellesley Middle School. The student will be summonsed to Dedham District Juvenile Court on charges of false report of an explosive device causing disruption of a school.  This is a twenty year felony in Massachusetts.