Email threat sent to nine universities
CHENEY — Eastern Washington University investigators have ruled a May 12 bomb threat a hoax.
The investigation started after the university Admissions Office receive an email threatening to detonate a bomb, according to a campus police field report. The threat was also made at eight other universities around the country.
At about 8 a.m. May 12, an employee reported the threat on the police non-emergency line, a police report said. Officer G. Karlis took lead on the investigation.
The email purportedly was from “Emily Quan,” of Ambler, Penn., the report said. The writer claimed to have made ammonium-nitrate and nitrogen bombs which would be sent “to your workplace.”
The threat also claimed timed explosives were placed at a high school and courthouse in Ambler, the report said, noting the sender claimed to be suicidal and in possession of additional weaponry.
Karlis’s investigation concluded Quan had no local history.
“I also checked EWU academic records and university housing records and there was no match for anything close to an Emily Quan,” Karlis wrote in the report.
Supervisors and the detective at the university police department were notified, the report said.
“I believe this email to be an obvious hoax,” Karlis wrote in the report. “I chose to pass this information up because at least one person in the admissions office was worried.”
The threat is similar to threats made to numerous high schools around Washington state over the last two months.
Those threats, too, turned out to be unfounded, although in Whitman County the sheriff’s office sent deputies to check each school threatened.
And in Lincoln County, Davenport and Reardan schools were shuttered after receiving a different chain threat.
Lucas is a former Cheney Free Press managing editor. He is a nationally published author who contributes regularly to several publications across the country.
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