For nineteen days in March 2018, Austin residents stopped opening their mail. Five package bombs detonated across the Texas capital, killing two people and injuring five others. The city that prides itself on being weird found itself gripped by something far worse -- the realization that someone was building increasingly sophisticated explosive devices and leaving them where ordinary people would find them. It was, as one congressman put it, the biggest investigation since the Boston bombings.
The first bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House on March 2, 2018, when he picked up a package left at his front door in northeast Austin. Police initially floated the theory that House might have accidentally detonated a device he was building himself. Ten days later, on March 12, two more packages exploded within hours of each other. Seventeen-year-old Draylen Mason, a promising young musician, was killed and his mother injured. Across town, 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera was seriously hurt by a second blast while visiting her elderly mother's home. Police noticed the connections: House's father and Mason's grandfather were close friends, both attended the same church, and both were prominent members of Austin's African American community. Because the first three bombs all targeted the predominantly African American and Latino east side of the city, activists questioned whether the police response had been delayed.
On March 18, the bomber changed tactics. A tripwire-activated device injured two men, aged 22 and 23, in a southwest Austin neighborhood -- a different part of the city, a different delivery method. Police publicly acknowledged they were dealing with a serial bomber possessing 'a higher level of sophistication, a higher level of skill' than initially believed. The next day, a package bomb exploded at a FedEx sorting facility in Schertz, north of San Antonio, injuring a worker. A sixth bomb was intercepted and disarmed at another FedEx facility in southeast Austin. Both packages had been shipped from the same FedEx store in Sunset Valley, a small enclave surrounded by Austin. By March 20, police had received more than 1,200 calls about suspicious packages. Over 500 FBI and ATF agents were working the case. Governor Greg Abbott allocated $265,000 to the investigation. South by Southwest performances by The Roots and Ludacris were canceled after a separate bomb threat rattled the festival.
The break came from retail records. Investigators discovered the bombs used common household ingredients and began reviewing purchase records from area stores. A bulk purchase of nails -- intended as shrapnel -- by a man at a Home Depot in Round Rock flagged attention, as did uncommon Asian-manufactured batteries found in the devices. Surveillance footage from the FedEx store captured a figure in distinctive pink construction gloves, the kind sold at Home Depot. Agents spent hours reviewing footage from Home Depot locations across Austin until they found what appeared to be the same person. The evidence pointed to Mark Anthony Conditt, a 23-year-old from Pflugerville. A red 2002 Ford Ranger with no license plate, caught on camera, narrowed the field further. Investigators tracked Conditt to a hotel room in Round Rock, then onto Interstate 35.
At approximately 2:00 a.m. on March 21, police pulled Conditt over on Interstate 35. As SWAT officers approached the vehicle, he detonated a bomb inside, killing himself and injuring one officer. In a 25-minute recording police described as a confession, Conditt outlined his methods but offered no clear motive. Police Chief Brian Manley initially declined to call Conditt a domestic terrorist, saying the recording mentioned neither terrorism nor hate. Eight days later, after public criticism, Manley reversed course: 'He was a domestic terrorist for what he did to us.' In the aftermath, FedEx implemented a new policy requiring government photo identification for all retail customers shipping packages. The bombings left Austin shaken -- a reminder that terror can arrive in the most ordinary packaging.
Located at 30.33°N, 97.73°W in Austin, Texas. The bombing sites were spread across the city, from northeast Austin (first bomb, near the intersection of Haverford Drive and Oldfort Hill Drive) to southwest Austin (tripwire bomb) and the FedEx facility in Schertz, approximately 60 nm northeast. Best viewed from 3,000-5,000 ft AGL for citywide perspective. Nearest airports: KAUS (Austin-Bergstrom International, 5 nm SE), KEDC (Austin Executive, 15 nm NW). Interstate 35, where the bomber was killed, bisects the city north-south and is visible as a major corridor from any altitude.