A frightening incident involving a package sent to Northeastern University that detonated upon opening may have been staged by the staffer who received it, investigators reportedly now believe.
The 45-year-old man, who was identified as the manager of Northeastern’s virtual reality lab, has not yet been formally named by authorities. A Northeastern employee fitting the description of the alleged target—Jason Duhaime—did not respond to inquiries on Wednesday by The Daily Beast. The Boston Globe later IDed Duhaime as the employee in question.
The “Pelican-style” hard plastic case blew up around 7 p.m. Tuesday, leaving the alleged victim with minor injuries to his hand, police said. Inside the case was a rambling, typewritten note taking aim at virtual reality technology and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook. It was addressed to the lab manager at Northeastern, and reportedly threatened to damage the facility if it didn’t halt its research.
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Reached by phone by The Daily Beast, Duhaime’s sister Angel declined to comment on the case and said her brother had not been seriously hurt.
“He’s OK, considering,” she said, refusing to elaborate.
In an interview on Wednesday with the Globe, Duhaime insisted he “did not stage this” and called for the capture of “the guy that did this.”
But federal officials looking into the matter spotted “inconsistencies” in Duhaime’s story and did not think his wounds looked like those one would typically suffer in an explosion, according to sources cited by the Associated Press.
“You don’t take anything off the table,” former NYPD Det. Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, now a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Daily Beast.
The device did not contain any actual explosive materials, but was highly pressurized, causing a detonation when the seal was broken, authorities said. It was sent to Holmes Hall, which houses the university’s Immersive Media Labs, which include “technologies for design, development, and exploration of virtual worlds, AR/VR/XR, and 360 video.” Authorities do not think the package was sent through the U.S. Postal Service, one unnamed official told the AP.
“I love the college,” Duhaime told the Globe. “I’ve worked there for eight years, and supported faculty and students. This is crazy ... I cannot believe people are spreading rumors about this.”
Boston PD bomb squad officers searching the building discovered a second parcel nearby, but were “able to render the package safe without further incident,” the department said in a press release.
“One thing about explosives is that they leave a lot of evidence behind,” Giacalone said.
Duhaime “supports students and faculty on how to use specialized technology, both in the computer labs as well as in the classroom,” his official university bio reads. “He manages and supports the Virtual/Augmented Reality and 360 immersive technology for the College.”
Tensions ran high on campus following the blast, and educators scrambled to comfort their charges.
“[T]his has been added to the list of things I never thought I’d have to do and want to never ever have to do again,” Northeastern PhD candidate Mackenzie Fiss wrote in an email to her students, informing them of the explosion and available counseling services. (Fiss declined to comment further when reached by The Daily Beast on Wednesday.)
In the immediate aftermath of last night’s campus scare, some speculated about the emergence of a so-called Unabomber 2.0. Ted Kaczynski, who called himself the Unabomber, mailed package bombs to university professors and others with whom he disagreed, leaving three people dead and more than 20 injured during a terror spree lasting almost 20 years.
Kaczynski, a Harvard-educated mathematician, railed against modern technology, penning a 35,000-word manifesto that argued the “Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.” In 1998, Kaczynski was convicted of, among other charges, three counts of murder, and sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in federal prison. He has continued to write anti-tech treatises from behind bars.
Classes resumed as normal at Northeastern on Wednesday, and support workers were on hand “for any students who wish to discuss last night’s events,” the university announced.
In a statement, Northeastern Provost David Madigan and Chancellor Kenneth Henderson said, “Events such as the incident that took place on our Boston campus last night can create or heighten anxiety for many of us. We would like to underscore what was communicated to our community last night: Multiple law enforcement agencies have determined that the campus is safe and secure.”
