Maine Native At Center Of School Threats Hoax Probe
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – New developments were made Friday in the search for who was behind the threatening emails sent to schools around the country, including South Florida.
Investigators tracked the e-mails to a computer overseas, and now have some serious questions for that computer's owner.
The list of school districts receiving the threatening emails includes Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Broward, Houston, Dallas and now Clark County in Nevada. The district, which includes Las Vegas schools, received the emails Thursday and officials determined they were a hoax.
The Dallas emails detail plans of "46 jihad affiliates" for a "massacre of epic proportion," with mass shootings and napalm, propane and pressure cooker explosives "for maximum casualty."
These emails differ slightly from the one received in Los Angeles which talked of 32 comrades and bombs set to "detonate via cell phone."
CBS4 learned investigators believed the emails sent to Miami-Dade and Broward schools were meant more as a prank rather than for political purposes.
Neither district decided to cancel any classes and both notified parents ahead of time
CBS4 has also reported the emails were suspected to have originated in Eastern Europe.
Now, investigators have confirmed that the emails were all routed through a computer server in Germany run by Vincent Canfield.
The 21-year-old native of Maine and college drop-out says he's been living in Romania as of last week.
Canfield received a subpoena from New York City police, which was followed by a call with a detective, which Canfield recorded.
"The reason you got three days to respond is because of the severity of it," the NYPD detective told him.
"I do understand the severity of it. There's some stuff I don't understand on the subpoena and I'd like to understand it before I follow through," Canfield responded.
Canfield said he can trace the source of the email and that he has complied with the New York subpoena, but has yet to respond to one he just received from Clark County. He has also consulted with a lawyer who has represented Edward Snowden.
