More than 15,000 students have been cleared to return to classes on Tuesday after a rash of electronic threats shut down 32 schools in Montana.
Police said the person making threats had been directly contacting students and family members by text message in hopes of ‘spreading fear and panic’.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said investigators told school administrators there is no indication the person making the threats was doing so from northwestern Montana.
‘The suspect could, in fact, be behind a keyboard anywhere in the world,’ Curry said.
Investigators said they had been in electronic contact with the suspect, whom they said had taken ‘extraordinary measures to conceal his electronic identity and location.’
Flathead High School is one of 32 schools in Montana that have shut down for multiple days after a rash of email and text message threats to staff, students and their families
The suspects efforts to convince Curry that he was in the area and prepared to carry out the threats did not convince.
‘All local references in our negotiations with the suspect are easily available online or from already compromised networks,’ the sheriff said.
‘We continue to work tirelessly to determine that location and fully discredit the threat.’
Investigators, including the FBI, have not made public details of the threats but Curry has said the person sending them was trying to incite fear.
The first threat was sent late September 13. Other schools then received similar threats.
Schools canceled classes on Thursday and Friday and postponed weekend extracurricular activities due to the threats.
Investigators believe the person hacked into the Columbia Falls school district computer and used information from it to then send disturbing threats via text and email to students, families and staff on Saturday.
Informational meetings for parents will be held Monday and there will be a law enforcement presence at area schools ‘until we are able to apprehend the suspect or further discredit the threat,’ Curry said.
Teachers returned to public schools on Monday.
Classes also resumed Monday for students at Flathead Valley Community College campuses in Kalispell and Libby.
Police said the suspect had directly contacted students and family by text message in an attempt to sow fear, and urged the public to report any suspicious messages