A high school science teacher from Massachusetts has had her house raided after she allegedly set a homemade pipe bomb to explode underneath the principal’s car.
62-year-old Susan Seery’s Rhode Island home was searched by federal agents who were looking for evidence that she may have plotted to injure and possibly kill principal 37-year-old Lucas Giguere from Bellingham High School.
Giguere, who is a former U.S. Marine called police in November to report the explosion one evening outside his home.
Science teacher Susan Seery’s home was raided in connection with a homemade pipe bomb that exploded under a principal’s vehicle
The pipe bomb was a homemade explosive device and damaged the car’s grill
Local authorities believe the principal was targeted by the school’s science teacher
A pipe bomb had been placed in the grill of Giguere’s Jeep truck last month
Seery’s home was the subject of a raid in which her electronic devices were confiscated
Despite initially reporting the damage as possible vandalism, the former U.S. Marine sergeant quickly realized his Jeep had suffered extensive damage from a pipe bomb placed beneath the vehicle.
The pipe bomb had been placed close to the vehicle’s grill damaging it along with the radiator and inside the engine block.
Giguere told investigators that the explosion was so powerful, it was enough to shake his house.
The principal quickly suspected that Seery was to blame after she had been placed on administrative leave due to an unrelated investigation.
U.S. Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms agents burst Seery’s house on Tuesday to carry out the search warrant.
Lucas Giguere, 37, believes Bellingham High School’s science teacher is responsible
Photos from the scene show the cracked front grill of the Jeep which may have also sustained damage to the engine
Giguere told investigators that the explosion was powerful enough to shake his house
A Jeep parked outside Giguere’s Lakeshore Drive home was damaged by the pipe bomb overnight on November 16
Bellingham High School principal Lucas Giguere is also a former U.S. Marine
‘They bashed the doors in. Didn’t even knock,’ Seery’s son, Michael McNamara said.
‘We would have let them in. We told them before, they could search the house. And they didn’t choose to do it that way.’
Police took a number of items away with them including cell phones but found nothing relating to bomb-making on any of the devices.
Charges have not been filed for the pipe bomb incident.
‘I want to stress first and foremost that we do not believe that there is any danger to the community and that this does not appear to have been a random act,’ Chief Ross A. Atstupenas said at the time of the incident.
Police from Bellingham, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have all joined in to help with the investigation.
Increased police were at the high school to both escort the principal in recent weeks at school