Two male adults, ages 17 and 18, and three juveniles could face consequences after placing a homemade explosive inside a mailbox on the 200 block of Venus Street in Holts Summit, according to Sgt. Marc Haycook with the Holts Summit Police Department.
An elderly woman discovered the explosive device on Jan. 10 and contacted authorities. The Holts Summit Police Department (HSPD) and a technician with the Missouri Highway Patrol bomb squad inspected the device, which was dismantled and used as physical evidence during the following investigation.
The explosive was the only piece of information police had in this case - that is until an anonymous call came into the Crime Stoppers tip line. Haycook said that call led authorities to the five suspects who built the explosive.
Because Crime Stoppers is a completely anonymous service, Haycook said he couldn't release information the caller gave to investigators. Once approached about the incident, Haycook said the individuals were forth coming with authorities. Their cooperation gave cause for authorities not to press state charges.
A U.S. Postal Service investigator aided HSPD in the case, traveling from St. Louis weekly to follow up on leads and conduct interviews. The United States Postal Investigation Service has jurisdiction over all mailbox crimes committed nationwide. At one point though, the investigator turned the case over to HSPD. Federal charges will not be filed.
Haycook said the two adults will face municipal charges, which results in - at most - 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine. Charges have not yet been determined by Holts Summit Prosecuting Attorney Renee Godbee. Judge Curtis Hanrahan will hear the case. The three juveniles are being turned over to juvenile court, Haycook said.
He said the suspects had no intent to cause harm to anyone, including the elderly woman who found the mailbox explosive. She was not targeted and her mailbox was randomly selected. He said the case likely boiled down to "kids being kids."
"There was no intent to harm someone. They made a stupid mistake, realized it and said, "We better tell you what we did' and they did," Haycook said. "Will they ever make this type of mistake again? I don't know. After what they've gone through with this, I would hope that they would not do anything like this. ... I think it can be a real learning lesson for those individuals, especially the juveniles. They've learned a valuable lesson."
Haycook did not release the names of the two adult suspects because the charges haven't been filed. State law prevents police from publicly giving the names of minors involved in crimes.
Leading up the the morning of Jan. 10, the five individuals experimented with explosives overnight, detonating four prior to placing a fifth inside the Venus Street mailbox. They had been setting the explosives off in an open field near the cul de sac where Venus Street is located, but not around homes, according to Haycook.
The suspects used a consumer-grade firework for their explosive. Dumb luck prevented the mailbox explosive from possibly causing bodily harm. Haycook said the suspects packed the fuse inside the device too tightly and it "snuffed up" before placing it inside the mailbox. They lit the device, but it did not detonate because of their error.
"They just got lucky it didn't go off," Haycook said.
He said if the explosive had gone off, it would have caused a similar blast to that of a shot gun. It's likely, he added, flying scrap metal from the mailbox could have also done bodily damage.
Haycook said this case is a good example of how the public and Crime Stoppers can assist in solving investigations.
Earlier coverage:
Charges to be filed in Holts Summit explosive device investigation