A former director of technology at Northeastern University's Immersive Media Lab, Jason Duhaime, was arrested in Texas on Tuesday for allegedly masterminding a bomb hoax that took place on the university's Boston campus last month.
Duhaime was charged with falsely transmitting a bomb threat and lying to federal agents in an investigation stemming from a Sept. 13 incident in which a package sent to Holmes Hall — the northeast building that houses the lab — allegedly exploded. Duhaime then reported the incident to the police, claiming he had been injured in the alleged explosion.
The Northeastern Immersive Media Lab designs and develops immersive technologies using augmented reality, virtual reality, and extended reality. As director of technology, Duhaime trained students and faculty in the use of these systems and managed the use of VR in the College of Arts, Media and Design.
The package was accompanied by a strange letter that threatened to destroy the lab if it didn't stop its VR work, called Duhaime the “antichrist” and accused the lab of working with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the US government to “try and put all of us to live in a virtual fucking world!!!!”
A Northeastern spokesperson confirmed to EdScoop that Duhaime is no longer employed by the university.
The incident prompted a massive police response and caused panic among students, faculty and staff at Northeastern and several other Boston campuses. Duhaime was quickly suspected of fabricating the entire episode, but denied it. telling the Boston Globe on September 14 that the police “need to catch the guy who did this.”
But the ensuing investigation led the FBI to charge Duhaime with concocting a fake bomb threat against his employer and lying to authorities. Duhaime was arrested Tuesday morning in San Antonio, where he lives and is located is being held without bond pending trial in Boston federal court.
In one Affidavit, an FBI agent described his suspicion that Duhaime wrote the threatening letter and faked the package explosion. The agent wrote that after Duhaime called 911, reporting that he had been injured by sharp objects flying out of a package he opened in a closet, police arrived to find the package — a hard plastic case — and the letter allegedly was in it. it bore no indication of “a powerful or explosive discharge of any kind.”
While Duhaime had some minor bruising and marks on his forearms, there was no damage to his long-sleeved shirt, casting doubt on his claim of an explosion, the agent wrote.
A digital copy of the threatening letter was later found stored in a secure folder on Duhaime's computer, which was seized by investigators. Metadata associated with the file suggests the letter was written four hours before Duhaime's call to 911, which came in around 7 p.m. on September 13.
“Evidence discovered during the FBI's ongoing investigation indicates that Duhaime himself drafted the threatening letter,” the affidavit said. “I believe, based on the ongoing investigation, that the subject case did not contain any 'sharp' objects, that no objects were expelled from the case when Duhaime opened it, and that Duhaime did not suffer any injuries as a result of the case being opened.”
Joseph Bonavolanta, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said Tuesday that Duhaime repeatedly lied to agents and accused him of faking the injuries.
“In this case, we believe Mr. Duhaime wanted to be the victim, but instead he angered his entire community, instilling fear on college campuses in Massachusetts and beyond,” Bonavolanta said at a news conference.
The Northeastern spokesman thanked the FBI, the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts and the Boston Police Department for “closing this investigation.”
“Knowing what we now know about this incident, we would like to make it clear that there was never any danger to the North East community,” the spokesman said. “As always, the safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority.”
