An Illinois man accused of sending letters containing suspicious white powder to four members of Congress was arrested after allegedly writing his own name and return address on the envelopes, authorities say.
Matthew Unglesbee, 36, of Quincy, remained in the custody of U.S. Marshals Tuesday on federal charges of perpetrating a hoax and sending threatening communications through the mail.
In an eight-page criminal complaint unsealed Monday, Charis Hobbs — a task force agent in the FBI’s Springfield office — said Unglesbee admitted in an interview Sunday that he sent the letters to the four unidentified politicians.
Unglesbee told the agent that the substance he placed inside the envelopes was salt — because it “looks a little bit like” anthrax, the complaint states. Preliminary tests did not reveal the presence of any biological or chemical toxins.
“Each letter contained a white grainy substance and a handwritten letter that said ‘ha ha,'” the court filing states. A letter addressed to an anonymous U.S. senator also contained pellets and said “Hah, enjoy the freebie.”
On each of four white letter-size envelopes, the agent said, Unglesbee wrote his name and home address in Quincy.
None of the staffers who processed the letters at any of the four congressional members’ offices in northern Illinois opened the envelopes, according to the complaint. The offices had alerted each other to watch for mail bearing Unglesbee’s name.
FBI members “trained in handling weapons of mass destruction and biochemical toxin threats” were sent to three politicians’ offices Wednesday after staff called authorities, and hazmat teams visited two of them.
After recovering communications bearing Unglesbee’s address, FBI agents went to his home, where they discovered another envelope – empty and addressed, but not sent, to the Washington DC office of one of the same members of Congress.
The suspect told investigators he sent four letters “after hearing someone at a restaurant mention news of sending more letters,” according to the filing. Earlier in October, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said they were investigating several reports of suspicious letters sent to state officials and election offices across the country.
Unglesbee denied involvement in the other suspicious mailings. But he reportedly told investigators that he expected members of Congress “to take this seriously” because the powder he sent could be perceived as anthrax, which he knew was dangerous and would force hazmat teams to respond.
“Unglesbee claimed he was joking, but acknowledged that the recipients would not know he was joking and might perceive him as a threat,” the complaint states.
In a Justice Department press release Monday announcing Unglesbee’s arrest, Ryan Presley, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Springfield field office, said authorities were working to “protect our public institutions from intimidation.”
He said: “Sending unknown substances to congressional offices creates fear and disrupts public institutions vital to our democracy. We, along with our partners, will remain vigilant to identify and hold accountable those whose actions threaten to intimidate public officials or disrupt our democratic systems.”
Unglesbee was tentatively scheduled to appear for a detention hearing Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Springfield.
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