'04 Scottsdale bombing linked to others in US

Federal authorities said Tuesday they have identified DNA evidence that may link at least one suspect to the unsolved bombing of Scottsdale’s diversity director in 2004.

Investigators also executed search warrants in the past several weeks to obtain blood and saliva samples from multiple suspects and are working to see if any of it matches DNA found on debris from the bomb, authorities told the Tribune.

Additionally, investigators have found “commonalities” between the Scottsdale bombing and other bombings throughout the United States and Canada, said Tom Mangan, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Mangan declined to say which other North American bombings were being looked at as possibly connected to Scottsdale’s.

He also declined to name the suspects or say what their motive might have been, saying only investigators were looking at “more than one person” in the crime.

The developments are significant, considering the case appeared stalled for years, even after numerous tips came in through the public.

Don Logan, the city’s former diversity director and the main victim of the bombing, said he was heartened by the progress. Authorities have been keeping him apprised, he said.

“What (investigators) shared with me is encouraging,” Logan said. “There’s some DNA and some new technology that has surfaced that is being used here, and again, I’m very optimistic.”

Logan and two other city employees were injured in February 2004 when a package sent to him through the U.S. mail exploded as he opened it.

Logan caught the brunt of the bomb and had to undergo extensive surgery to repair damage to his hands and arms.

He spent months guarded by uniformed police officers while investigators tried to determine who might have wanted to hurt him. At the time of the bombing, investigators had no suspects and few leads.

Investigators were able to begin making significant strides in the case in recent months with the help of relatively new technology able to extract tiny amounts of DNA from bomb debris.

The technology is often used in Iraq and Afghanistan to help the U.S. military identify the people who plant improvised explosive devices, Mangan said.

The technology was brought to the attention of investigators by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is also working the case, and it may be the first time it has ever been used in a domestic investigation, he said.

Lab technicians from a private company were able to find as little as just a few human cells from bomb debris preserved after the blast, Mangan said.

“We’re dealing with a one-shot testing here,” Mangan said.

Those few cells were enough to gather the DNA, he said.

The debris came from a part of the bomb that likely would have been touched only by the bomb maker, which leads investigators to believe the forensic evidence belongs to their suspect, Mangan said.

He would not say what led investigators to believe there is more than one suspect.

“We have to go where the facts take us,” Mangan said. “The victim demands it. The public demands it.”

On Tuesday, Logan, who retired from city work in November, said he remained optimistic every day for the last four years that authorities would eventually catch whoever sent him the bomb.

Currently he is working on his memoirs, which will include an account of the bombing, he said. He is hoping the book will be finished by year’s end.

Meantime, he is continuing to wait for updates from the case.

“All that I can say to you is I look forward to the day that they make an arrest,” he said.