Austin officials say they have raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of the package bomber as the investigation gets deeper, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Federal investigators are pouring over the pieces of three homemade bombs, recovered in Austin this month, as they desperately try to track down the killer.
Fred Burton, Chief Security Officer for the Austin-based global intelligence company Stratfor, says it's likely that the person who is making the improvised explosive devices was likely trained by the military.
"Let’s face it, we've been at war overseas for almost 20-years, so you have thousands of former military who have gone through EOD training," he tells News Radio 1200 WOAI.
Explosive ordnance disposal technicians in the military are called on to respond to any type of bomb, and they receive specialized training on how to handle chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons.
Burton says, in every bomb, there are tell-tale signs that give investigators clues as to who is building them. For example, says the military teaches certain ways to make bombs, which is different from instructions found on the internet, or the way that different para-military groups construct ordinances.
Bomb instructions are found on the internet, but Burton says most civilians who try it blow themselves up.
"I can tell you from having built bombs in a controlled environment and then going to schools to investigate bombings, it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right."
And he says any wanna-be bomb maker can get all the supplies on a trip to the hardware store. That's another key piece of evidence he thinks federal investigators are currently pursuing.
PHOTO: SPECTRUM