The mother of a Cape Elizabeth High School student charged last week with making pipe bombs recently received a shipment from a “supermarket for pyrotechnics professionals” at the Old Port company where she works as the chief executive officer.

No charges have been filed against the woman, but her 15-year-old son was arrested after a host of bomb-making material – and a box from a fireworks supplier addressed to the mother’s office – was found in the basement of his home, in the wake of the June 12 discovery of a pipe bomb on a nearby neighborhood beach.

Peers described the boy as a very artistic but quiet person who kept to himself while at school. The family did not answer the door at their home or respond to a note left there; the mother’s office staff said she was on vacation, and they did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Cape police said the parents are not cooperating with the investigation, which has not linked the boy to the pipe bomb on the beach.

During the June 15 search, Cape police – accompanied by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, the state fire marshal’s office, the state bomb squad, a bomb-sniffing dog and its handler – found several pieces of copper pipe of different lengths and different diameters, two different types of explosive powder, hobby fuses, empty cardboard tubes used for the engines of model rockets, as well as a wooden rack that facilitates the filling with chemicals, capping, drilling and manufacturing of 11 pipe bombs at once.

Police also confiscated a cardboard box addressed to the boy’s mother’s office in the Old Port, sent by Skylighter Inc., a company in Virginia that ships chemicals and fireworks-making materials all over the world. The company’s Web page says it is “a supermarket for pyrotechnics professionals and fireworks making.”

Cape Police Chief Neil Williams said he did not know the boy’s intentions, but said there could be an issue if the parents bought materials that were used for illegal purposes. He would not elaborate.

Williams said there were also many sparklers and morning glories, both of which are legal. In addition, many empty sparkler packages were found, along with metal sparkler rods with the flash powder removed, which indicates the powder was being used for other purposes, he said.

All of the items were in plain view in the basement of the home, according to police.

‘Methods escalating’

The search was conducted after an anonymous informant contacted Cape police through an attorney to say the boy was responsible for the pipe bomb found in the surf on Casino Beach June 12.

The search warrant, filed in Portland District Court by the Cape Elizabeth Police Department Tuesday, shows an attorney contacted Sgt. Andrew Steindl June 15 and told him the boy has a “significant interest in explosive devices” and “a hobby of manufacturing pipe bombs.”

The informant’s attorney also told Steindl the boy had been using pipe bombs on Casino Beach the night of June 11 and that all the materials for making the bombs could be found in the basement of his parents’ home.

The boy faces a Class C felony charge of criminal use of explosives, a charge Williams said includes merely possessing the items.

He said the police are currently questioning local young people about the party on Casino Beach the night of June 11, and the boy could face more charges if enough evidence is gathered to link him with the pipe bomb found there.

In that case there could be potentially an additional criminal use of explosives charge as well as a reckless conduct charge. “I think we’re on the right track,” Williams said. “He has like material and like pipe.”

Williams said it was ultimately up to the juvenile division at the Cumberland County District Attorney’s office to determine what charges should be brought against the boy. The DA’s office would not comment on the case because they had not received it by the time the Current went to print.

Sgt. Ken Grimes of the state fire marshal’s office said any chemicals or ingredients that can be used in making fireworks or explosives but have legitimate purposes are legal if they are found individually.

But, Grimes said, if that item is found on a table or in the vicinity of other items that, if used together, could produce explosives or fireworks then possession of those items becomes illegal.

The police also found a couple of electric switches, alligator clips and battery connections that Williams said bothered officers, “because it meant his methods appeared to be escalating.”

Two plastic chemical containers were also found, one labeled copper sulfate and one labeled calcium sulfate. Williams said the ATF will analyze the powders and devices, but said he was told that the copper sulfate was not dangerous and was only used to enhance colors in fireworks.

The calcium sulfate is also not particularly dangerous, he said. It is described on Skylighter’s Web site as “a high temperature oxidizer and reddish-orange color agent in strobe compositions.”

‘No danger to society’

Cape police believe they can link the boy to the pipe bomb found on Casino Beach three days before his arrest, but students at the high school said he seemed to be harmless.

“He always seemed pleasant, never seemed rude to anyone,” said Olivia Weill, who is a rising junior and was in the art club with the boy, who just finished his freshman year. She said the boy made some “really pretty stuff” in art club and was often seen with his laptop.

Aschel Gregory, who is also a rising junior and member of the art club, said the boy was very good at metalworking, which was a focus within the art club. She said he had made a set of chain mail that was really well done. Gregory said she had tried to be nice to him but the boy was “a little standoffish” when approached.

According to Jarryd Leeks, a classmate of the boy’s, the boy was always seen with his “dark sunglasses” on and wearing a dark sweatshirt with his hood up; he also said the boy “sits in the corner of the class” and was being “made fun of” more than usual this year.

Weill said the boy was “a little bit strange” but she never got any bad vibes from him. She said the pipe bomb was scary, “but not on the same level of a terrorist in the making.”

Town Councilor Michael Mowles said “the boy is more of a threat to himself than a threat to society.”

Mowles, who has a son in the same grade, said he personally knows the boy through the Boy Scouts.

“With my firsthand knowledge of the boy I feel I can say he poses no danger to society,” Mowles said. “What he did, if it is true … is dangerous, stupid and immature. But, I don’t believe he has any ax to grind with the world.”

“He is just an over-curious boy who was playing with chemicals and shouldn’t have been.”

Mowles said the boy is the kind of kid to build his own ham radio set and will likely grow up to be a chemical engineer or something along those lines.

Interim Superintendent Robert Lyman said school officials had searched the boy’s school-issued laptop computer but had found nothing related to the investigation.

School Board Chairman Kevin Sweeney said the school had been checked thoroughly and there were no pipe bombs, pipe bomb material or related literature found on the campus. He also said the schools have arranged for the student to finish his final exams separate from other students.

Some of the items confiscated from the basement of the 15-year-old Cape Elizabeth High School student who was arrested June 15 for criminal use of explosives and is suspected of being responsible for the pipe bomb found on Casino Beach June 12. On the right are different lengths and diameter of copper pipe similar to the one found on Casino Beach. Other items in this picture include copper caps, two paper plates with residue of explosive powders, funnels and, in the back, the wooden rack that holds 11 pipes at once and facilitates manufacturing pipe bombs.Copper caps, some with holes already drilled in them, which the police said could be used for fuses. The copper pipe closest to the caps is very similar to the one found on Casino Beach the police said, even down to the sticker containing the bar code.The wooden rack that holds 11 copper pipes and facilitates filling and capping many copper pipes at once.Wires, a small electrical switch, alligator clips, battery connection and battery that were found and concern the police because it means the suspects methods were escalating. Two different lengths of fuse are displayed at the bottom of the picture as well as morning glories in the upper left, which are legal in the state of Maine.A table of items taken from the basement of the 15-year-old boy suspected of making the pipe bomb found on Casino Beach June 12.

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