Unsealed search records show Beaver Dam bomb maker had interest in white supremacy
Homemade bomb-making material in various stages of preparation and white supremacist literature were found in a Beaver Dam man's apartment following last month's destructive blast, search records unsealed Thursday morning show.
The March 5 explosion at the Village Glen Apartments, on the 100 block of Knaup Drive, killed Benjamin Morrow. His body was found in front of an electric kitchen stove, beneath a deep layer of building material that fell on him during the blast, the newly-unsealed Dodge County search records said.
The search records were sealed "so as not to alert potential co-actors," officials previously said.
State crime investigator Kevin Heimerl reported finding 13 medium sized jars of potentially "...finished TATP explosive material" in the apartment refrigerator.
TATP is a highly explosive compound made of readily available ingredients that wouldn't trigger suspicion when purchased. Such explosives, sometimes dubbed "Mother of Satan" bombs, have been used in several attacks in the last two decades.
Heimerl said containers labeled TATP were found in Morrow's apartment garage.
In the unsealed court records, Heimerl described the scene in the apartment as a "homemade explosive laboratory," with instructions found on the manufacture of homemade explosives.
The search warrant records indicate that Morrow may have had interest in white supremacy.
"Within his bedroom, literature has been found concerning white supremacy groups," Heimerl stated in justifying search efforts of Morrow's lap top computer and electronic devices.
Morrow, 28, was a quality control technician for Richelieu Foods and had previously worked as an associate scientist at PPD of Middleton. His online obituary said he graduated from Pensacola Christian College with a bachelor's degree in pre-pharmacy with minors in chemistry and mathematics. He'd only lived in the apartment for about two months before he was killed in the blast.
The material found by investigators after the initial explosion were said to be so "highly volatile" that they couldn't be jostled. Authorities tried to destroy the remnants of the chemicals on March 7 but were unsuccessful. The entire building was brought down in a controlled burn on March 15.
