For 19 days, exploding packages terrorized Austin residents as police frantically searched for the elusive bomber.
The mysterious bombs killed two people and wounded several others this month, stunning the Texas capital normally known for festivals and live music.
The wave of attacks began with exploding packages left outside homes on March 2 and March 12. It escalated this week when the bomber rigged a tripwire with an explosive, and two days later, sent a package bomb through FedEx.
With every shift in tactics, fear spread as the attacks got increasingly unpredictable.
After nearly three weeks of panic and mayhem, police cornered the man they described as the serial bomber Tuesday night. When SWAT officers approached his car early Wednesday, he blew himself up inside his SUV outside Austin, authorities say.
The first delivery
The first attack on March 2 started with an ordinary sight — a package left on a doorstep in north Austin. That would become a theme for the first three bombings.
When Anthony Stephan House, 39, opened the package on his front porch, it exploded, killing him. He was father to an 8-year-old girl, and worked as a project manager for Texas Quarries.
The blast reported at 6:55 a.m. received little attention at first, and was considered an isolated incident that involved no threat to the community. But the elusive attacker left residents fearful of delivery drivers and packages.
“Everybody in the neighborhood is on pins and needles,” Daniel Sledge told CNN affiliate KEYE at the time.
Two more blasts
Two more blasts quickly shifted the course of the investigation.
The first package was left outside a house in east Austin on March 12. When Draylen Mason brought it indoors to open it, it exploded and killed him, and injured his mother.
The 17-year-old high school student played bass in a youth orchestra, and was taking college classes.
Like House, he was African-American. Both their packages were not delivered by commercial carriers, police said.
As police processed the scene at Mason’s house, another package bomb exploded in southeast Austin and injured a 75-year-old woman outside her home as she picked it up. The Hispanic woman’s injuries, in addition to the two black men’s deaths, sparked fears of hate crimes.
Word of the attacks spread, and so did the panic. Police warned people in the city not to touch any unexpected or suspicious packages.
“Call 911,” Austin police Chief Brian Manley said. “It’s appropriate for residents to be concerned.”
A different type of explosion
Then, on March 18, the bomber shifted tactics.
A trip wire tied to a “caution, children at play” sign detonated when it was breached, sending two men, ages 22 and 23, to the hospital with injuries, police said.
Unlike the previous blasts, it was not a package left outside a home, signaling the bomber wanted to cause more death and mayhem.
Unlike the previous incidents, the victims were white.
The trip wire, authorities said, indicated the attacker was more sophisticated than previously believed. The frantic search to find the bomber increased.
Two days after the trip wire blast, the bomber’s tactics shifted yet again.
A package exploded on a conveyor belt at a FedEx facility outside San Antonio on March 20, injuring an employee. Investigators suspected it could be related to the Austin explosions, which would make it the first explosive device the bomber shipped.
About six hours later, police received a call about another suspicious package at a FedEx facility in southeast Austin. Authorities intercepted that package before it went off, local and federal officials said in a statement.
The FedEx facilities were not the intended targets, Austin police said.
Bomber in blonde wig
Law enforcement secured surveillance footage from a FedEx store south of Austin. It showed a man in a baseball cap and a blonde wig, bringing two packages into the store.
Investigators said by then, they’d realized the bombs were all made from common household items, and had scanned receipts at area stores for clues.
Between the receipts from household items and the video of the man shipping the packages, the pieces started falling into place.
Convinced the bomber was 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt, police moved quickly before he struck again. They used cellphone technology Tuesday night to track him to a hotel in Round Rock, about 20 miles north of Austin. There, they spotted his vehicle.
Police and federal agents surrounded the hotel, but waited for SWAT backup in case he had more explosives.
As they waited, Conditt left in his vehicle. Police followed him as he drove on the service road along I-35, passing by restaurants, gas stations and hotels.
Then the vehicle came to a stop in a ditch as a SWAT team cautiously approached.
As police closed in, Conditt detonated a device inside his vehicle, injuring one officer while another one fired at him.
“We literally had Austin police officers running toward a vehicle that had an explosives device in it that detonated. That is unbelievable courage,” FBI special agent Chris Combs said.
Conditt suffered “significant injuries” and died in the blast.
Video confession
While his motive remains unknown, police said Conditt made a 25-minute video confession on his cell phone late Tuesday night.
“It is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his life that led him to this point,” Manley said Wednesday night. “I know everybody is interested in a motive and understanding why. And we’re never going to be able to put a (rationale) behind these acts.”
In the video, he described making seven bombs — including, authorities believe, the one that killed him.
While investigators believe they have accounted for the bombs he mentioned, they warned he may have mailed others.