A bomber who has killed one person and injured 23 others over the last 16 years appears to have struck again, this time killing an advertising executive with a mail bomb, the FBI said Sunday.
Thomas J. Mosser, 50, was killed Saturday in his kitchen in suburban North Caldwell when he opened a small package addressed to him and delivered by the postal service, FBI agent Barry Mawn said.No motive had been determined, but the FBI believes Mosser's death is linked to what it code-names the "Unabom" series of mail bombs sent to university professors and executives of airlines and computer companies in the United States, Mawn said.
"The components of the bomb, its construction, make us believe the bombs are linked," Mawn said. He would not elaborate on the makeup of the bomb that killed Mosser but said it was "extremely powerful."
He said he did not know where the package originated.
The FBI believes the person who has been making and sending the bombs is a white male in his 30s or 40s with a high school education. Mawn would not elaborate on how the FBI came up with the composite.
The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information in the bombings.
Mosser's wife, Susan, received the package Friday but her husband did not open it until Saturday, Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. She did not have to sign for the package, he said.
Mosser's wife described the package as small, neatly wrapped and white. Mawn said it was the size of a videotape.
Mosser lived with his wife and two children, aged 13 years old and 15 months. They were all home at the time of the blast, along with a neighbor's child who was visiting. None of them was injured.