Man already jailed for arson now linked to 7 fake bomb threats

Local, state and federal authorities have connected seven bomb threats to a man already in jail for a similar threat and church arson in Hernando County.

While in jail, David Willmott Jr, 24, of Inverness, was indicted on three federal counts of making bomb threats to airports, government buildings, a sheriff's office, a nuclear power plant and a school.

Citrus County Investigators responded to the first bomb threat November 25 after Sheriff Jeff Dawsy received a cryptic email.

It said, "Therz a bomb at the crystal river [nuclear] plant."

Then on April 17, Sheriff Dawsy and several other Citrus County deputies received another strange email from a similar email account: "ere iz a bomb at pge (Pleasant Grove Elementary School)."

Just like the threat to the power plant in November, the school was evacuated and thoroughly searched. Nothing was found.

Less than a week later on April 23, another email was sent to a local news organization that said, “[J]ust to let you knw ere is going to b a funfest of bomb going off at 2 pm all ova the area in Tampa airport, Clearwater airport, Hernando County Courthouse, Citrus County Courthouse, Polk County Sheriff Office, good luck trying to find em."

Because of the threat at TIA, Tampa Police issued a subpoena to determine the IP address for the email.

It came back to the Lakes Region Library in Inverness.

Citrus County Detectives linked the previous threats back to the same library.

"We took the sign-in logs and we were able to develop a couple of people that were on the sign-in logs for those dates," Sgt. Christopher Ball said. "From there we took those computers, did forensics on those computers, and we were able to come up with one person that was online at the same time each one of those bomb threats went out."

This isn't the first time Willmott has been investigated for making bomb threats.

Library officials were aware "that Willmott had been the subject of a 2006 law enforcement investigation regarding false bomb threats," according to the criminal complaint.

Willmott was also arrested last month in Brooksville for making a bomb threat and burning down a church.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, firefighters arrived at the Lake Lindsey Methodist Church June 14 to find "multiple separate fires" had been set within two buildings on the church campus.

The church had already been decorated for an afternoon wedding, and investigators said specific areas were lit, possibly indicating anger targeted at the bride's side of the event.

Deputies say several clues led them to David Willmott Jr. During an interview with detectives, he allegedly admitted to setting the fire but did not offer a motive.