Southern Indiana substitute teacher pleads guilty to sending bomb threat to own school

Ryan Reynolds, Evansville Courier & Press
·2 min read

A Southern Indiana woman has been sentenced for sending hoax bomb threats about several locations, including one to the school that employed her as a substitute teacher.

Mary Fortner, 35, of Milltown, drew a 10-month federal prison sentence and three years of probation from U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker. Fortner pleaded guilty in the case.

In an affidavit filed by an FBI agent in the case, investigators say Fortner sent a text message to a Milltown Police Department officer on Jan. 19 that stated:

The address in the text was that of Crawford County Junior-Senior High School, and the local sheriff's department worked with the text message app company Pinger to determine the IP address the message was sent from, according to court documents. Investigators also obtained subscriber information on the IP address from Verizon Wireless, which they said led them to Fortner.

Both Fortner and her husband "denied knowledge of any threats sent" to Milltown Police and told officers they had been the victims of identity theft and hacking.

Court documents indicate the FBI became involved in the case, and performed a digital forensic examination of Fortner's phone on Jan. 30, and found searches on the phone for the following:

  • “Egyptian man names”

  • “Ramesses II”

  • “ramochafisa@yahoo.com”

  • “Crawford county sheriff’s department”

  • “how do I contact wdrb news”

  • “WAVE 3 new text number"

  • “Crawford county high school"

On Fortner's laptop, FBI agents found searches for:

  • “is a bomb threat a federal crime"

  • “federal prisons near me”

  • “federal prison food"

On Feb. 21, the Corydon Democrat newspaper notified its local sheriff's department it had received an emailed bomb threat listing five targets, including an elementary school in Milltown, a movie theater in Corydon, Indiana, and a grocery store in Inglish, Indiana. The message included Arabic language in the body of the email that federal prosecutors said translated roughly to "good luck to you."

An FBI agent said investigators tracked the IP address associated with the email's creation to Fortner's home. Law enforcement arrested her and charged her with intimidation and terroristic threatening.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Former substitute teacher Mary Fortner pleads guilty in bomb threat case