An individual who sent threatening packages and e-mails to several University of Colorado evolutionary biology professors also e-mailed messages to CU-Boulder chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson.
CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the individual appeared to be “casting a wide net” among university officials, sending e-mails to Peterson, the vice chancellor for undergraduate education, the head of the ecology and evolutionary biology department and several other faculty members. Hilliard said Peterson is taking the messages seriously.
“He’s concerned,” Hilliard said. “Our faculty cannot work and conduct research in a climate of fear.”
CU police detectives began investigating the threats, which claim to be from a religious group and which criticize the professors for backing evolution, in the past week. On Monday morning, faculty members found packages of documents slipped under lab doors.
CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said detectives continue to investigate the threats and have sent the documents for forensic testing. He said detectives believe a single individual may be behind the threats.
“It’s purported to be representing a group,” Wiesley said, “but I have not heard more than the name of one person.”
Wiesley would not name the individual or discuss whether detectives had contacted the person.
Purported excerpts of the messages have appeared online at a site called The Panda’s Thumb, which is devoted to critiquing “the claims of the antievolution movement.” Hilliard said the posted messages are “consistent” with those sent to CU professors but couldn’t confirm whether they are word-for- word copies.
In the messages, the individual cites plans to file legal charges against the professors, compares the professors to child molesters and mentions a pastor’s message about killing “the enemies of Christian society.”
“But I believe it is far more effective to take up a pen to kill the enemies of Truth,” the message states.
“I charge you and your devilutionist colleagues with being the source of every imaginable evil in our society,” another reads. “… I charge you with being a murderer of souls.”
Hilliard said the university prides itself on being a place where diverse views are accepted and debated.
“What he’s doing,” Hilliard said, “is way beyond debate.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
