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OU student left suicide message
The Oklahoman ^ | Sun October 16, 2005 | Nolan Clay

Posted on 10/16/2005 11:02:43 AM PDT by MizSterious

Sun October 16, 2005
OU student left suicide message

By Nolan Clay
The Oklahoman

NORMAN - The University of Oklahoma student who died in an explosion Oct. 1 left a message on his computer that he was going to quit living, his father said.

The FBI read the message to the father Friday, after he came to Oklahoma to clear out his son's university-owned apartment.

Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died when his bomb went off about 100 yards from the packed football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State.

Hinrichs, 21, was from Colorado Springs, Colo. He had a reputation as a loner and had struggled at times with his grades. His parents had begun divorce proceedings.

Joel Hinrichs Jr. said he understood investigators found the message on the computer screen when they arrived at the apartment.

"It was a single line of text on his computer," said the father, who lives in Colorado Springs. "The cursor was still blinking at the end."

The father said he could not recall the exact wording but said his son used profanity in the message and was obviously very angry. "He wrote he was dissatisfied with the situation and was going to quit living," the father said.

His description of the message is consistent with the recollection of others who have been briefed about the investigation by the FBI.

No links to terrorist groups

FBI officials have said they may never know whether the student wanted to get inside the stadium. The student did not have a season ticket.

FBI officials also have said the investigation has not found any links between the student and terrorist organizations.

His father said he thinks his son was just committing suicide and never intended to hurt anyone else.

The father said the FBI on Friday showed him the fractured bench where his son was sitting when the bomb exploded and photos of his son's headless body and a tattered backpack.

The father said when cleaning out the apartment, he learned his son apparently had been having trouble sleeping and had bought Sominex, a sleep aid.

The younger Hinrichs had a long fascination with ammunition and bombs, his relatives and friends said. Inside his bedroom in Norman were several used metal artillery shells -- the largest about 2 feet long. He had belts of used brass shell casings, a box of spent bullets and military ammo containers.

He also had items more typical of many college students -- textbooks, empty liquor bottles, magazines and a martial arts movie videotape.

The father allowed two reporters from The Oklahoman into the bedroom briefly Thursday.

Bomb experts removed explosive-related materials from the apartment Oct. 2. Contributing: Randy Ellis


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: batf; bomb; cia; fakesuicidenote; fbi; hinrichs; homelandsecurity; normanbombing; normanbomer; ou; oubomber; oubombing; waronterror
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To: MizSterious

Easy question. Boren is protecting the school's finances. Foreign students pay full tuition. Wouldn't want them to feel unwelcome. The rest of the students might decide to go elsewhere for their educations, which also would hurt OU finances. Education is a business. Nothing more.


21 posted on 10/16/2005 11:21:08 AM PDT by digitalbrownshirt (http://digitalbrownshirt.blogspot.com)
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To: MizSterious
For it being only one line, he seems to have said quite a lot.

Well, it could have said "F this S**tty world, F it all, I quit." Or something like that.

22 posted on 10/16/2005 11:22:05 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: 50sDad
"Nice guys who keep to themselves" should be watched contantly.

No kidding. Every time I hear someone is "so quiet," I go straight to DefCon 2.

Nobody ever says, "Oh...we saw this coming from a mile away; he was a loud-mouthed a-hole" after a guy goes on a killing spree. No...it's always "We're shocked. He was always so quiet."

23 posted on 10/16/2005 11:22:19 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: digitalbrownshirt
Foreign students pay full tuition

Nope. At least not in the grad programs. In the grad program I was in the foreign kids all had free rides while we Oklahoma residents paid tuition.

24 posted on 10/16/2005 11:22:58 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: MizSterious

Why don't I believe a word of this? I don't even have a tin foil hat.


25 posted on 10/16/2005 11:23:49 AM PDT by Fog Nozzle
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To: TWohlford
"...how silly that looks when it's Goggled now...."

So now people on this thread have to wear goggles? Would regular safety glasses work? I have some in the other room where I work on my stained glass--let me run get them.

26 posted on 10/16/2005 11:24:01 AM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: MizSterious

I agree, my nephew committed suicide and left his family a note and it is imprinted on his fathers brain, never to be forgotten. I didn't get to read it or I would also have it burned into the gray matter. The FBI is trying to spin this into a simple suicide when it probably, IMO, was meant to be a large scale killing.


27 posted on 10/16/2005 11:24:01 AM PDT by calex59
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To: Cougar66
The FBI left the computer on this whole time through the investigation? The cursor was still blinking? I find that to be... BS.

It says the note was there when the FBI ARRIVED. Unlike FReepers the FBI doesn't run out and proclaim everything that springs into their minds the minute it pops up.

Why would you think it had to still be there?

28 posted on 10/16/2005 11:24:49 AM PDT by HoustonCurmudgeon (A right wing Christian, not part of the Christian Right)
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To: MizSterious
"The University of Oklahoma student who died in an explosion Oct. 1 left a message on his computer that he was going to quit living, his father said."

Right!! And I just saw some pigs flying by my window!!

29 posted on 10/16/2005 11:26:22 AM PDT by LADY J
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon
Actually, the night it happened, they announced almost immediately that there was no suicide note. They were sure quick to proclaim the absence of a note--but a little late in backtracking, it seems.
30 posted on 10/16/2005 11:26:23 AM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: digitalbrownshirt
"Anybody could have typed it."

Agreed. This particular piece of computer "evidence" is worthless.

31 posted on 10/16/2005 11:27:33 AM PDT by manwiththehands
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To: MizSterious

ATTENTION! I HAVE THE CONTENTS OF THE NOTE! IT READS AS FOLLOWS:

"Messy, isn't it?"


32 posted on 10/16/2005 11:27:33 AM PDT by durasell
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To: Rodney King

re:24
How's that work? Are they scholarships or is it free because someone else (their government) is paying for their fees? I'm having a hard time believing that Oklahoma isn't gettting paid somewhere.


33 posted on 10/16/2005 11:27:49 AM PDT by digitalbrownshirt (http://digitalbrownshirt.blogspot.com)
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--- His father said he thinks his son was just committing suicide and never intended to hurt anyone else. ---

Then why not OD or slit your wrists? Strapping a bomb to yourself and blowing yourself up near a football stadium... several blocks from your home, just doesn't add up.


34 posted on 10/16/2005 11:28:34 AM PDT by oolatec
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To: MizSterious
Ah yes, the vortex of illusion spins faster and wider.
35 posted on 10/16/2005 11:29:12 AM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)
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To: manwiththehands

I don't know all the ins and outs of computers, but it really wouldn't be possible to tell if the roommate wrote it after the fact, or even if the FBI did (I'm not suggesting they did, I'm just making the point that anyone with access to the apt and computer could have done it, yes?)
susie


36 posted on 10/16/2005 11:29:44 AM PDT by brytlea (All you need as ID to vote in FL is your Costco card...)
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To: oolatec

Then why not OD or slit your wrists? Strapping a bomb to yourself and blowing yourself up near a football stadium...



Maybe he wanted to go out with a bang?


37 posted on 10/16/2005 11:30:36 AM PDT by durasell
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To: MizSterious

There are so many unanswered questions here. It seems to me if this kid was part of a larger group, it would be to their advantage to make it look like he committed suicide. Why have all these other explosives in the apartment if there were no other plans to use them? No way did his roommate not notice them. And who would have access to the kid's computer? The roommate of course! Why couldn't he have left the message to get the heat of of him?


38 posted on 10/16/2005 11:32:02 AM PDT by alicewonders
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

To: digitalbrownshirt
How's that work? Are they scholarships or is it free because someone else (their government) is paying for their fees? I'm having a hard time believing that Oklahoma isn't gettting paid somewhere.

What happens is that the people who rate business schools, like US News and world report, put a huge value on "diversity" and % of international students in the student body in their rankings. Also, Dean's like to go to cocktail parties and pat each other on the back for being so enlightend as to have a more diverse student body that other similar schools.

So, there are a certain amount of scholaships endowed by alumni, but given away at the discration of the Deans. They mostly go to foreign students. Then, the Dean's have the power to give away graduate assistanceships. These pay say 10 bucks an hour, guaranteed, plus medical benefits, and you rarely have to do anything, so it is like getting paid to study. The foreign students get all the plum 20 hour per week jobs.

So the net result is Oklahoma taxpayers shell ought dough for foreign students, maybe 10% of them actually stay and work in Oklahoma. For most it is just a roundabout way to get to New York on someone else's dime.

40 posted on 10/16/2005 11:34:36 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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