Suspect allegedly left threatening message at Southwest school district

BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com

A criminal summons has been issued for a Springfield man who allegedly made terroristic threats to Washburn City Hall and the Southwest school district.

Mark Woods, born 1961, of Springfield, is charged with two counts of second-degree terroristic threat.

According to a probable cause report filed by James Morgan, Washburn police chief, on July 23 and July 24, a male in possession of a 417 area code cell phone number, had called the Southwest school district. The reporting party asked to speak with Morgan in regards to a threatening voicemail left on a teacher’s phone.

The reporting party said at about 11:12 a.m. on July 23, a teacher received a voicemail from the number saying, “I know who you are and where you live, where you work. I’m going to kill you and your whole [expletive] family. You are all dead, every person in your family. You’re going to be the last one so you can see them all die, you [expletive]. You [expletive] with the wrong person.”

Morgan made contact with the teacher and asked if she knew of anyone that was mad at her for anything, and she advised she did not recognize the voice and, as far as she knew, no one was mad at her.

On July 24, Washburn City Hall received a bomb threat from the same 417 area code cell phone number that called the school. A voicemail left at 10:12 p.m. on the night of July 23 said, “There will be a bomb in your building tomorrow morning. Be aware this is not a threat. This bomb will go off at 12 p.m. Be aware.”

On July 31, Morgan received subscriber information for the owner of the phone, Woods, which is a prepaid account through AT&T. He has allegedly owned the phone since June 2022 and paid the prepay amounts monthly. Further investigation, Morgan said, determined Woods is in Baytown, Texas, but also has an address in Springfield.

The criminal summons says Woods is required to appear at a heating on Sept. 25 at 8:30 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Robert Foulke.

Morgan said this is believed to be an isolated incident, and there is no threat to the public.