Killer’s plot to blow up NC jail revealed when he mixed up mailing address
Alamance County NC December 18 2018
A plot to blow up part of a North Carolina jail was foiled this week when the secret details were accidentally mailed to the wrong address, according to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.
The conspiracy was uncovered after a person in Graham got an odd letter containing building plans for the jail and instructions on where to put a bomb for maximum impact, said Sheriff Terry Johnson at a press conference.
The bewildered woman who got the letter on Dec. 6 opened it not realizing it was addressed to someone else, reported WGHP/Fox. She quickly alerted authorities, the station reported.
Investigators said jail inmate Sean Castornia, 43, is the one who mailed the letter to the wrong address. The plot involved trying to blow out an entire wall of the Alamance County Detention Center so he could escape to another country, according to WXII.
Johnson described Castornia as an “anarchist” who does not recognize the nation’s laws. He is currently serving a minimum 13-year sentence for the murder of an 84-year-old man last year, according to the Burlington County Sheriff’s Office.
Castornia’s “followers,” the sheriff said, were Shannon Douglas Gurkin, 23, of Graham, and Dakota Lee Markek, 24, of Burlington. Bond is set at $1 million each for the two men who are now being held in the jail they intended to blow up, records show.
Other inmates and jail staff would likely have been hurt in the explosion if it had gone off as planned, the sheriff said. The site is also home to the sheriff’s office.
Additional evidence of the plot was found in Castorina’s cell, reported WFMY.
Castorina is charged with felony conspiracy, manufacture and assembly of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted escape, according to the jail records.
Gurkin and Marek are charged with malicious use of an explosive device to damage property, records show. Marek faces an additional charge of probation violation, according to jail records.
