This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Prosecutors say a former Snow College student threatened terrorism when he posted on Facebook that homecoming weekend at the Ephraim school would "go out with a bang."
Zachary Baird, 19, is scheduled to make his first appearance in a Sanpete County courtroom Wednesday after being charged for making the anonymous comment.
The Sanpete public defender was not representing Baird as of last week and could not be reached Tuesday afternoon. Baird also could not be reached at phone numbers listed under his name in Idaho and Utah.
He is charged with making a terroristic threat that spurred official action, a 3rd-degree felony. Baird faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
But campus police officer Derek Walk figures the anonymous Facebook poster had no intention of hurting anyone.
"I think he was trying to ruffle some feathers," Walk said earlier this month.
The post appeared on the "Snow College Confessions" Facebook page Sept. 19 at about 10:45 p.m., a week before the homecoming game.
"Lets just say, homecoming this weekend is gonna go out with a bang," the post read, according to a statement from the Utah attorney general's office.
Afterward, someone deleted the comment, but it still turned up in a Google search. It continued: "And the football game is gonna be one no one is ever gonna forget."
Authorities learned of the posting when a student reported the threat a few days before the game.
Google later gave the sender's IP address to police, who used it to track the suspect.
Officers are not seeking any other suspects, Walk said, and Baird is not in police custody. Police would not identify where he lives.
Officers from Snow College, Ephraim Police Department and the Kane County Sheriff's Office responded, monitoring the campus and its 4,600 students Sept. 26-28.
The suspect did not graduate from the school but took classes there last spring, said university spokesman John Stevens. Stevens said he didn't know how old the student was or why he stopped studying at the two-year college.
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