A man wanted for more than 40 years for a bombing in Wyoming has been arrested in New Mexico, where he lived for decades under the name of a dead college classmate.
Stephen Craig Campbell, 76, faces a federal charge of misuse of a passport in addition to the attempted murder charge in Wyoming, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico. Federal officials said they were considering further charges, given the 57 weapons and copious ammunition found on the New Mexico property — items he was prohibited from possessing as a fugitive.
Campbell further greeted agents who came to arrest him dressed in camouflage, armed with a scoped rifle, and hidden in an elevated, partially concealed spot. He ignored orders to surrender until agents deployed flashblangs. After his arrest, his rifle was found to be “loaded with high-powered ammunition capable of piercing standard body armor and ready to fire, with the scope caps flipped open, the selector lever set to fire, and a round chambered.”
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Campbell was arrested in 1982, charged with planting a bomb at the home of his estranged wife’s boyfriend’s house. The wife, however, opened the box containing the bomb, causing significant injuries. Campbell was released on bond in 1983 and promptly disappeared.
Authorities say Campbell assumed the identity of Walter Lee Coffman, who died in 1975 at the age of 22 and had graduated from the University of Arkansas two months before. Campbell attended the school in the same period, with both men pursuing engineering degrees.
Investigators say Campbell applied for a passport under Coffman’s name in 1984 and renewed it several times. In 1995, he obtained a Social Security card in Coffman’s name, using an Oklahoma driver’s license.
Campbell moved to Weed, New Mexico, in about 2003, where he had bought property, again using Coffman’s name. He continued to renew the passport, now using the Weed address.
But when he went to renew his New Mexico driver’s license in 2019, agents from the National Passport Center’s Fraud Prevention Unit uncovered Coffman’s death and launched an investigation. In the course of that investigation, they learned that Campbell had collected nearly $150,000 in social security funds using Coffman’s name.
After his arrest on February 14, fingerprints confirmed Campbell’s true identity.
