1982 suspect bombing arrested after having lived under the supposed name for years: prosecutors

He has been on the run for decades, wanted to attempted murder after a bomb that he would have planted injured in his distance from Wyoming in 1982, according to the authorities.

Now Stephen Craig Campbell, 76 – who lives in New Mexico under the name and supposed the identity of Walter Lee Coffman, according to the FBI – is in detention after a spectacular arrest last week.

The authorities said that the double life of Campbell had started to collapse after a 2019 renewal of his driving license made the investigators advance that something was not correct.

Campbell was originally arrested for attempted murder in 1982 after the authorities said he had planted a bomb in a toolbox at the gate of his wife’s boyfriend. The bomb exploded when his wife opened the toolbox, making him lose a finger and suffer from other injuries.

Campbell, who also faced an accusation of federal firearms as part of this incident, was released on bail in 1983 – then disappeared.

It was then that the authorities now say that Campbell took the identity of Coffman.

Coffman, according to the authorities, died at the age of 22 in 1975 and was buried in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Investigators believe that Cambell and Coffman were both engineering students from the University of Arkansas in the mid -1970s, “suggesting a probable link between the two”, according to a judicial file.

Over the years, Campbell has been able to obtain a driving license, an American passport and even a social security card in the name of Coffman, the authorities said.

In the 1990s, the investigators said: “Campbell tried to withdraw the death status from the Social Security Society by challenging the Death of the Agency’s Death Mort” and in 1995, “managed to obtain a social security security card in the name of Coffman, using a Muskogee address, Oklahoma.”

Campbell, living as a Walter Coffman for decades, even asked and received social security benefits up to $ 140,000, according to the judicial archives.

It was a renewal of driving license for the 2019 New Mexico by Campbell, using the name of Coffman, which apparently made an opinion from the authorities, according to legal documents

The renewal finally sparked a check by agents of the National Passport Center fraud unit. In 2024, these diplomatic security agents discovered that Coffman had died for a long time and suspected that his identity has been used fraudulently for decades.

Last week, an FBI swat team, with the support of social security administration agents, customs and border protection aircraft and Otero County sheriff, executed a cloth of 44 acres in the south of the New Mexico that Campbell would have owned in the name of Coffman.

While the agents approached the residence, Campbell would have welcomed them dressed in camouflage, hearing protection and armed with a caliber rifle .302 in new-mexic.

Campbell “was positioned in a high and partially hidden place” along a line of trees while the Swat agents approached bearcates and deployed flashbangs. Campbell did not initially respond to calls, but was finally detained, said the court.

The prosecutors said that the rifle was responsible for high power ammunition capable of armor shielding, with the open range caps and was ready to shoot.

When looking for the property, FBI agents recovered a cache of weapons, including 57 firearms and large amounts of ammunition. The authorities have also recovered fraudulent documents in the name of Coffman, including a social security card and several passport cards.

An examination of his fingerprints after his arrest later confirmed the true identity of Campbell, the authorities said.

In addition to the original charges of 1982, Campbell is now accused of improper use of a passport. However, the prosecutors said they were asking the possibility of additional expenses against Campbell.

During a detention hearing on Wednesday, Campbell was sentenced to a pending trial, the judge citing Campbell as the risk of theft