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A little after midnight on December 7th, 2014, poisonous levels of chlorine gas swept through the corridors of the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont, Illinois. It was the final night of Midwest Furfest, the world’s largest convention for a subculture known as Furries; many had been partying. Nineteen people were hospitalised and hundreds were evacuated into the freezing cold, many still wearing vividly-coloured anthropomorphic animal costumes known as fursuits. Hazmat teams traced the gas to a ninth floor stairwell, where they found the remains of a chemical bomb. Police immediately ruled it an intentional attack – but, almost a decade later, the identity of the perpetrator remains a mystery.
To this day, no one knows what happened at the Hyatt Hotel and Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois on December 7th, 2014. All we do know is that it could have been one of the deadliest domestic terror attacks in US history.
So why is the case unsolved?
Nicky Woolf goes to Midwest FurFest 2023 to see the scene of the crime. How did this attack unfold 10 years ago? How deadly could it have been? What sort of impact has it had on the furry community?
And most importantly – who could have done it?
Nicky’s trip to Midwest FurFest crystallizes just how serious the attack could have been. And with the help of Patch O’Furr, he begins honing in on who they believe is the prime suspect. A furry who goes by the fursona Magnus Diridian. To understand Magnus, Nicky takes us into a dark fringe of the furry fandom: alt right and Neo Nazi furry groups.
While the investigation from Nicky and Patch strongly points to one individual–Magnus Diridian–there's a surprise. The Brazen team gets documents returned from a freedom of information request. . And they give just enough information for us to piece together exactly what the FBI was doing during the months and years after the attack. Suddenly there’s a new name. A name noone has heard before…Caleb Kinkade.
Having found and interviewed Caleb, our theory of the case is developing – and we think the FBI and police were wrong. As we close in on our last remaining suspect, we hear from people from his past. They paint a deeply disturbing picture. But will we be able to track him down? Will he agree to speak to us? And will we be able to find the answers we seek? Who is Magnus Diridian – and is he the perpetrator of the attack? It’s time to find and confront our suspect.
Wrapping up with Magnus brings us as close as we can get to an answer. That’s because, somewhere along the way, the police and FBI seem to have mismanaged and lost key evidence, followed dodgy leads, and screwed up the investigation – meaning we may never know for sure. What the hell happened? The answer may lie with Rosemont itself – a place that, it turns out, is riddled with corruption.
