Hate-filled letter delivered to some Thompson residents

(WFSB) - About a hundred Thompson residents discovered a disturbing letter on their driveway either late Monday or early Tuesday.

“(It’s) vile, disgusting, racist and homophobic,” Thompson Board of Education Chair Kathleen Herbert said. “They use the F-word, the C-word, the N-word!”

The three-page, hate-filled letter was distributed to a mix of elected officials and those supporting a “yes” vote at the budget referendum vote next week. It’s signed from an “interested observer.”

“I just can’t imagine that a small town like this would have such a person,” Herbert said.

Channel 3 obtained a copy of the letter. It is far too graphic to detail on-air and online. It calls out certain people in town, both dead and alive, and uses numerous slurs. Some of them were even targeting high school students.

“The puke coming out of Tourtellotte can’t read or write,” the letter says. “What a waste this project is, stuffed with more fat pigs. This is what these smelly c**** thrive on as long as someone else pays for it.”

Just before that excerpt, people like Evan Antonson are called out in the letter. He’s a senior at Tourtellotte Memorial High School and the student liaison to the Board of Education.

“To attack high school students like that - as young as 14 years old - that’s what gets me,” Antonson said.

Antonson got a copy of the letter delivered to his house Monday night. He found it around 10:00 p.m. with his family.

“When I started to read the absolutely disgusting language and read my own name and names of other people in town in there, it became very concerning,” Antonson said.

Whoever wrote the letter doesn’t threaten anyone, but there is plenty of nasty name-calling. The writer encourages a “no” vote at next week’s referendum.

In the meantime, state police have gotten involved with their hate crimes unit.

“I definitely think there should be consequences,” Antonson said.

Police say this is an active investigation. Town leaders are encouraging anyone with information to call Troop D at (860) 779-4900. They’re hoping someone may have surveillance video at their home of the person delivering the letter.

“Whoever this sick, mentally ill person is needs to be brought to justice,” Herbert said.

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