Mark Tapscott has been reporting that there was shrapnel recovered from the tree where Joel Hinrichs blew himself up. Acorn took pictures of the tree and said that he couldn't find the damage. That link is to the enlarged image of the tree, and it seems to show that it did sustain some kind of damage, though what hit it isn't clear.
I'm not sure I would put as much weight on that information as Tapscott does. All bombs create shrapnel, regardless of their make - it's a function of the explosive sending fragments of the bomb, its enclosure, and nearby debris outward from the detonation point. The more relevant question is if this was a bomb that purposefully meant to throw shrapnel into a crowd (as in wrapped in ball bearings or nails), is the forensic evidence we see consistent with the goal. Was the bomb somehow defective or failed to launch shrapnel? Was there shrapnel recovered from the grass and nearby areas? The design of the bomb played a role in the debris pattern - so the folks who reconstruct bombs will try and figure out what happened and whether there was an intent to kill others as well.
Those are issues and questions that can only be answered by the FBI, who is sitting on this information.
UPDATE:
Georgia Tech's bombing incidents appear to have been a college prank after all - a student, Theodore Hollot, 18, has come forward taking responsibility for making up to 12 devices, one of which blew up injuring a custodian. The student faces criminal charges, plus the school will be pursuing disciplinary action.
Technorati: terrorism, suicide bomber, hinrichs, bomb.
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