A police report filed in March questions how hate mail ended up in the PO Box for the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. On Wednesday, the Spokane Police Department released an eleven page report into their findings thus far.
In March, Spokane NAACP President Rachel Dolezal claimed she found an envelope with pictures of lynchings and references to local cases concerning race.
The envelope containing the letter was found in the NAACP mailbox at the Rosewood Post Office along North Monroe.
However, investigators later noticed important marks missing from the package.
It was delivered to a post office box. But it did not have a date stamp or barcode according to an on-going police report by SPD.
Postal officials told SPD officers that a letter or package would never be put in a mail box purposefully without those things even if it was hand delivered to the post office. Postal workers said it is possible that the letter could have gotten stuck to another letter and thus missed the scanner and postal marking. But they said the chances of this happening were extremely low.
Staff said the only other way for a unprocessed letter to land in a PO Box would be if it were placed there by someone with a key or a USPS employee was involved.
Security cameras at the Rosewood Post Office were not working at the time the letter was received according to the police report. But police said they have ruled out postal employees as suspects.
Rachel Dolezal said she does not believe anyone within the NAACP could be responsible.
Forensic specialists processed the mail in question. They found numerous smudges according to the police report, and one partial print. Dolezal admitted to opening the letter. As of March 4, forensic specialists had planned to pull Dolezal's print and compare it to the partial.
Police are still processing the envelope as well as its contents for any clues to help identify who sent it. At the time she reported the letter, Dolezal told officers that most of these types of incidents were caused by people affiliated with right wing groups in our area.
Representatives from the NAACP said that all mail sent to their PO Box has been automatically forwarded to their new location since it opened in January. But, Dolezal reported receiving the letter at the PO Box in February.
In May, Dolezal claimed she had received another racially charged letter.
She said the latest one looked like it is from the same person. Dolezal said she wrapped the letter in a grocery bag to avoid getting fingerprints on it so it can be given to detectives. It also made reference to the first letter and was signed 'War Pig' according to Dolezal. She told officers that she had heard the term "War Pig." she believed that they are a hate group which associated with meth dealers and they are violent according to police records.
The second letter was sent to NAACP's Downtown Spokane.
When the original letter was sent in March, it was the ninth hate crime in less than a decade for Rachel Dolezal.
Dolezal told officers she believed the threats were directed at her and her sons. She admitted to filing numerous police reports as a victim of these crimes.
