First image emerges of suspect in Georgia Guidestones bomb attack

CCTV captures person ‘leaving an explosive device’

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has released the first images of what could be the suspect from the attack on the state’s Guidestones monument.

Releasing the CCTV footage on Thursday, the agency said the video showed a person running towards the 19-foot stone structure and then heading away after leaving an “explosive device” early Wednesday morning.

The video “shows an unknown person leaving an explosive device at the Georgia Guidestones,” the GBI said.

An explosion damaged a part of the structure, which was afterwards demolished by state authorities for safety reasons and to allow the GBI’s investigation to continue.

“We recognise that this case has drawn high public interest with many questions,” said the GBI following the release of the new video. “Our EOD unit made the call to demolish the entire structure since someone destroyed one of the five vertical slabs that held the structure up.”

The state agency, who released CCTV footage showing a car leaving the site near Elberton, Georgia, earlier this week, has called on members of the public to come forward to help the investigation.

“The video is unclear, but agents are still actively working to identify the person leaving the scene after the explosion,” the GBI said. “This investigation is active and ongoing.”

No suspects have yet been identified in connection with the attack on the Guidestones, which were erected by an anonymous individual in 1980 under a pseudonym.

The stones featured inscriptions in several different languages which were “instructions” for humanity following an apocalyptic event. Some of the so-called lessons include limiting population levels to 500 million.

The mystery around the origins of the monument – as well as the inscriptions – has fuelled number of conspiracy theories and claims about their purpose – including that they are “satanic”.

Some have even claimed the attack on the structure was an “Act of God”, as GOP gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor claimed during her recent campaign. Such claims have been spread by conspiracy theorists online.