By Linda Taaffe
 Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier |
De Anza student in right place at right time to prevent planned massacre
Town Crier Exclusive © 2001
Michelle Houde hardly fits the image of someone who helped police foil a mass killing earlier this year as she eats a bowl of raviolis and catches up on her favorite soaps, while lounging in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms after class last week.
The bubbly college student is one of the two women who tipped-off police last January about suspicious photos at the photo lab where they worked. The photos, in turn, led to the exposure of a San Jose man’s alleged plot to bomb the De Anza College campus in Cupertino, just hours before he was to execute his plan.
That decision to call police catapulted Houde into the national spotlight as a hero. Politicians, school administrators, police and students nationwide have come forward to thank Houde and to encourage others to follow her example.
Despite their praise and the plaques, city keys, scholarships and letters of appreciation that overflow the piano, where they are on display in her family’s house, Houde remains humble, insisting that she was merely at the right place at the right time.
“Anyone would have done the same thing. The pictures were that bad,” she said. “I just went into work that night.”
Until this interview, Houde and her family have remained quiet about her role in the debauched bombing scheme, hoping to maintain some normalcy in her life. Last week, Houde talked about the photos, the chaos at De Anza and what it’s like to be hailed a hero.
Strange photos
Houde’s story starts Jan. 30 at the photo lab in a Long’s Drugs store in San Jose where she worked part-time as a photo clerk while taking classes at a local junior college. The day had been relatively uneventful. The 20-year-old clerk was chatting with a friend when her co-worker and friend, Kelly Bennett, asked her to look at a batch of photos she had just developed. Bennett seemed upset by the photos and told Houde she was going to call the police.
What Houde saw was so disturbing, that without hesitation, she agreed that Bennett should call police while she notified their manager about their discovery.
Photo after photo featured hand-made explosives, sawed-off shotguns and 19-year-old Al Joseph DeGuzman in various poses with a roomful of arsenal.
Houde and Bennett’s tip-off was about to unravel a detailed plan that included bombing nearby De Anza College the next morning. Coincidentally, Houde was a third-year student at De Anza who would end up on the campus the next morning for class unaware of DeGuzman’s plan and that one of the lives she had saved would be her own.
Police respond
The two clerks knew they had to stall DeGuzman from picking up the photos until the San Jose police arrived. Houde went as far as to call the telephone number DeGuzman had written on the photo tag. When the number turned out to be a pager, she left the photo lab’s telephone number. This was a move that police later investigated. Since Houde did not come forward to tell police her involvement in the tip off until five days later, police began looking for the “insider” at the lab who left the number and who they believed could be working with DeGuzman.
Houde also called her mother, a realtor, to locate the listed street address. The address turned out to belong to the TV character Homer Simpson.
When the police arrived, they waited in the back of the store for DeGuzman. Houde was helping a customer when he walked in the store. She didn’t have enough courage to look him in the eye, but she recognized him immediately. She told herself to stay calm as he stood just feet from where she was working. She identified him to police while Bennett continued the charade at the customer counter.
Houde’s mother, Janet, said nobody knew the extent of the two women’s discovery at that point, but she was nervous for her daughter.
“She would call and give me updates. She would say, ‘Mom, the FBI just arrived’ and hang up. There was just this awful silence.”
A search of DeGuzman’s bedroom at his family’s San Jose home uncovered 60 bombs, weapons, ammunition and a diagram with a timeline for an alleged mass killing on the De Anza campus set to begin just hours later, at 12:30 p.m. in the cafeteria. DeGuzman had planned to start planting explosives on the campus at 4:30 that morning.
Police arrested DeGuzman, a De Anza student, on 122 counts of explosives and weapons-related charges.
The incident was not over yet for Houde.
Campus evacuated
Houde received a call at her house at 7 a.m. the day after she tipped off police, just before she was to leave for her morning classes. It was Bennett’s mother, telling Houde’s family “The girls are heroes. They’re heroes. He was going got bomb De Anza.”
Houde decided to go to school in spite of the call, not knowing the scope of DeGuzman’s alleged plot.
On campus, more than 100 law enforcement officers from the San Jose Police Department, the FBI, the ATF and the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office were evacuating about 12,000 people, even though a nine-hour search earlier that morning hadn’t turned up any bombs.
“It was really weird walking around, looking at buildings that weren’t supposed to be there,” she said. “I couldn’t tell anyone what I knew. My friend didn’t even show up for class that day, so there was really no one I could tell.”
Coming forward
Reports of Bennett’s role in the debauched bombing hit the media before police could finish evacuating De Anza. Bennett immediately became a recognizable hero. Nearly a week passed before Houde’s name emerged. She decided to keep a low profile until police uncovered more information about the alleged bombing plan.
Houde said she was virtually anonymous on campus and at the photo lab as the public outpouring began to swell. Residents would come into the store and want to shake “the hero’s hand,” referring to Bennett, Houde said. Local politicians as well as administrators from De Anza were planning award ceremonies for Bennett.
“It was really a security issue,” said Houde’s mother Janet. “We were scared for her well being, especially since she went to De Anza. No one knew if he had planned this alone …we didn’t know if he had friends on campus or what they would do.”
Janet finally decided to reveal her daughter’s role at the photo lab to college president Martha Kanter so the school would provide security for Houde while she continued to attend classes during the investigation. At about the same time, police discovered the lab’s number in DeGuzman’s pager, and connected Houde to the tip off.
Both Houde and her mother said nothing had prepared them for the public’s response after the community learned that there was a second hero.
Houde has received hundreds of thank-you notes from the community, thanking her for saving someone’s brother, sister, father or mother from the near bombing. She holds the city key to San Jose and has received numerous hero awards and an academic scholarship established with community donations. Later this month, the San Jose Police plan to honor her, and she will be a guest in Lancaster at a “Keep the Peace” rally. And the state senate is expected to send her a commendation.
Janet said school administrators have seemed most affected by Houde’s actions. “They were really moved by this. They all face this kind of event and are directly connected … I think this touched them personally.”
Houde said she still didn’t feel safe last week, knowing that DeGuzman’s conviction won’t be guaranteed until after his trial ends. And even if he is convicted, he could make parole.
Even with those looming concerns, Houde said she would do it all again.
“It made me crazy when I heard about (the school shooting in) San Diego. That that can happen when 50 people knew and no one said anything,” she said referring to a student at Santana High School who shot classmates March 5. “If you feel something is wrong, do what you think is right.”
Janet added, “Tell someone. If that person doesn’t listen, tell someone else. It chills me to think that the spread of damage could have been so extensive.”
DeGuzman was awaiting trail last week.
Houde plans to finish her education in art history.
