SUTTONS BAY, Mich.  — A familiar name caught Brenda Beuerle’s eye recently when she scanned news reports of a foiled bombing of a Confederate monument in Texas: Andrew Schneck.

It conjured years-long memories of when Schneck lived two houses down on Suttons Bay’s maple-lined St. Mary’s Avenue. Beuerle and her neighbors recall Schneck as a shy young man who spoke to his feet, stayed mostly indoors and sometimes donned a protective suit when he trekked outside to a nearby shed.

FBI agents swarmed that shed in October 2013 during raids targeting properties in Suttons Bay and Texas. Details remain murky, but Beuerle and her neighbors later learned that Schneck’s experiments with chemicals and explosives drew federal attention.

“He was a very strange young man,” Beuerle said.

Schneck never returned to 504 North St. Mary’s Avenue, but authorities claim his dalliance with explosives rekindled. A federal criminal complaint states Schneck, 25, of Houston, last Saturday (Aug. 19) tried to plant explosives near a Confederate statue — an accusation that unfolds amid a national debate over the removal of such monuments.

The document states a Houston park ranger at about 11:05 p.m. saw Schneck kneeling near the General Dowling Monument in the Houston’s Hermann Park. Schneck appeared to hold two small boxes with a plastic bottle, duct tape and wires, according to the complaint.

Schneck’s boxes had contents capable of producing a “viable explosive device,” the document states.

Tests later indicated a clear liquid in the plastic bottle — from which Schneck drank and immediately spat out — was nitroglycerin, a contact explosive. The documents state a search uncovered a timer, wires, a battery and what later tested positive for a chemical used as an initiating or primary explosive.

The monument honored Richard William “Dick” Dowling, a Houston businessman who successfully led a Confederate unit against Union forces at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass in 1863. Schneck, when asked if he wanted to harm Dowling’s statue, told authorities he did not “like that guy,” according to the complaint.

U.S Attorneys charged Schneck with attempting to maliciously damage or destroy property receiving federal financial assistance — a crime that carries a minimum of five years in federal prison.

It’s not Schneck’s first time facing a charge in federal court.

Leelanau, Michigan, County Sheriff Mike Borkovich said the 2013 raids in Leelanau County were prompted by concerns Schneck tried to make a bomb and a nerve agent. Schneck’s mother, a Houston-area art appraiser, owned the Suttons Bay home.

About 60 agents descended on that home and another in nearby Leland, in coordination with other raids in the Houston area.

The raids led to a charge of knowingly storing high explosives against Schneck in the Southern District of Texas. Schneck pleaded guilty and received five years of probation, during which he was barred from possessing “explosive materials or chemical warfare agents.”

Schneck successfully made a bid for early release from probation. He showed “exemplary character,” devoted himself to his chemistry degree at Austin College and wanted to pursue an advanced degree to study chemical reactions using computer learning software, his motion for early termination states.

“Early termination would mark the end to this chapter in his story, giving him the opportunity to move past this mistake,” the motion states.

A judge released Schneck from probation in November 2016. Ten months later, he was arrested in Houston at the General Dowling monument.

Matt Troutman is a reporter with the Traverse City, Michigan, Record-Eagle. Contact him at mtroutman@record-eagle.com.