Austin bomber left confession said he was frustrated with his life

PFLUGERVILLE, Tex. — The Texas bombing suspect’s cellphone had a 25-minute video recording in which the young man described how he built each explosive device “with a level of specificity” that the Austin chief of police classified as “a confession” at a press conference late Wednesday.

The phone was found on the suspect after he died in an explosion early Wednesday as police closed in, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. In the recording, Mark Anthony Conditt, described the bombs that he constructed to such a degree that he also explained how they differed, which is information that had not been released, Manley explained.

He worked with his dad around their modest yellow house on Second Street, fixing up a newly purchased home in an old-fashioned, close-knit neighborhood — the kind of place where residents check in on one another.

Mark Anthony Conditt seemed to fit in. Having been home-schooled, the 23-year-old was close to his family, including his sisters. As he neared graduation, he took a government course at Austin Community College and described himself on a class blog as conservative but “not that politically inclined.”