Computer whiz to `Dr. Chaos'
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   Sean D. Hamill and David Heinzmann, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune
   staff reporter Matt Walberg contributed to this reportCHICAGO TRIBUNE

   When Joseph Konopka was in middle school, he was so good with computers
   that school officials referred teachers with computer problems to him.

   But in his freshman year of high school, his mother said he became
   bored with school--unchallenged by classes and completely uninvolved
   socially--and he dropped out for good.

   Last summer, while facing charges in a string of sabotage attacks on
   utility facilities in northeastern Wisconsin, he told his family
   members he was thinking of jumping bail. His family, including an aunt
   who stood to lose the $15,000 bail she posted, begged him not to go.
   But on a Sunday in June he walked away from their farm east of De Pere.
   He left his car and his computer and just disappeared, said his mother,
   Gloria Pulyeart.

   The family didn't hear of him again until Saturday, when Konopka, 25,
   was arrested in Chicago after police and FBI agents linked him to a
   stash of cyanide hidden in the tunnels of the CTA subway system.

   Despite the trouble he is in, family members said he has always been a
   good, albeit troubled, kid.

   Konopka's aunt, Audrey Konopka, said she was not angry with her nephew
   when he skipped bail. Now she only worries about his well-being because
   of the seriousness of the allegations.

   "I wouldn't be surprised if he had done something like that to kill
   himself because he thought his life was over anyway," she said.

   After he dropped out of school, Konopka left his mother's home in Green
   Bay and moved to the family farm with his grandmother, Marian Konopka.
   There he drew increasingly inward through his teen years, his mother
   said, watching television, playing video games and spending hour after
   hour with his computer.

   Police in northeastern Wisconsin, who began investigating him more than
   a year ago, said they still don't really understand him.

   The crimes that Konopka is accused of trying in Wisconsin had such
   potential for mayhem that seven counties formed a task force to track
   him down.

   After months of investigating Konopka's spree of sabotage attacks on
   power-company transformers, gas lines, broadcasting towers and wind
   turbines, Kewaunee County Lt. David Cornelius' understanding of the
   computer technician's motivation boiled down to mischief.

   His objective was "just to cause total chaos. His attitude seemed to
   be, `Let's see what we can do, and let's see how [authorities] react to
   it," said Cornelius, who headed the task force.

   Using his computer, Konopka persuaded a number of teens to join his
   acts of vandalism, according to court records. Often, the motive seemed
   to be because "it was cool."

   In a letter filed with the court before Konopka's sentencing last year,
   Lindsey Petersen, 19, said she and her boyfriend accompanied Konopka on
   one of four trips to sabotage the power supply for the small town of
   Algoma, Wis. Konopka cut the power, and then the three drove to a hill
   overlooking town and watched the lights go out, she said.

   Her boyfriend, Chad Reimer, 19, said he had met Konopka years earlier
   when Konopka came to his family's Green Bay home to upgrade their
   software. The relationship became terrifying for Reimer. His parents
   told court officials that Konopka once used a stun gun on their son.

   Reimer said Konopka, who called himself "Dr. Chaos," used terror to
   control the young members of his Realm of Chaos.

   Gloria Pulyeart said she had never heard of the Realm of Chaos or her
   son's alias. Although she is frightened and confused by the trouble her
   son is in, she is grateful he no longer is missing.

   "We love him very much and we're glad he's safe and not on the
   streets," she said. "At least we know where he is now."