A McKendree University alumnus pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in East St. Louis to threatening a campus mass shooting in 2025 and stalking a university employee for years, Capitol News Illinois reported.
Rustin A. Berkshire, 40, of Vincennes, Indiana, was arrested in September 2025 on charges of interstate communication with a threat to injure and stalking, according to the report.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandria M. Burns told the court that Berkshire had threatened severe injury to students and staff at McKendree University and had been stalking and harassing a university staff member since September 2018, the report said.
According to the report, Berkshire sent messages to one of the victims both electronically and through the mail, including two handwritten letters sent directly to a victim's house. Burns said the correspondence included profanity and referenced feces. The messages he sent in 2025 repeatedly invoked the phrase "pain and tears forever," according to Capitol News Illinois.
The Illinois State Police, FBI and the Vincennes Police Department in Indiana participated in the investigation, the report said.
About the university
McKendree University is a private liberal arts college that enrolls about 2,500 students at its campus in Lebanon, Illinois, roughly 20 miles east of St. Louis, according to Capitol News Illinois.
The story was reported by Penny Bordewick for Southern Illinois Source, an initiative of Capitol News Illinois in partnership with the Southern Illinois University Charlotte Thompson Suhler School of Journalism and Advertising.
All are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: the original release