Wisconsin School Shooter Had 'Unsettled' Childhood

According to a Washington Post review of court records
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 18, 2024 12:00 AM CST
Wisconsin School Shooter Had 'Unsettled' Childhood
Supporters sign crosses during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16.   (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Police are still working to piece together the motive of the 15-year-old girl who killed two and injured six more at a Christian school in Wisconsin Monday and haven't said much about their suspicions, but details are starting to trickle out about her background. Court records paint a picture of what the Washington Post refers to as an "unsettled childhood" after her parents divorced, leading to a schedule that had her at times moving from one parent's household to the other's every two or three days. The records show her parents married in 2011, about two years after she was born, divorced in 2014, then remarried in 2017 and divorced again in 2020. They then briefly remarried a final time before divorcing a third time in 2021, with the judge noting the ex-couple had been "admonished concerning remarriage."

After the schedule that had their daughter switching off between parents every two or three days, by 2022 the couple had joint legal custody but the girl lived mostly with her father. She had also been enrolled in therapy. "She was always talkative, and I always thought she was a great little kid," a neighbor tells Fox 10, though he says he hadn't seen much of the teen in the past year. The Post also reviewed her father's social media, which indicates he's a Christian who often posted pictures of his daughter, who had just turned 15 about a month ago. In one, from August, she appears to be shown firing a gun at a firing range while wearing a KMFDM shirt—that's the German rock band infamously referenced by one of the Columbine shooters. (More school shooting stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X