Geneva woman channeled Columbine killers?
The Geneva woman who plotted to open fire in a Canadian mall on Valentine's Day 2015 identified so strongly with the Columbine High School shooters that she thought she might be channeling their thoughts.
So says a note she wrote, which jail guards discovered in Lindsay Souvannarath's belongings in March 2015.
The note is part of a 14-page agreed-statement-of-facts prosecutors submitted for Souvannarath's sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
The hearing began Monday and is expected to take several days, according to a spokesman for the prosecution in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The note speaks of her relationship with the late James Gamble, 19, of Halifax.
The two were fascinated with the April 1999 Columbine shooting, mass murderers and Nazis. They found each other on the social media site Tumblr, where Souvannarath blogged.
Souvannarath, now 26, and Randall Steven Shepherd, now 23, of Halifax, were arrested before the planned shooting at the Halifax Shopping Centre could take place on Feb. 14, 2015. She has been in jail since.
Gamble killed himself as police were trying to arrest him. Shepherd pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was a friend of Gamble's who agreed to make Molotov cocktails for the attack and to pick up Souvannarath at the airport.
The maximum sentence for Souvannarath would be life in prison.
She is a 2010 graduate of Geneva High School and a 2014 graduate of Coe College. According to the court statement, she was unemployed and living with her parents.
While at Geneva, she was a member of a role-playing gaming club; a yearbook shows her pencil drawing of a ghoulish Nazi character.
In a 2015 Daily Herald interview, classmate Sabrina Szigeti said Souvannarath was known for her interest in Nazis and crime.
"She was really into writing and really into making art of Nazis," Szigeti said.
Szigeti said Souvannarath became upset when her German language teacher refused to let her write an essay about a Norwegian black-metal musician who killed someone. Souvannarath admired the musician, who espouses white nationalism.
After meeting on Tumblr, Souvannarath and Gamble corresponded for nearly eight weeks via Facebook. The messages indicated a fascination with mass murders and the notoriety they would bring.
Someone reported the plot to Crime Stoppers the day before the murders were to take place, and Canadian authorities alerted border security agents to be on the lookout for Souvannarath.
She was detained not because of the alert, but because an agent thought she might be a drug trafficker. He based it on the fact she had a one-way ticket, had only $33 in cash and had bad teeth and sores on her face, which he thought indicated she could be a methamphetamine or crack cocaine user. She packed light, carrying just a mask, makeup and two books on serial killers, and she didn't know where she was going, according to the statement.
While on the way to court two days later, she was placed in a van with an undercover officer who was posing as a prisoner and told him of the plan.
According to reports Monday from Global News, Souvannarath's attorney is arguing for a lesser sentence, contending the plot was merely talk and that Gamble and Souvannarath did not have the skills to carry out the attack.