Recently, we wrote about what happened to *that one person* people went to high school with, and the BuzzFeed Community chimed in with some truly wild new examples, many of which seemed to have one thing in common: that the kid they used to know ended up being a murderer. Here are 17 wild true stories about people who went to school with someone who later became a killer.
Warning: This post contains graphic and disturbing descriptions of murders. Proceed with caution.
1. "Guy was a year or two ahead of me in high school. Very attractive, football player, had a gorgeous girlfriend who was a cheerleader. I had always heard rumblings of how much of a jerk he was, especially from my boyfriend at the time who played football with him. There were also always quiet whispers about him being controlling of his girlfriend. Fast-forward to 2014, and it’s all over the news how he murdered his girlfriend. ... I actually had no idea of his extensive criminal record up until that point until I listened to the podcast episode of Crime Junkies on the case called 'MURDERED: Breanna Moore.' Absolutely devastating for her family."
—Anonymous
2. "I went to elementary and high school with this one kid. He was a twin (that's important). He and his twin sister were always a little odd, but as elementary school kids, we were not very nice to them. Many of us as adults regret it a lot. Both of them showed up at my high school sophomore year, and the girl was well-adjusted. We became somewhat friends. The boy was a little less adjusted. Some drugs, a little bit of assault, etc.... Well, five years ago, we see in the news that he killed his twin sister's son (his nephew) who was, like, 3 at the time. How? He put an axe through his head. I feel really sorry for his sister, not only to lose a son so violently, but by the hands of the person you know the most. It hurts my heart, and I hope she's doing alright."
3. "A girl the year behind me in school ended up in prison for murdering two babies in her care. It was determined to be Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. She was also the subject of a Dateline episode."
—Anonymous
4. "There was this dude who was, like, an all-American, very nice, well-rounded guy when I was a freshman and he was a senior. I think he was even on the all school presidential committee. I only knew him through school events (I was in the photojournalism club) we would always end up at together. Never got any bad vibes from him; he was always super polite. A couple of years after I graduated, I learned he had murdered his father in cold blood with seemingly no motive — just killed him. I still feel surprised whenever I think about it."
5. "Two guys — Will and Chris — were one year under me. We were all in ROTC together. Chris was a sweetheart. Will was creepy and always wore a trench coat, in Texas. (This was way before Columbine.) After graduation, they became roommates. Will's girlfriend liked Chris, and when he turned her down, she convinced Will that Chris tried to hit on her. They shot him, then cut off his hands and burned his body. They were caught and are now in jail."
6. "A girl I went to school with came from a decent family, but she got pregnant at 12, baby by 13. This was early 2000s so that was absolutely bonkers news. Still is, imo. Well, she got married years later and had a 4-year-old stepson who ended up dying. She said he fell off a skateboard — the evidence showed otherwise. She had beaten him to death. Her defense PAID a medical examiner $6,500 to try to say the skateboard story 'could have' happened. Thankfully, the doctors, nurses, etc., were able to see otherwise. She killed an innocent 4-year-old boy. I'm sure this says a lot about a life that has mostly been spent being a MOTHER, but I still can't believe it. She got abuse and manslaughter charges, which is wild, and, of course, has gotten all 'Christ-y' since this happened. She was sentenced in 2014 to a total of 20 years at age 26. That poor child and his actual mother. I can't imagine."
"I've gone back and forth wondering if I should just give her name because I really don't care about her privacy, but then I didn't want to for the family's sake. I think I've left enough clues, though. I trust you all are smart enough not to bother the victim's family."
7. "I went to elementary school with a girl who I always remembered because she had heterochromia. We both changed schools but eventually ended up graduating from the same HS. A year after we graduated, she and a group of roommates killed a mentally disabled woman in our hometown. As I understand it, she didn't face the death penalty mostly because she testified against everyone else."
—Anonymous
8. "There was a girl on my bus in middle school that I was kind of friends with and probably would have been closer with had my Mom not gotten bad vibes about her. By the time we were in high school, she was hanging out with guys in their 20s when we were 14, fighting everyone she could in school and was generally a vicious person. Our freshman year of college, she and her boyfriend planned via text to kill his grandmother for drug money, and she's currently serving life in prison for the murder. Thanks for the vibe check, Mom!"
9. "I had a few elective classes with this kid in my junior year. He was a really quiet/shy type and had this darkness in his eyes. I tried to include him in convos during sociology class but could never get a read on him. One day, our class had a meeting with police. We found out he ended up stabbing his younger sister multiple times because he kept hearing voices and claimed he was saving her from her parents. This was in the south suburbs of Chicago around ‘08."
—Anonymous
10. "Two guys I went to high school with and stayed friends with for years after high school murdered a girl together. Well, one of the guys killed her; the other one helped dispose of her body which included setting her on fire. We still don't know the real reason this happened."
11. "A guy I went to school with all through middle and high school was really smart but sort of considered a band geek. He ended up graduating with honors and getting a scholarship to a university where he joined their band program and ROTC. At the beginning of his sophomore year, he shot his entire family, killing his younger brother and father. He shot his mom, but she survived, and he ran outside and told his neighbor his mom was the shooter. Turns out he had been essentially kicked out of school for bad grades, had lost his scholarship and everything, and hadn’t told his parents yet, and just snapped the day he was supposed to apply for classes. He got two life sentences."
12. "I dated this guy I went to high school with. We were pretty good friends since we were the only two seniors in a freshman class (we were behind on credits). After we broke up while I was in college, he kind of dropped off the face of the earth. I googled his name out of curiosity and found out he’d been arrested multiple times for armed robbery and drug possession shortly after we ended things. Then I found out he was arrested for murder and was sentenced to 35 to life. I’m just now able to talk about it because he’s finally been found guilty."
13. "Recently, a woman I went to high school with made national news when she murdered her children and then committed suicide after locking a social worker in her garage."
14. "Guys I went to high school with — I knew them by face but not by name — killed a kid for his weed, put his body in the trunk, and used his credit cards. They got caught because the car started to smell in the parking lot of their apartment. I heard one of them is trying to get a retrial because he didn’t do the actual deed, he was just in the car."
15. "I hung out with this girl in middle school; she was a year younger than me. She had a sister two years older than me. A few years after her sister graduated, she ran over and killed the father of her children. Not sure why, but she didn't do a day in jail. She was drunk when she did it, too."
16. "There was a kid in my graduating class who was super smart, on the honor roll, seemed pretty chill and friendly all throughout high school. Snapped and murdered his whole family one day a few years after graduation and then killed himself."
17. "I worked at a store when I was about 21, and one morning went in, and one of my older coworkers had been murdered the night before in his home by his son. Turned out his son was in my graduating class."
What's your story about someone you went to school with who ended up committing an awful crime? What were they like in school? Let us know in the comments.
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.