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Mystery over Wisconsin school shooter Natalie Rupnow's mom Melissa who vanished from her life after doting on her as a child READ MORE: Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow's parents under investigation for Wisconsin school shooting By STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 23:55 GMT, 18 December 2024 | Updated: 23:55 GMT, 18 December 2024 e-mail View comments Questions remain about the apparent troubled family environment that produced Wisconsin school shooter Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow , including information regarding her mother Melissa.
The parents of the 15-year-old Abundant Life school shooter are being investigated for any 'negligence' they may have been guilty of that could have led to the atrocity. Authorities raided the Rupnow's Wisconsin home after Monday morning's tragedy , and Natalie's father has been reportedly compliant with the ongoing investigation. Investigators have been trying to figure out if the mass shooter's parents, Jeff and Melissa, had any involvement or contributed to Natalie's actions - which left two people dead and six injured before she shot and killed herself .
Natalie reportedly had a rocky home life and was forced to move from home to home as a result of her parents' turbulent marriage. While some information has been gleamed about the troubled teen through her father's social media presence, little is known about mother Melissa. While father Jeffrey's Facebook showed brief looks at his daughter - including a disturbing image of her firing a gun - Melissa's Facebook account appears to have gone private or been deleted.
She does have a still-active Pinterest account, and an either deleted or private Facebook with a profile picture and a photo of a trip to Florida . Questions remain about the apparent troubled family environment that produced Wisconsin school shooter Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow , including information regarding her mother Melissa (pictured right) The parents of the 15-year-old Abundant Life school shooter are being investigated for any 'negligence' they may have been guilty of that could have led to the atrocity The Pinterest, which has not been updated in several years, does include a pin titled 'Ideas for Natalie's room,' many of which are Disney-inspired. She follows about 210 accounts, including that of Kim Kardashian , and has about 90 followers of her own.
The profile photo is of herself with a little girl that resembles Natalie's photos on her father's Facebook. According to court documents, Rupnow's parents first married two years after she was born, in 2011. Mellissa had been previously married and divorced, and she had another daughter, now 20, with a different man to whom she was never married.
Court records indicated that Rupnow's half-sister had other permanent legal guardians. Jeff and Mellissa divorced for the first time in 2014, where they agreed to have joint legal custody of Rupnow, but specified that she would primarily live with her mother. The couple then remarried in 2017 and divorced for a second time in 2020, where they once again agreed to share custody of their daughter.
Rupnow then spent a more even amount of time between her two parents - two days with her father, two days with her mother, then three more with her father, before flipping the schedule the following week. The parents were seen Natalie at a martial arts contest in 2017. Although the profile shows happy times, court records show Natalie was in therapy for much of her childhood Not long after Rupnow's parents split up for the second time, the couple remarried once more - but by April 2021 they were petitioning for a third divorce.
A judge granted it a month later but noted that 'parties [were] admonished concerning remarriage,' according to court records. Over a year later, in July 2022, the parents agreed they would share legal custody of the young girl but that she would now live mostly with Jeff. By this time, Rupnow was enrolled in therapy, which was supposed to help her make decisions about which parent she would spend her weekends with, records show.
The 2022 custody papers said: 'The parents report a generally positive co-parenting relationship and will continue to communicate with one another by text messages and phone conversations.' 'We also want to look at if the parents may have been negligent,' Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said about Natalie's parents on Monday. He added that the parents had been cooperating, and there was 'no indication' of a crime so far.
But Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said Tuesday it was 'far too early' to say if Jeff and Melissa will dodge charges. Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed two people, as well as herself, and injured six others after unleashing hell at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow arrived at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday morning - and just hours later, she opened fire on a study hall, killing two and injuring six others , before turning the gun on herself 'We don’t know nearly enough yet,' the mayor asserted. Police have been looking into how the 15-year-old killer got her hands on the gun she used when she wreaked havoc on the Catholic school.
In August, Jeff shared a photo on Facebook of a child - it is unconfirmed if it is Natalie or not - practicing at a gun shooting range wearing a shirt resembling the one worn by the Columbine school shooters. The teen went through several rounds of therapy as her parents divorced and remarried several times, according to the Washington Post . Records showed her therapy at this time was to help her decide which parent to spent weekends with.
Despite the reported familial struggles, Jeff's Facebook page is flooded with seemingly happy memories of him, Natalie and Melissa. One photo shows him and Melissa brining Natalie home from the hospital after she was born in 2009. In 2015, Jeff posted a photo of him and Natalie on the beach.
Two years later, him and Melissa were pictured at one of Natalie's martial arts competitions. Another post shows Natalie playing with two dogs in a pile of autumn leaves. An alleged manifesto by Natalie , which has not been confirmed if it is legitimate or not by police, has been circulating online.
Barnes said on Tuesday: 'We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that’s been posted by someone who alleged to be her friend. We haven’t been able to locate that person yet, but that’s something we’re going to work on today.' Jeff, seen with Natalie at the beach in 2015, had a turbulent marriage with Natalie's mother Melissa that saw them divorce and remarry several times Police said Natalie's motivation for killing a student, a teacher and injuring several others during study hall seems to have been a 'combination of factors.
' 'Some have asked if people were specifically targeted. Everyone was targeted in this incident, and everyone was put in equal danger,' Barnes said, according to CNN. Lyndsay O'Connor, a mother of two survivors, speculated that the regular study hall teacher, who was not there due to a 'planned absence,' may have been Natalie's target.
Her idea has not been verified by police. 'We don't know if her target was the original teacher or just the kids in the class. She would have had to walk by the door and the door was open,' O'Connor said.
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