Wisconsin school shooter Natalie Rupnow faced a tumultuous childhood marked by constant changes in living arrangements due to her parents’ rocky relationship, as per court records revealed recently.
Throughout her upbringing, the 15-year-old Rupnow struggled with the instability of her family life, enduring extended periods of therapy amid the backdrop of her parents, Jeff and Melissa, undergoing multiple divorces and remarriages, as per a report in the Washington Post.
Authorities are still probing the motive behind Rupnow’s decision to open fire at Abundant Life High School in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday, with limited information released so far about the teen shooter.
She killed two people, as well as herself, and injured six others in a horror spree. Two victims are in critical condition, and the injuries of the remaining four, a substitute teacher and three students, are considered non-life threatening.
Jeff’s Facebook profile shows several happy memories of him and Melissa bringing Natalie home from the hospital when she was born in 2009, a day at the beach in 2015 and supporting Natalie at a martial arts contest two years later.
Court documents, however, have pointed to an unsettled childhood for Rupnow, whose parents’ custody agreements often meant she had to move between homes every two to three days.
While it is still too soon to tell what exactly led to Monday’s shooting, Jillian Peterson, a forensic psychologist, told the Post that childhood trauma is often a driving force behind such incidents.
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
Jeff Rupnow, 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
Jeff’s Facebook profile shows several happy memories, including him and Melissa bringing Natalie home from the hospital when she was born in 2009
The parents are seen supporting 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
According to the 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, 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.
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.
Police confirmed they were talking with father Jeff Rupnow (pictured) and other family members, who were cooperating. Court documents revealed the teen shooter had a troubled home life
Jeff Rupnow shared a picture of one of his daughters being encouraged to handle and fire guns by her father. Observers noted the child was wearing earing a black top emblazoned with the name of the band KMFDM, a band praised by the Columbine school shooters
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students
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.’
On Jeff’s social media, one picture taken at a shooting range caught attention as it showed his daughter wearing a black top emblazoned with the name of the band KMFDM.
Columbine killer Eric Harris was infamously seen wearing a KMFDM T-shirt ahead of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre where 13 were murdered. The massacre is often seen as a watershed moment in the age of American school shootings.
He was asked by a friend if it was his daughter in the image. He replied: ‘Joined NBSC (North Bristol Shooting Club) this spring and we have been loving every second of it.
The NBSC – or North Bristol Sportsman’s Club – is a gun club in Sun Prairie, a suburb of Madison, offering annual family memberships for just $90, according to its website.
The father is cooperating with police as they try to find a motive for the tragedy as well as how the teen accessed the weapon she used, believed to be a 9mm handgun.
Investigators on Tuesday said they are focused on trying to determine a motive for the deadly school shooting.
The shooting left two dead and a six injured – two of whom are in critical condition. A family is seen leaving the reunification center after the tragedy
Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison said investigators were aware of a ‘manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter’ posted by someone who might have known the shooter, 15-year-old student Natalie Rupnow.
‘We haven’t been able to locate that person yet, but that’s something we’re going to work on today,’ Barnes told CNN.
‘We’ll also be looking through (Rupnow’s) effects, if she had a computer or cell phone, to see if there are any transmissions between her and someone else, and that will give us an idea of what type planning.’
Chief Barnes said they’re trying to put together a timeline of the shooter’s last hours before she went to the school.
Barnes said they’ve asked the ATF to expedite determining the origin of the gun used in the shooting and how the 15-year-old got her hands on it.
He said he’s not certain if the weapon was owned or possessed by her parents.
Asked if her parents could be charged with a crime, Barnes said they were voluntarily giving information, but he also wanted to look at whether the parents were negligent.
But at this time, he said that doesn’t appear to be the case.
