Murdered Graduate Of Green Mountain HS Mourned By School

LAKEWOOD, CO -- Students returned to Green Mountain High School after Thanksgiving break still in shock that a violent episode had taken the life of one of the school's most bright-futured graduates, and that another student had been accused of stabbing her to death in Longmont. Makayla Grote, 20, an aspiring NASCAR racer and 2016 graduate of Green Mountain, was allegedly stabbed by a 15-year-old classmate from the high school who had earlier targeted her sister with threatening texts and had named the sister on a "death list" kept in his room, prosecutors said.

According to the Boulder Co. District Attorney, the 15-year-old male student from Lakewood had attacked his family members, then the next morning, Nov. 18, had driven to Longmont, where he was seen outside the apartment of Grote and her sister that morning, allegedly making a car repair. He returned later that day and allegedly stabbed Grote in the head and abdomen with a hunting knife, chasing the sister into a room where she was able to lock him out. Grote was found in the apartment stairwell, bleeding from knife wounds, the District Attorney told a courtroom, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.

Because the case is being considered in juvenile court, all records are sealed, a spokeswoman for the 20th Judicial District said. However, the Daily Camera reported that prosecutors laid out the case in court Nov. 20.

According to court reporting, the boy accused of stabbing Grote had compiled a "death list" including Grote's sister. The suspect was arrested close to the home of the second person on the list, prosecutors told the court, according to the Daily Camera. The juvenile has not being named so far, although prosecutors may charge him as an adult.

In mid-October, the suspect had sent Grote's sister a series of threatening text messages, which the school believed they had addressed, district officials said.

"[T]his tragedy is particularly heartbreaking because so many people on so many different levels worked to help the accused student as well as protect all our students," said Diana Wilson, chief communications officer for JeffCo Public Schools in an email. School administrators, counselors and teachers, school district mental health, security and discipline staff, local law enforcement, youth intervention specialists, community mental health workers and more were working with the suspect, his family, and other students and families prior to Makayla’s death," she wrote.

Counselors were on-hand to assist students Nov. 20 and 27, Wilson said. The school also held a candle-light vigil for Grote Nov. 24.

Grote's family held a celebration of her life Sunday at Colorado National Speedway in Longmont, where friends and fans of the budding race car driver said goodbye to woman who "started driving go-karts at age 8 and went on to race a late-model stock car numbered 97 at the speedway," according to the Denver Post.

A friend from the racing community started a GoFundMe memorial fund on behalf of Grote's mother, Deborah Grote, to help pay for funeral expenses.

"A lot of us in the racing community know who she was and more importantly a lot of us will remember that laugh and that smile she always had on her face," wrote Curtis Heldenbrand. "Makayla was the type of person that enjoyed life especially racing and I know how involved she was in the circle track life. The Grote family will be faced with a lot of challenges in the next coulpe weeks and I'm hoping we can all pitch it to help them out during this horrible time."

Image via GoFundMe