New Details Emerge of Geneva Woman In Foiled Canadian Mass Murder Spree: Authorities

Caption: Lindsay Souvannarath, 23, of Geneva, spent two years as an undergraduate at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, as a manuscript reader for the student literary magazine.

More is being learned about the 23-year-old Geneva woman accused of plotting a Valentine’s Day massacre at a Canadian shopping mall.

Lindsay Souvannarath, 23, was arrested early Friday morning at Halifax Airport, along with a 20-year-old Nova Scotia man, Randall Steven Shepherd, who went to meet Souvannarath’s flight from Chicago. Both have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Acting on a Crime Stoppers tip originating in Canada, local police learned that Souvannarath was on a Halifax-bound flight from Chicago to meet up with two young Canadian men. Canadian authorities said the three alleged conspirators had access to firearms and had planned to shoot as many people as they could at the Halifax Shopping Centre before turning the guns on themselves.

The 19-year-old suspect, James Gamble, is believed to have shot and killed himself Friday morning after police surrounded his parents’ home in suburban Halifax.

Police also arrested a 17-year-old boy, but he was released without being charged.

Canadian authorities said the suspects shared a sick fascination with killing and death, sharing photos of mass killings.

If true, early signs of Souvannarath’s possible obsession with mass murder and death may have surfaced in her student writings at a small, private college in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Souvannarath’s former English professor at Coe College described her to the Cedar Rapids Gazette as a talented writer whose work often contained disturbing themes.

“She knew how to put together a sentence and she had a command of detail,” English professor Charles Aukema told the paper. “Sometimes it was pretty sick detail.”

The professor also said Souvannarath never spoke in class or critiqued other students’ work. She was something of an introvert who did not appear to have any friends, Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

Aukema recalled for the paper that one of Souvannarath’s stories about a young boy’s obsession with death and talking to dying people was “like a method actor trying to get into the mindset of a killer and then becomes a serial killer.”

As an undergraduate student, Souvannarath spent two years as a manuscript reader for the Coe Review, a student literary magazine published by the college’s English department.

She is listed in the student literary magazine’s contributors’ notes in the Fall 2013 issue as a senior studying creative writing and English.

Souvannarath also had a short story published in the Coe Review called “My Pet Skeleton,” about a child whose imaginary friend is a skeleton:

“Everyone else’s skeletons are locked up in closets. Most people think they should stay there. Maybe you do too. But I wouldn’t say anything bad about skeletons. There’s one inside you.”

A former neighbor of the Geneva woman remembered the Souvannarath family as “very nice people” that participated in neighborhood block parties, Halloween parties and Easter egg hunts.

The neighbor told Associated Press that young Souvannarath was a “little strange,” and went through a phase of dressing in the black, Gothic Style.

Associated Press also reported that Geneva police assisted Canadian authorities by searching Souvannarath’s home on Friday. Geneva Police Cmdr. Julie Nash would not elaborate on items found at the young woman’s home and that Canadian authorities requested that such information not be made public.

Canadian authorities stated that Souvannarath and the two young Canadian men formed a friendship online. The Politicalgates blog said that the three may have met through online gaming.

Three long-barrel rifles were discovered in Gamble’s home. Facebook photos appearing to be Gamble show the deceased 19-year-old posing with pictures of Nazis and quoting the teen Columbine killers, reports said.

Canadian authorities have ruled out terrorism as a motive, instead attributing the foiled plot to “a group of murderous misfits.”

Souvannarath, who has no prior criminal record, allegedly confessed the group’s plans to police. Canadian authorities also said that Souvannarath had pre-written Tweets to be released after her death, Associated Press reported.

Had the suspects been successful “it would have been devastating,” Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Saturday. “Mass casualties would have been a real possibility.”

Souvannarath and Shepherd are due in Halifax Provincial Court on Tuesday.