Columbine-obsessed US teen dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot

LOS ANGELES: An American teenager whose obsession with the Columbine High School massacre set off school closures and a manhunt in the Denver area has been found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said on Wednesday.

Media reports said 18-year-old Sol Pais’s body was discovered near the base of Mount Evans, which dominates the Denver skyline.

Jeff Shrader, the Jefferson County sheriff, told a news conference Pais was “deceased from an apparent selfinflicted gunshot wound.” Her body was discovered by the FBI, which separately confirmed her death and also indicated it was a suicide.

“They are currently processing the scene where her body was found to determine all of the factors that would lead to those conclusions,” Shrader said.

“I don’t believe that they were in active pursuit at the time that she was found dead,” he added.

Authorities had mounted a massive search for Pais after she travelled from Florida to Colorado, bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition.

Pais was not even born when two Columbine students launched their attack with an assortment of guns and bags full of pipe bombs, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Security fears have soared because Saturday is the 20th anniversary of what at the time was the deadliest school shooting in US history, setting off an era of similar massacres at schools and public venues.

Colorado authorities, who said Pais was armed and considered “extremely dangerous,” had ordered around half a million students to stay at home “due to ongoing safety concerns.”

Officials posted pictures of Pais, her unsmiling visage framed by shoulder-length brown hair.

She was described as five foot, five inches (1.65 metres) tall, and last seen wearing a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots.

Dean Phillips, the special agent in charge of the FBI’S Denver office, said Pais had made comments in the past that expressed “an infatuation” with the Columbine massacre and its perpetrators.