Story of singer and fatal fan still mystery six months on
Christina Grimmie was shot to death by a troubled devotee.
ORLANDO — Christina Grimmie strutted across the stage, belting out song after song to hundreds of fans as a man lingered in the back of The Plaza Live theater, watching and waiting.
He dug his hands into the pockets of his black jeans as he leaned against a wall. He tugged nervously at his red, white and blue plaid flannel shirt and adjusted his new black baseball cap.
After the show, he got in line behind dozens of other fans who wanted to meet the vivacious 22-year-old singer. He shifted his weight back and forth. Soon, it was his turn.
Christina opened her arms to greet him with a hug. In return, he pulled out a black 9 mm Glock and fired five shots, hitting her three times at point-blank range.
He pulled out a second handgun and fired a single, fatal shot into the left side of his head.
The shooting shocked the nation — for a day.
The next night, 49 people were gunned down at the Pulse nightclub, and two days after that, a small boy was dragged into a lake and killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World.
Attention shifted away from the gruesome killing at The Plaza. Six months after the death of the songbird who loved her family, her fans, God and video games, the question remains: Why did Kevin James Loibl, 27, travel from St. Petersburg to shoot “The Voice” singer?
‘We believed in her’
Christina and her brother, Mark, piled into their double-decker tour bus with the band Before You Exit after another show. She stripped off her makeup, got into sweatpants and started playing her Nintendo DS.
While on tour, Mark played guitar for her, worked as road manager and made sure she ate breakfast every morning. They goofed around constantly and even sported player 1 and player 2 video game tattoos on their inner arms.
“There were little clashes like ‘God, you take forever in the bathroom,’ but in general, people always thought it was weird we never fought,” said Mark, 23. “It was nice to have a sister who was also my friend.”
Although her jaw-dropping vocals brought her mainstream fame, she was just as well-known in the gaming world, espec ially when it came to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series, using the YouTube user name “zeldaxlove64.”
While on the road, they both had the support of their parents, Bud and Tina Grimmie.
Christina and her family moved from New Jersey to California while she was still in high school to chase her dreams, even as Tina was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
“There were plenty of sacrifices, but they weren’t even really sacrifices because we loved her and believed in her and wanted her dreams to be a reality,” Mark said.
Her fame rose in 2014 during the sixth season of NBC’s “The Voice” — she placed third.
At the time of her death, she was working on some new music, hoping to finally reach her goal of having a song on the radio.
A troubled youth
Like Christina, Kevin Loibl, 27, was a natural introvert and gravitated to video games.
But their lives were poles apart.
One of his only friends, Cory Dennington, recalled the “semi-abusive household” during police interviews, saying Kevin told him his mother beat him with a frying pan, threw dishes at him and broke his brother’s arm.
Nora Loibl died at their St. Petersburg home in 2010 of an aspirin overdose, which was ruled accidental. But Dennington told police that Kevin, who was 21 at the time, blamed himself for her death because he encouraged her to kill herself, telling her to “go ahead, do it.”
His mother’s death only intensified the turmoil in Kevin’s life.
Hi s f a t h e r, P au l L o i b l , started dating a new woman. Over a two-year span, police were called six times about fights between the two, often involving alcohol and violence.
Kevin often retreated to his bedroom, withdrawing into video games and computers, covering the windows with aluminum foil and a comforter to block out the light.
He attended St. Petersburg College for three years but dropped out in 2010 after he became obsessed with playing World of Warcraft, a multiplayer fantasy online role-playing game.
He never showed an interest in girls. Until he discovered Christina on YouTube.
Even though Kevin’s exact motive remains a mystery, Orl a ndo Pol i c e Detec t ive Michael Moreschi it’s clear Loibl didn’t get the mental care he needed.
“It’s so often we see this. People who are undiagnosed getting a weapon and causing harm to themselves or others,” he said. “It’s the things you see in hindsight, like how secluded he lived, the lack of social skills, and the people close to him didn’t really realize it was anything violent, but he had an unhealthy and abnormal obsession with her,” Moreschi said.