The death of a teenager probably preceded the manhunt in Colorado



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DENVER (AP) – A Colorado NCO looking for a Florida teenager reinforced security at Columbine High School before the 20th anniversary of a bombing that killed 13 people in that city .

Deputy Sheriff Bruce Snelling of Clear Creek County has

The Denver Post

Sol Pais, 18, probably died on Monday night. Her body was found Wednesday in the snowy hills west of Denver and it seems that she has been dead for more than 24 hours.

"She had no idea what had happened from Monday afternoon to Tuesday when a search for her started and until Wednesday when her body was found," Snelling said. . "The logical probability was that she was here to end her trip."

A manhunt was launched Tuesday, the day after the departure of Pais from Miami to Denver and the purchase of a shotgun and two rounds of ammunition. FBI officials said they feared that she was preparing an attack herself because she was "in love" with the 1999 Columbine shootings.

Columbine, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Saturday attack, closed Tuesday as authorities crisscrossed the area for Pais, and hundreds of Denver area schools canceled their courses Wednesday while the hunt for humans intensified.

Dean Phillips, an officer in charge of the FBI's Denver office, said social media posts and comments she had made to others had led investigators to consider her a credible threat. Pais did not threaten a particular school, but his story and the purchase of a weapon immediately after his arrival in Colorado deserved a broad reaction, officials said.

But Snelling said that Pais "did not have a master plan" to conduct a shootout at a school.

"She became black," he said. "There was no digital fingerprint anywhere.No phone, no credit card use.This meant an almost impossible impossibility for this ill-equipped teenager, old to 18 years old, flying from sea level in Florida to Colorado and in the mountains with plans to go on a killing ".

Many questions remain unanswered about Pais, but a friend challenged the authorities' claim that she was a threat.

Adrianna Pete, 19, painted a complex picture of the teenager, saying she was deeply troubled, alone and often spoke of suicide, but also brilliant, kind and talented and she loved to draw.

Pete, a student in Carleton, Michigan, said she met Pais online two years ago via a mutual friend and quickly developed a friendship involving almost daily communication. They met in person twice, once when Pete went to Florida and once when Pais went to Michigan.

Pete blamed the authorities for overreacting by describing Pais as a threat based on his activities prior to his death.

"She has never threatened anyone," said Pete. "There is no credible threat and only assumptions that it was just because the word Columbine was included."

Pete said that Pais had a strange obsession for the Columbine killers, but that did not mean that she was preparing an attack. The killers were "a person with whom she could relate" because they were alone, not because of their violence, Pete added.

An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for additional information on Pais' background or his Columbine-related comments that triggered the rapid reaction of law enforcement.

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