Questions remain about Melissa Rupnow, the mother of Wisconsin school shooter Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow, as her social media has been made private.
The parents of the 15-year-old Abundant Life school shooting are being investigated for any “negligence” they were guilty of that may have led to the atrocity.
Authorities raided the Rupnow home in Wisconsin after the Monday morning tragedy, and Natalie’s father has reportedly complied with the ongoing investigation.
Investigators have been trying to determine whether the mass shooter’s parents, Jeff and Melissa, were involved in or contributed to Natalie’s actions, which left two people dead and six injured before she shot and killed herself.
Natalie reportedly had a difficult family life and was forced to move from house to house as a result of her parents’ turbulent marriage.
While some information about the troubled teen has been revealed through her father’s social media presence, little is known about mother Melissa.
While father Jeffrey’s Facebook showed brief glimpses of his daughter, including a disturbing image of her firing a gun, Melissa’s Facebook account appears to have become private or deleted.
He has a Pinterest account still active and a private or deleted Facebook with a profile picture and a photo from a trip to Florida.
Questions remain about the apparent troubled family environment that produced Wisconsin school shooter Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow, including information about her mother Melissa (pictured right).
The parents of the 15-year-old Abundant Life school shooter are being investigated for any “negligence” they were guilty of that may have led to the atrocity.
Pinterest, which hasn’t been updated in several years, includes a pin titled ‘Natalie’s Room Ideas,’ many of which are inspired by Disney.
He follows around 210 accounts, including Kim Kardashian’s, and has around 90 followers of his own. The profile photo is of her with a little girl who looks like Natalie’s photos on her father’s Facebook.
According to court documents, Rupnow’s parents were first married two years after his birth, in 2011.
Mellissa had previously been married and divorced, and had another daughter, now 20, with a different man to whom she was never married.
Court records indicated Rupnow’s half-sister had other permanent legal guardians.
Jeff and Mellissa first divorced in 2014, where they agreed to have joint legal custody of Rupnow, but specified that she would primarily live with her mother.
The couple then remarried in 2017 and divorced for the second time in 2020, where they once again agreed to share custody of their daughter.
Rupnow then spent a more even amount of time between her two parents: two days with her father, two days with her mother, and then three more with her father, before switching schedules the following week.
The parents were seen with Natalie at a martial arts competition in 2017. Although the profile shows happy times, court records show that Natalie was in therapy for much of her childhood.
Shortly after Rupnow’s parents separated for the second time, the couple remarried, but by April 2021 they were already filing for a third divorce.
A judge granted it a month later, but noted that “the parties (were) reprimanded in connection with the remarriage,” according to court records.
More than a year later, in July 2022, the parents agreed that they would share legal custody of the young woman, but that she would now live primarily with Jeff.
At the time, Rupnow was enrolled in therapy, which was supposed to help her make decisions about which parent she would spend weekends with, records show.
The 2022 custody documents said: “The parents report a generally positive co-parenting relationship and will continue to communicate with each other through text messages and phone conversations.”
“We also want to see if the parents may have been negligent,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Monday of Natalie’s parents.
He added that the parents had been cooperating and that so far there was “no indication” that a crime had been committed.
But Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said Tuesday it was “too early” to say whether Jeff and Melissa will avoid charges.
Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed two people in addition to herself and injured six others after unleashing all hell at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday.
Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow arrived at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday morning and, a few hours later, opened fire in a study room, killing two and wounding six others, before turning the gun on herself.
“We still don’t know enough,” the mayor said.
Police have been investigating how the 15-year-old killer got hold of the gun he used when he wreaked havoc on the Catholic school.
In August, Jeff shared a photo on Facebook of a girl (it is not confirmed whether it is Natalie or not) practicing at a shooting range wearing a T-shirt similar to the one worn by the Columbine school shooters.
The teenager went through several rounds of therapy while her parents divorced and remarried several times, according to the Washington Post.
Records showed that her therapy at the time was to help her decide which parent to spend weekends with.
Despite reported family struggles, Jeff’s Facebook page is flooded with seemingly happy memories of him, Natalie and Melissa.
One photo shows him and Melissa carrying Natalie home from the hospital after she was born in 2009.
In 2015, Jeff posted a photo of him and Natalie on the beach. Two years later, he and Melissa were photographed at one of Natalie’s martial arts competitions.
Another post shows Natalie playing with two dogs in a pile of fall leaves.
An alleged manifesto from Natalie is circulating on the Internet, but the police have not confirmed whether it is legitimate or not.
Barnes said Tuesday: “We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter published by someone who is supposedly your friend.” “We haven’t been able to locate that person yet, but it’s something we’re going to work on today.”
Jeff, seen with Natalie on the beach in 2015, had a turbulent marriage to Natalie’s mother Melissa, which saw them divorce and remarry several times.
Police said Natalie’s motivation for killing a student, a teacher and injuring several others during study hall appears to have been a “combination of factors.”
‘Some have asked if people were specifically targeted. “Everyone was the target of this incident and everyone was in the same danger,” Barnes said, according to CNN.
Lyndsay O’Connor, mother of two survivors, speculated that the regular study hall teacher, who was not there due to a “planned absence,” may have been Natalie’s target. His idea has not been verified by the police.
‘We don’t know if his target was the original teacher or just the children in the class. “I would have had to go through the door and the door was open,” O’Connor said.