Jennifer San Marco, (aged 44) was a former US Postal
Service employee and mass murderer who killed seven people on January 30,
2006,in Goleta, California. She committed suicide by shooting herself the same
day.
The Victims: Beverly Graham, 54 (her one-time neighbor) / Ze
Fairchild, 37 / Maleka Higgins, 28 / Nicola Grant, 42 / Guadalupe Swartz, 52 /
Dexter Shannon, 57 / Charlotte Colton, 44.
At Goleta, Santa Barbara County,
California, USA
1. Jennifer San
Marco's background
San Marco had previously worked as a dispatcher for the
Santa Barbara Police Department in the mid-1990s, a job for which she underwent
a background check and psychological evaluation. She left the job after several
months, not unusual for the high-stress occupation. San Marco eventually went
to work for the postal service as a clerk, but left on psychological disability
following a 2003 incident in which she had to be removed from her workplace by
police. San Marco subsequently moved to a small town in New Mexico sometime in
2004. According to colleagues, she had a history of making racially charged
statements, and once attempted to start a publication entitled The Racist
Press.
2. The spree shooting
On January 30, 2006, San Marco shot and killed her one-time
neighbor, Beverly Graham, and then subsequently drove to the mail processing
plant at which she previously worked in Goleta, California. San Marco entered
the sprawling plant by driving through a gate behind another car. She gained
entry to the building by taking an employee's identification badge at gunpoint.
She then shot and killed six employees of the plant with a pistol before taking
her own life. San Marco apparently
believed that she was the target of a conspiracy centered at the Goleta postal
facility, according to writings recovered from her house in New Mexico. A
spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department speculated that San
Marco's paranoia and history of mental illness may have motivated her to commit
the murders. This Postal killer
believed she was target of a plot and her writings that allude to a conspiracy
helped authorities establish her motives in this rampage
3. The Story
The woman whose suicidal rampage at a Santa Barbara County
postal facility killed seven people believed that she was threatened by a
conspiracy involving its workers, authorities said. Jennifer San Marco left
writings at her New Mexico desert home alluding to a vague plot involving the
Goleta mail-sorting plant where she once worked, a local medical facility and
the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, sheriff's Sgt. Erik Raney said
in a telephone interview Friday. "There were several different writings
that were described to me as kind of just ramblings, not anything specific, but
they alluded to a conspiracy," he said. "She obviously felt that the
post office was out to get her in one way or another," Raney said.
"That establishes as good of a motive (for the killings) as we can
determine at this point." Raney said that despite a history of mental
illness, San Marco managed to buy the gun and ammunition used in Monday night's
killings from two New Mexico pawn shops.
4. Gun purchase went unquestioned
She bought the 15-round, 9 mm Smith & Wesson model 915
last August from a pawn shop in Grants, N.M., and an unspecified amount of
ammunition from a pawn shop in Gallup, N.M. How she managed to purchase it is
"the million-dollar question yet," he said. Paul Castillo, owner of Ace Pawn and
Antiques, told the Santa Barbara News-Press that San Marco bought the gun for
$325 without saying why she needed the weapon. She filled out an application
for a background check, which didn't turn up any problems, and picked up the
gun two days later, Castillo said. The gun originally was purchased by another
person in San Jose and later sold to the pawn shop, Raney said. The last victim to die in the rampage was the
first buried Friday. More than 1,200 mourners overflowed a church for the
funeral Mass for Charlotte Colton, a mother of three who was shot in the head
and died Wednesday at a hospital. "If there was anything she did it, was
love boldly and fearlessly," Colton's niece, Katrina Baggao de la Cruz,
told mourners at St. Raphael's Catholic Church, the News-Press reported.
"You simply wanted to be a better person around her." Colton, 44, of
Santa Barbara, was survived by her husband, Jim, and three sons. She was buried
at Calvary Cemetery.
5. Her psychiatric history
San Marco, 44, worked at the Goleta postal facility for
about six years before she was placed on retirement disability for
psychological reasons in 2003, the Postal Service has said. Employees said her
behavior was increasingly more bizarre and that she sometimes talked or argued
with herself or made racist comments, although she never made any threats to
them. In February 2001, deputies were called to remove her from the plant
because of strange behavior. She was sent to a Ventura psychiatric hospital for
three days of assessment but Raney said he did not know the diagnosis. The
hospital was not the medical facility mentioned in San Marco's writings, Raney
said. He declined to identify the facility named in the writings. "It
might have just been a place where she had her regular doctor's visits,"
he said. The 2001 incident may have prompted her to place the Sheriff's
Department in her conspiracy but it was unclear whether the incident
specifically motivated the killing spree, Raney said.
6. The Search for clues
"Was this cognitive thought? Did she have a specific
grudge for a specific reason and came back with a vendetta in mind, or (was it)
a manifestation of her psychosis? ... I don't know that we'll ever know
that," he said. Also found in the woman's home was a check for cash with
the notation "will," indicating San Marco left a will, "and that
may shed more light on what's happened here," Raney said. Police in New
Mexico say San Marco, who was white, distributed a publication called "The
Racist Press." The newsletter included error-laden explanations of various
religions and a confusing theory linking the U.S. government to "Son of
Sam" killer David Berkowitz, the Ku Klux Klan and racist murders.
Authorities believe that San Marco drove from New Mexico to California last
week. On Monday night, she sneaked into a Santa Barbara condominium and shot to
death her first victim, a woman who had been her neighbor several years ago and
with whom she had argued. Less than an hour later, San Marco began her rampage
at the postal plant.
7. This Postal Shooter's Bizarre Behavior
Jennifer San Marco's reputation for bizarre behavior had
resulted in her leaving the Postal Service in June 2003 after six years. She
was granted early retirement on a medical disability because of psychological
problems, the U.S. Postal Service said. But, no one suspected the ex-postal
worker would go on to commit the nation's bloodiest shooting at a postal
installation in nearly 20 years. San
Marco is also linked to the killing of a former neighbor. The body of Beverly
Graham, 54, was found in her condominium a day after authorities say Jennifer
San Marco opened fire inside the mail sorting center where she once worked.
Another woman wounded in the rampage died Wednesday, bringing the death toll to
eight, including San Marco. "The shell casings found match those found at
the postal distribution center," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson
told reporters. He said Graham's neighbors told authorities they heard the
sound of gunfire between 7:15 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Monday night. Beginning at 9
p.m., authorities said, San Marco began shooting six postal employees and
committed suicide at the Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center.
"She went through all the requisite screenings. There were no prior
indications" of problems, said Keith Blackman, a media consultant to the
Postal Service. And in the city of
Milan, New Mexico, where San Marco was a regular presence at municipal offices,
village Manager Carlos Montoya told the Los Angeles Times, "We felt she
was unbalanced." "Now violent?
I guess it crossed my mind. But just that she would slash a window or damage
property or something," Montoya said. Before becoming a postal worker, San
Marco, 44, worked as a Santa Barbara police dispatcher in the mid-1990s and
passed an extensive background check and psychological exam. She left after a
few months, not unusual for a stressful job with a high turnover rate, police
Lt. Paul McCaffrey told the Santa Barbara News-Press. The job did not include
weapons training. Acquaintances said San Marco, who was white, sometimes talked
to herself and spewed racist comments.
Former plant worker Jeff Tabala recalled that San Marco
seemed particularly hostile to Asians while working for the Postal Service. He
said all of the dead were minorities: Three were black, one was
Chinese-American, one was Hispanic and one was Filipino. It is unclear why San
Marco killed her victims, but the U.S. Postal Inspector says that "chances
are" she knew and chose her victims, CBS News affiliate KCBS reports.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said it wasn't clear if the killings
were racially motivated. It is clear the shooter had a long history of mental
problems, officials said. She had been placed on a medical leave from her
postal job for psychological problems. In 2003, Tabala said, he saw sheriff's
deputies pull San Marco out from under a mail-sorting machine and wheel her
away in handcuffs on a mail cart after a disturbance. She returned several months later but
"people started coming to me and saying, 'She's acting erratically,'"
Tabala said. "She was screaming. She was saying a lot of racist comments.
It was pretty ugly." San Marco was escorted out of the building by
management and never returned, Tabala said. "She seemed to be having
conversations and there wasn't anyone around her. She'd be just jabbering
away." Tabala said. Graham's boyfriend, Eddie Blomfield, said San Marco
would often go outside singing loudly, which led to arguments between the
women. Graham's brother Les Graham Jr. said his sister had complained about a
woman who "used to come out and rant and rave in front of her
building." Authorities in New
Mexico, where San Marco moved in 2004, also described her increasingly bizarre
behavior after she lost her job. Police were contacted about San Marco at least
twice after she was accused of harassing an office worker and appearing naked
at a gas station. She was dressed when officers arrived A deputy clerk for the
city of Milan, N.M., said San Marco applied for a business license in 2004 for
a publication called "The Racist Press" that she said she planned to launch.
"We weren't sure what she was going to do next," said Terri Gallegos,
deputy clerk for the city of Milan, New Mexico, where San Marco applied for a
business license in 2004 for a publication called "The Racist Press"
that she said she planned to launch. Another time she said she wanted to
register a cat food business. During one
meeting, Gallegos said, San Marco carried on a conversation with herself
"like she was arguing with someone but there was no one there." Last
March, office workers called authorities after the 44-year-old woman made what
Gallegos described as a rude allegation. Other times, Gallegos said, San Marco
would come in and simply stare at one employee in particular. In June, police
talked to her after someone at a gas station called to complain of nudity,
Police Chief Marty Vigil said. San Marco was dressed when officers arrived.
U.S. Postal Inspector Randy DeGasperin told reporters Tuesday that San Marco
left the mail facility on a medical leave in 2003 after her co-workers
expressed concerns she might hurt herself. "She was not making any threats
or anything of that nature," DeGasperin said. "It was more for her
safety." Authorities said it was unclear whether San Marco targeted
specific employees when she arrived at the postal center about 9 p.m. Monday.
"According to witnesses from the scene, she had a 9mm pistol and reloaded
at least once during her rampage," said Santa Barbara County Sheriff James
Anderson.
Killed were Ze Fairchild, 37, and Maleka Higgins, 28, both
of Santa Barbara; Nicola Grant, 42, and Guadalupe Swartz, 52, both of Lompoc;
and Dexter Shannon, 57, of Oxnard. Charlotte Colton, 44, of Santa Barbara, died
Wednesday after being hospitalized in critical condition. Higgins had just
returned from maternity leave about a month ago and leaves behind a baby girl
and her husband. "She was a talker. There was not a moment she was
quiet," said colleague and friend Lexi Bushnell told the Santa Barbara
News-Press. "She loved to lighten things up." Swartz was emerging
from a dark period after losing her husband, Donald, three years ago to cancer,
according to friend Darlene Skura. "She was becoming more active, starting
to get on with her life," Skura told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's
editions. Grant's neighbors said it was not uncommon to see the married mother
of two playing basketball with her children. "She was such a joy,"
said friend and neighbor Leslie Brown. "When you talked to her, she just
glowed." Police said San Marco entered the sprawling Santa Barbara
Processing and Distribution Center by driving through a gate behind another
car. She gained entry to the building by taking an employee's identification
badge at gunpoint. That worker was not hurt. Only about 80 of the approximately
300 people who work at the mail-sorting center were on hand when San Marco
arrived. Authorities said many of them fled to a fire station across the street
when the shooting began.
"I was dumping mail on a belt when the gunshots
suddenly (went) 'Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" said postal worker Alger Busante,
56, of Santa Barbara. It was the deadliest shooting at any workplace since
2003, when 48-year-old Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, at
a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Miss., before turning the
gun on himself. She died at the scene.
- Bird
