Questions remain about Melissa Rupnow, the mother of Wisconsin school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, as her social media has become private.
The parents of the 15-year-old Abundant Life school shooter are under investigation for some “negligence” they may have been guilty of that could have led to the atrocity.
Authorities raided Rupnow’s Wisconsin home after Monday morning’s tragedy, and Natalie’s father has reportedly been cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
Investigators have been trying to determine whether the mass shooter’s parents, Jeff and Melissa, had any involvement or contributed to Natalie’s actions – which killed two people and injured six before she shot herself and killed herself.
Natalie reportedly had a difficult home life and was forced to move from home to home due to her parents’ turbulent marriage.
While some information about the troubled teen has surfaced through her father’s social media presence, little is known about mother Melissa.
While father Jeffrey showed brief glimpses of his daughter on Facebook – including a disturbing image of her firing a gun – Melissa’s Facebook account appears to have gone private or deleted.
She does have a still active Pinterest account and a deleted or private Facebook with a profile photo and a photo from a trip to Florida.
Questions remain about the apparently 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 under investigation for some “negligence” they may have been guilty of that could have led to the atrocity.
On Pinterest, which hasn’t been updated in several years, there’s a pin titled “Ideas for Natalie’s Room,” many of which are Disney-inspired.
She follows about 210 accounts, including Kim Kardashian’s, and has about 90 followers herself. The profile photo is of herself with a little girl, which resembles Natalie’s Facebook photos of her father.
Rupnow’s parents married two years after her birth in 2011, according to court documents.
Mellissa had been married and divorced before, and she had another daughter, now twenty, with another man to whom she never married.
Court records showed Rupnow’s half-sister had other permanent legal guardians.
Jeff and Mellissa first divorced in 2014, where they agreed to joint legal custody of Rupnow, but specified that she would live primarily with her mother.
The couple subsequently remarried in 2017 and divorced for a 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 flipping the schedule the following week.
The parents saw 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.
Not long after Rupnow’s parents separated for the second time, the couple remarried again — but by April 2021, they had filed for a third divorce.
A judge approved it a month later, but noted that “parties [were] warned against remarriage,” according to court records.
Over a year later, in July 2022, the parents agreed that they would share legal custody of the young girl, but that she would now mostly live with Jeff.
By then, Rupnow had been enrolled in therapy, which was supposed to help her make decisions about which parent to spend her weekends with, records show.
The 2022 custody papers stated, “The parents report an overall positive co-parenting relationship and will continue to communicate with each other via text messages and phone calls.”
“We also want to look at whether the parents may have been negligent,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Monday of Natalie’s parents.
He added that the parents had cooperated and that there was “no evidence” of foul play so far.
But Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said Tuesday it’s “way too early” to say whether Jeff and Melissa will avoid charges.
Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed two people, as well as herself, and injured six others after unleashing hell at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday
Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow arrived at Abundant Life Christian School Monday morning — and just hours later, she opened fire on a study hall, killing two and wounding six others before turning the gun on herself.
“We don’t know nearly enough yet,” the mayor claimed.
Police have been investigating how the 15-year-old killer got his hands on the gun she used when she wreaked havoc at the Catholic school.
In August, Jeff shared a photo on Facebook of a child — it’s unconfirmed if it’s Natalie or not — practicing at a shooting range, wearing a shirt similar to the one worn by the Columbine shooters -school.
The teen underwent several rounds of therapy while her parents divorced and remarried several times, the newspaper said Washingtonpost.
Records showed that her therapy at the time was intended to help her decide which parent to spend weekends with.
Despite the reported family problems, Jeff’s Facebook page is flooded with seemingly happy memories of him, Natalie and Melissa.
One photo shows him and Melissa bringing 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 pictured at one of Natalie’s martial arts competitions.
Another post shows Natalie playing with two dogs in a pile of autumn leaves.
An alleged manifesto from Natalie, which police have not confirmed whether it is legitimate or not, is circulating online.
Barnes said Tuesday, “We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that was posted by someone claiming to be her boyfriend. We haven’t been able to locate that person yet, but we’re going to work on that 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 targeted in this incident and everyone was in equal 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. Her idea has not been verified by the police.
“We don’t know if her target was the original teacher or just the children in the classroom. She should have walked past the door and the door was open,” O’Connor said.