Friends Of Killers Share Their Thoughts After Finding Out

The Silence Was Telling

"I knew something had happened, WAYYY quieter than he usually was."

"He kept zoning out/ staring into space."

"For context it was an accident but he was scared and covered it up, not very well though because the cops found the body."

"He was suspiciously invested in the case, I was actually with him watching TV when the news announced they had found the body, he started sobbing and I was like 'dude did u know her' 'no it’s just really sad that family lost their grandma', I chalked it up to him losing his own grandma a mo. or two prior."

"It didn’t even occur to me that it happened like 2mi from his house."

"He was doing a bad job at work and kept getting distracted."

"When the police showed up at our work, they came over to him and said they had some questions to ask him and they didn’t even get another word out before he collapsed, started bawling and spilled everything out that happened."

"He confessed everything right there on the shop floor."

"It would later come out that he’d written a 2 part apology letter and put it in a ziplock bag and gone back to leave it with the body."

"They asked the front office for a document with his handwriting on it and it was a perfect match."

"There was damage to the front of his pickup along with DNA in the bumper."

"The family understood it was an accident and did feel sorry for him."

"He got off with a couple years in prison, which he only served half."

"When he got out the first thing he did was have his pickup destroyed at a junkyard."

"He said he couldn’t bare to look at anything from that night."

"He wasn’t a bad guy, it was just an accident."- DecentCupid96

Spiraling Downwards

"Not my friend but my older sister's closest friend through childhood and high school, so she was like a second sister to me."

"Both developed major drug problems starting their mid-teens."

"My sister eventually decided she couldn't have her in her life anymore for the sake of her recovery."

"Years go by and she suddenly gets arrested for killing an old lady she was shoveling snow for."

"Apparently the woman confronted her about having stolen her credit card and she beat her to death."

"There was never anything off about her."

"Just a normal teenage girl."

"Honor student, multiple sport athlete, well liked, and unlike my sister never got in trouble at school."- Iztac_xocoatl

Stages Of Processing

"He wasn’t a friend of mine, but I hung out a few times with Robert Long, who set fire to Palace Backpackers in Childers, Queensland, Australia, when we both stayed/ worked out of there."

"Fifteen people died in the fire he set.'

"I moved on in my travels two days before he set the place on fire."

"First thoughts were obviously 'Holy F*cking Sh*t!'"

"Then you fear for the people you knew and had made friends with, scared for their safety."

"Then reality hits and you realize how close you yourself were to possible death."

"Then disbelief hits, as names of those murdered start being released and you realize you knew many of them, and had worked alongside them."

"Then it gets personal."

"You follow the news nightly as he goes on the run."

"You will the police to find him."

"You hope they kill the son of a b*tch as he attempts to flee."

"And when they finally catch him and throw him in jail for the rest of his life, you say good, I hope you rot in there."

"And then you forget about it all, because you were lucky and neither you or any of your friends died."

"And then, years later, when you have kids of your own, it all comes back to you occasionally."

"Like when your kid starts talking about traveling one day and staying in backpacker hostels."- scarajones

Not Just The Fellow Outsider...

"Went to school with a dumba** we’ll call Jeff."

"Wasn’t a killer, but was always creepy af."

"He would also always say and do dumb sh*t to get a ruse out of people."

"I wouldn’t really say he was a friend, but being both kinda loser kids we hung around the same circles."

"One day, he said 'huh huh I got a lady locked in my basement huh huh'."

"It being Jeff, everyone just shrugged it off or called him a dumba**, thinking he was just being an idiot."

"1 yr later."

"News story breaks."

"Turns out him and his uncle had a lady living at their house against her will."

"No sh*t."- KFDM_guest

A Victim Of Circumstance

"Friends older brother was a loose cannon (huge understatement)."

"I'd heard how much abuse his mum, younger brother (my friend) and himself were given frequently by his mums partner (she was vulnerable mentally and physically handicapped)."

"One day his brother and mum were beaten by said partner and he snapped."

"To this day I don't feel like he is a bad person for what he done, just a young man who was failed by everything that was supposed to protect him and who felt it necessary to protect his mum and brother."

"I was sad for my friend because his brother was the only constant he really had and now he's in prison."- Tygrimus

More Troubled Than They Thought

"I was in a state-run psych ward while awaiting trial."

"I befriended a schizophrenic guy and we hung out daily."

"When he wasn't responding to the voices in his head (usually by cracking up laughing until teary eyed), he was smart, charismatic, friendly and pretty funny."

"Long story short, he got a weekend pass to spend the weekend with his family and murdered them all with a hammer."

"He also murdered the Chinese exchange student staying with them."- Panderino83

She Lived Up To Sad Expectations

"I went to school with a girl who killed someone in a car accident."

"She ran a red light and was drunk."

"Couple years later she gets out of jail and gets in a high speed chase and derails off the interstate and crashes into a dealership killing someone in her vehicle."

"I think the other passengers also passed or were seriously injured, she on the other hand was fine!"

"She was always a troubled kid back in school."

"I recently remembered her after rewatching my quinceañera video and seen her in it."- Popular_Composer_204

One Bad Decision

"My friend's younger brother (teenager at the time) got so high he thought he was invincible."

"He decided he had to test it, so he got in his car and drove into oncoming traffic."

"Hit a minivan head-on and killed a whole family."

"He always seemed like a normal kid."

"Now he's in jail for a long, long time."- Veritas3333

Still Processing

"We had a family friend that I knew."

"He was more my dad's friend but helped out our family with things."

"I also knew his stepson since we had been in school since elementary together though we didn't talk to each other much."

"About 7 years ago my dad told me he had some bad news and that the family friend had strangled his wife to death with a cell phone charging cord."

"After that I kind of just didn't interact with the guy or the step son."

"The step son was in ranger school at the time and last I knew refused to move back to Iowa as he was worried he might kill the man who took his mother's life away."

"It felt and still kind of feels weird."

"I technically knew the victim as well."

"She was pretty nice and I liked chatting with her and how her son and I acted in elementary."

"I think that's what makes it so weird is knowing both of them."- Kain9wolfy·

People have a way of surprising you.

Sadly, not always in a good way.