When I first found out about this and began researching, I had found headlines like "Rap kills again" and the like. This can't be blamed on the music. 10 years ago there was a very brutal school masacare in Colorado, you know the one. Anyway, it was Marylin Manson's fault at the time, even though he never sang about killing people or raping or anything brutal like Horrorcore does.
Horrorcore has been around since the mid 90's and this is the first murder linked to it, so offically, it's not the cause.
(I know this isn't a huge revelation, it's just my first post and I'm getting my stance out there.)
You could blame it on the culture of the whole thing, sure. Sam was free to go to that show, smoke week, drink and do whatever else was being done. He was an adult. What bothers me is that there was a 16 year old girl there being allowed to do the same things, and her parents drove her there! It may sound insensitive, but the parents brought this on themselves AND their 16 year old daughter.
I've got a few buddies that listen to the stuff, and they all went to that show. In fact, I found this site because of Heroine doing detective work on my friend Kuriuz, which I gave him a heads up because this has been hard for him, he doesn't need to be tied into the plot when he has nothing to do with it.
Anyway, he said it best on the night everything was discovered by their 'community' when he said "Man... Those girls weren't doing anything to anybody. They didn't deserve this."
It's sad. It's sad that their parents let them get mixed up in this situation. (I guess Wells was an adult, legally, but still a bit young)
Now, I'm only 23 and my daughter is only 10 months old. I have a long way to go, a million things to discover and a million more problems to deal with as the years go on. But I simply cannot imagine doing what Emma's parents did. I mean, how can a pastor look/listen to this stuff and say "Sure, you can go, and i'll tag along!" Just unreal to me. It just defies al the laws of common sense, I mean, did they invite everyone back to the hotel room for a 'supervised' orgy afterwards?
I listen to all music. Althought I would say there 'genre' isn't for me, I have enjoyed some of the songs played for me. I am exposed to it quite a bit because there is a group of my friends that are very into it. I'm just not into it like they are, I enjoy music differently. I either like a song, or I don't. It's either good or it's bad. What i have found with Horrorcore is that it's something that the people involved in it can't just like. They have to love it, they have to live it. To call it a cult is a going a bit far, I think it's more like a posse, and some people like to belong to a posse.
I've been obsessed with this case mostly because of my somewhat inside knowledge of the situation and the people around it. I had an oppertunity to attend SFTW, but was unable to because I was needed at home. I was going to attend just to kind of see what it was all about, I really wish I would have now. My group that did go say they met Sam, and that they were not impressed. I don't know if that's because of the facts they know now or what, but that's what they say. They also talked of how he was 'all over some other girl' while there.
My theory on what happened at SFTW was that with him having inexperience at relationships (Probably of all kinds, not just girlfriend/boyfriend) and his deciding to engage in one across the country with a 16 year old girl probably hit a wall after the week he had spent with her prior to the show. Maybe the writing on the wall started to show back in VA, maybe on the car drive to Michigan, or maybe when they arrived and were surrounded by the Posse, she was shown more attention by dozens of other people and Sam just sort of faded into the background.
Imagine that. You take a chance on dating a 16 year old. You fly cross country, then drive to the midwest for a show then proceed to be ignored by this girl who is now being showed love for everyone. In a 16 year olds mind, I'm sure she was loving it and forgot all about Sam the moment they arrived. This probably prompted an argument, or maybe just an 'agree to disagree' kind of break up.
If I'm right, now akward would the car ride home be? What drove him to murder her after they got back? I think they got back and once he discovered the text message, he snapped. Maybe he didn't snap, just let it go until she fell asleep, then once he killed her he had to kill everyone else. Then he had to wait for his flight. where was he going to wait in VA? The house was the only palce for him.
I'm not sure if we will ever get all of the facts. I hope they come out. This kid had apparently suffered a lot in his life. He didn't 'fit in' so he had to 'get in where he fit in'. His parents weren't the lovey type, which didn't help. He was overweight, made fun of, there goes his shot at the ladies. Years of islation in his bed room playing video games, browsing the internet and just being alone. Once he found his niche, people started to notice him. He was only 20, but it must have seemed like his life was over when Emma decided she wanted something else.
The fact that a 16 year old girl would do that is probably very easy for us to understand, but his dating someone at that age tells you he didn't have a CLUE. 3, 4 maybe 5 years later, he probably doesn't do this. Probably gets away from his shyness, becomes big in the Horrorcore community and lives happily ever after. Now? He rots in prison until the day he is lethally injected, all while replaying the murders and the god forasken smell he lived with for two days.
Sad, sad story.