An actress who voiced a cartoon character created by a Pennsylvania grocery store employee who killed three coworkers said he revealed his plans to her in an e-mail.
Laura Faverty told WILK radio in an interview posted on Friday on its Web site that 24-year-old Randy Stair sent her an e-mail less than an hour before the killings early on Thursday.
Faverty, of Dallas, Texas, said she did not see the e-mail until hours later, because her phone was not charged.
In the message, the man she knew by the pseudonym Andrew Blaze thanked her for her work and told her that by the time she read the e-mail, he would be dead.
She said the e-mail started like a suicide note, but got darker as Stair outlined “the true purpose” of his videos, the last of which was a 42-minute animated film depicting a massacre at a high school.
“It really shocked me,” Faverty said. “I never would have suspected anything like this.”
She did not say what kind of details he gave her in the e-mail. She learned of the killings from television news.
Police say Stair brought two pistol-grip shotguns to work at the Weis Market in Tunkhannock, about 241km northwest of New York City, blocked store exits and began shooting shortly before 1am. A fourth coworker escaped unharmed and called police. Stair also killed himself.
A prosecutor called Stair’s actions a mental health situation that “utterly spiraled out of control.”
Faverty said she did not think Stair was capable of such carnage, and he was always polite and formal in their e-mail interactions.
“It breaks my heart. I feel so bad for the families; I feel bad for everything,” she said. “He was just very selfish, bringing everyone into this. It’s really sick.”
She said Stair contacted her through her Web page in September last year and had seen her demo reel online. He told her he was working on “darker content,” but she said that is not uncommon with voice work and it did not raise any red flags.
“It was just another paid job for me,” she said.
She said he was pressuring her to finish the most recent job by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the community is mourning Stair’s three victims: Terry Sterling, 63, of South Montrose; Victoria Brong, 26, of Factoryville; and Brian Hayes, 47, of Springville.
Brong was a single mother of a 6-year-old boy, her landlord, Bonnie Burridge, told the Scranton Times Tribune.
“She was a model tenant and wonderful mother,” Burridge said.
Hayes’ one-time fiancee, Sandi Bales, described Hayes as an easygoing person with a great sense of humor.
She told the Times he had a 7-year-old daughter, and the girl was looking forward to spending more time with him once school let out.
“I’m heartbroken,” she said.
Sterling’s niece, Ashley Smith, described Sterling as a kind-hearted man “who would do anything for anybody.”
“Growing up, he’d take me to the store to get candy and shoes, anything you wanted. He treated me like his own daughter,” Smith said.
About 300 coworkers, friends and family members attended a vigil for the victims on Thursday night at the Wyoming County Courthouse.
Sarah Davis, a friend of Brong’s, told the Citizen’s Voice newspaper that she had messaged Brong about an hour before the shooting.
“She said she had to work until 3am. I asked her why she does that, and she replied ‘I like my job,’” Davis said.
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