Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow reveal obsession with school shooters, including Columbine shooter

Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow’s chilling online posts revealed her fascination with violence and school shootings.

Recently discovered photos and online activity allegedly tied to the Wisconsin teen school shooter reveal a troubling fascination with other school shooters, including Eric Harris from the Columbine massacre. Some of the images even show her wearing a t-shirt associated with Harris’ favorite band.  

A haunting image of Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, 15, was shared on her father’s Facebook page. It shows her at a shooting range aiming a rifle while wearing a shirt from the German industrial rock band KMFDM.  

Harris had also been photographed wearing a shirt from the same band before he and Dylan Klebold carried out the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, which left 13 people dead.  

The band’s acronym, KMFDM, loosely translates to “no pity for the majority.”  

Like Harris and Klebold, Rupnow ended her rampage by turning the gun on herself. She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing a teacher and another teenage student at the K-12 Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday.  

The online posts and the image of her in the band’s shirt have sparked speculation that she may have drawn inspiration from the Columbine massacre and idolized its perpetrators, along with other notorious school shooters. Police continue to investigate her exact motives.  

An X account believed to belong to Rupnow shared a post minutes before the attack. The post featured someone making the “OK” hand gesture, a symbol linked to other school shooters, according to the Anti-Defamation League.  

The same account reportedly shared a video from the 2015 school stabbing in Trollhattan, Sweden, as well as a disturbing post shortly before the Madison shootings, showing a video of a person committing suicide at a gun range.  

Authorities told ABC News that a Tumblr account suspected to be connected to Rupnow contained images of firearms and other content related to school shootings. The profile picture appeared to be a screenshot of surveillance footage from a shooting.  

The Tumblr account also included a photo of Parkland shooter Nicholas Cruz and referenced the 2007 school shooting in Jokela, Finland, in some posts.  

Additionally, a CashApp account allegedly linked to Rupnow featured an image of the Columbine shooters.