Elliot Rodger, the California drive-by killer, kept his hatred well hidden
California drive-by killer said he had 'no love, no friends'. But how is it no one saw the darkness in his soul and the violence about to explode?
He said it time and again - the world was a magical, beautiful place, but only in stark contrast to his small, pitiful life.
"No friends," he said one day this spring, in a video recorded on his phone. "No love."
It's tempting, now that the finale has been written, to think someone could have stepped in before Rodger killed six people and wounded 13 on May 23 before apparently killing himself; that the law could have been crafted to raise a red flag, to compel someone to act.
But according to interviews with Rodger's acquaintances, law enforcement officials and mental health professionals, all that was known about the 22-year-old college student was that he was terribly sad.
In that quiet space he planned his attack - lonely, but highly functioning; worrisome, but never explicitly threatening himself or anyone else; bumping into police, but never landing in jail; resistant to medication, but never outright rejecting care; able to articulate his misery, but conniving enough that authorities did not see a need for involuntary admission to hospital.
The writing may have been on the wall, but no one - despite the apparently diligent efforts of his family, therapists and doctors, and law enforcement - knew what it said until it was too late.