LAWRENCE, Mass., April 25 A 17-year-old Massachusetts girl has been charged in the recent discovery of two lists appearing to threaten certain students.
The Boston Globe said that while Katie Koontz's name is on one list featuring students' names paired with threatening words, authorities in Lawrence, Mass., on Tuesday charged the Central Catholic High School junior with threatening to commit bodily harm and murder.
Those who know Koontz promptly defended her, alleging she wasn't involved in creating the lists of 10 male and 10 female students. The two lists were found in their respective gender's bathrooms last month.
"She has friends. She's not like a loner," freshman Billy Alcott said, "not like that kid from Virginia Tech." Koontz allegedly also had created a MySpace Web site on which she detailed her plans to murder several of her classmates, the Boston Herald said.
Lawrence Police Chief John J. Romero told the Globe that while police had no evidence Koontz would follow through with her alleged threat, authorities chose to err on the side of caution.
"There is a lot of emotion, a lot of fear," he said. "You want to say this is nothing, but you just can't dismiss it."
Copyright 2007 by UPI
