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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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$1 Million Bail Set|for Wannabe Killers

DENVER (CN) - Bail was set at $1 million for two 16-year-old girls accused of planning a massacre at Mountain Vista High School south of Denver - 10 miles down the road from Columbine High School.

Brooke Higgins and Sienna Johnson were arrested on Dec. 12, after the Douglas County Sheriff's office got a tip that Higgins had told a friend that she would text her the day of the attack, so the friend could stay home.

Johnson and Higgins are charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and will be tried as adults.

In their Jan. 14 hearing, Douglas County Deputy District Attorney Jason Siers produced several social media posts and journal entries from the girls that depict a bizarre interest in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. That massacre, perpetrated by students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, left 12 students and one teacher dead in Littleton.

Higgins wrote in her journal that she wished she had been able to carry out the shooting with Harris and Klebold, and Johnson made several online references to their favorite movie, "Natural Born Killers."

Johnson wrote in her Weebly blog that she wanted to find someone "who's got what it takes to ... make this school a living f-king nightmare ... God, Brooke and me will be unstoppable."

Johnson, who will undergo a psychological evaluation, updated her Weebly frequently before her arrest, uploading poetry, journal entries, and art, all with pained, anguished themes. A photo from one journal entry shows the repeated mantra: "I'm aching, I'm aching, I'm aching, I'm aching."

And: "I hate myself. I'd blow my head off (before happiness.) I lost feeling. I know what I'm doing."

Johnson's art features more of the same, with drawings of organs, guns, and photos of notebook scrawlings detailing obscure creatures and bloody colors. A picture of a page from her notebook depicts a nun telling a skeletal figure, "god hates you - your parents are afraid of you."

Higgins, who already has undergone a psychological evaluation, was being treated for depression before her arrest. Her attorney, Dagny Van Der Jagt, told the Denver Post that her homicidal musings were just thoughts meant to be therapeutic in nature.

"This is a thought crime, at best," Van Der Jagt said.

But the prosecution pulled search histories from Higgins' computer that suggested otherwise, including searches on Armslist.com and other gun websites, inquiries about how a minor can buy a gun, perhaps at a gun show.

Douglas County District Judge Paul King has sealed documents in the case until the girls' next hearing in March. King said in court Thursday that the searches were "problematic."

However, "The idea that the incident at Columbine is to be admired, that the people who did that are gods or heroes ..." King said. "There are parents in this city that want to make sure their kids are protected."

Higgins' attorney and the Douglas County District Attorney's Office did not immediately return telephone and email requests for comment.

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