When members of the Geneva High School role playing club asked 16-year-old Lindsay Souvannarath to choose a character they were expecting an elf, a sorceress or perhaps a female warrior.

But the shy, clean-cut teenager opted for a rather more unsettling choice, presenting them with a detailed pencil drawing of her chosen persona - the 'Nightmare Nazi'.

The trench coat, jackboots and gas mask were unmistakably those of an SS soldier; the skeletal hands clutching a vast dagger more akin to dark fantasy art.

Despite the reservations of her peers and the presence of a supervising teacher, Souvannarath's ghoulish storm trooper was adopted into the fold and she morphed into the character for months.

More astonishing still, her sinister drawing made it past school censors and appeared in the 2008/09 yearbook alongside a photo of Souvannarath smiling and socializing with members of the 'Playin' Around' gaming club.

Seven years later, the goth graduate is one of three people suspected of plotting a Valentine's Day massacre at a Canadian mall inspired by the Columbine killings.

Sinister: The Nightmare Nazi (left) was the persona Lindsay Souvannarath (right) adopted when she joined her high school role-playing club. It entered the high school yearbook without its overtones being noticed

In court: Lindsay Souvannarath arrives at provincial court in Halifax, Canada, on Tuesday as she and Randall Steven Shepherd, are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, allegedly plotting a Valentine's Day mass shooting at the Halifax Shopping Center

School group: Lindsay Souvannarath (center) with other students at Geneva High School's role-playing group, including Kevin Vekony (pictured). They expressed surprise at the persona of the Nightmare Nazi which she took on for their games. The presence of the word 'Aryan' above her is thought to be coincidental

Randall Shepherd, 20, of Nova Scotia, is facing a possible life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder while a third alleged conspirator, James Gamble, 19, shot himself as police moved in to arrest him last Friday.

Daily Mail Online can today reveal the full extent of Souvannarath's shocking descent into violence, white supremacy and neo-Nazism - and how school authorities failed to step in despite her increasingly disturbed behavior.

She was raised in the leafy Chicago suburb of Geneva by her insurance worker dad Chanthaboun Souvannarath, 53, originally from Vientiane, Laos, and his partner Phyllis Zboril, 53.

Mrs Zboril, who runs a dog training business from the couple's four-bedroom, $320,000 home, also has a 20-year background of working with at-risk kids.

Neither has commented on their daughter's alleged plan to storm a mall and shoot dead shoppers, Mr Souvannarath only repeating 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry' when approached by Daily Mail Online.

Former classmates at Geneva High recall Lindsay Souvannarath as a shy, withdrawn youngster, who had few friends and instead sought out after-school groups and writing clubs to express her creative side.

But she was also prone to bouts of anger and violence - allegedly stabbing another student with a pencil in one outburst and occasionally letting slip an alarming infatuation with the Third Reich.

Parents: Chan Souvannarath and his wife Phyliss Zboril (pictured) have not spoken about their daughter's arrest. They are pictured here for the first time

Respectable: The family live in Geneva, Illinois, on the outskirts of Chicago

Suburban upbringing: Lindsay Souvannarath went to the local hich school in Geneva but went from being simply a shy student described as 'funny and intelligent' to creating a persona living in a 'dark, Nazi universe'

While at the local high school Lindsay Souvannarath had a reputation for being 'weird'

Former student, Kevin Vekony, 21, role played with Souvannarath for three years after joining the RPG [role playing game] club as a freshman.

'On first impressions I didn't think there was anything too strange about her,' he told Daily Mail Online.

'She could be funny and intelligent but most of the time she was quiet and not very warm or outgoing.

'One year her character was a sort of Wonder Woman-type heroine, then all of sudden she tells the group she wants to be a Nazi ghost.

'You choose your species and come up with a back story. Hers was that her character was a guest from a crazy, dark Nazi universe.

'It's supposed to be a game in a medieval, fantasy setting but she would just argue if she didn't get her way.

'So we went on our quest with a robot, a couple of elves, wizards and this weird Nazi.

'Aside from the character's background he didn't do anything racist or too alarming. We didn't know about her interests at that time so we just got on with it.

'It didn't seem harmful but looking back that was the first sign there was something seriously wrong.

'We had a sponsor and they had to be in the room to make sure we didn't yell or swear. But I guess they didn't really turn an ear to our world because there's a lot technical nerd-ery going on.'

Another member, Sabrina Szigeti, 23, was horrified when the school's yearbook committee reproduced the image of Souvannarath's 'Nightmare Nazi' on a page devoted to the group's games.

'I remember when the yearbook came out everyone in the RPG group was shocked that it was in there,' she told Daily Mail Online.

'It's created by the students but the teachers are supposed to supervise what goes in.'

Ms Szigeti recalled how Souvannarath began to idolize black-death metal bands in her mid-teens.

She became particularly infatuated with Varg Vikernes, a white supremacist musician convicted in 1994 of killing a rival guitarist and burning down three churches in Norway, describing him as 'cute' and writing essays about him.

The two girls were in the same creative writing after-school club, where Souvannarath asked Sabrina to peer-edit her work.

'Her work was always dark and full of violence, there were soldiers and Nazis and all this weird stuff,' Sabrina said.

'She acted normal on the surface. She was never physically violent but she would get aggressive and upset if you criticized her.

Lindsay Souvannarath, pictured, from Illinois was planning a massacre with two online Canadian friends

Suicide: James Gamble, 19 is dead after their alleged shooting plot was foiled by police

Co-accused: Randall Steven Shepherd, 20, raises his hands after having handcuffs removed as he arrives at Halifax Provincial Court in Halifax

Neither Souvannarath nor Shepherd appeared to acknowledge the other at a courthouse hearing Tuesday. Two sheriff's deputies sat between them

'Everyone was uncomfortable but we just avoided trying to start a fight with her. 'If you asked her straight up 'are you a Nazi?' she would argue that she wasn't.

'After she graduated from high school she dropped any pretense and more or less admitted it.

'She claimed to be dating my brother for a while but he didn't see it that way. She didn't have any boyfriends or any proper friends.'

Souvannarath's dark infatuation deepened online as she became active on numerous websites and forums for neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

She is thought to be behind numerous sketches, poems and blog entries lauding Hitler and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

As far back as 2007 - when she was just 15 - she allegedly wrote 'free speech is dead' in one forum, adding: 'That's why we need people like David Duke to bring it to life again.'

In another warped entry, writing that same year under the pseudonym Snoopyfemme she wrote: 'They use sex in commercials all the time to sell products. Why don't they ever use violence?

'Wouldn't you love to see a bunch of guys tearing each other apart with machine guns to get a bowl of Cheerios?

'Sure, it might traumatize our children, but in my opinion, children aren't being traumatized enough.

'The only reason for Americans to breed is to create more soldiers to fight for freedom. We need to weed out the weaklings early on. Survival of the fittest, man.'

After graduating high school Souvannarath went to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to study creative writing where lecturers expressed similar misgivings about her work.

'She knew how to put together a sentence and she had a command of detail,' college Professor Charles Aukema told the Chicago Tribune. 'Sometimes, it was pretty sick detail.'

Souvannarath's more recent content can be found on her Tumblr blog, posted beneath a pink Swashtika and the title 'school shooter chic'.

It was there that she hinted at her foiled mass murder plot, writing last Wednesday: 'Valentine's Day. It's going down.'

Her arrest two days later shocked the world but did not surprise former classmate, Lexie Tomchek, who knew her from both middle and high school.

Miss Tomchek, would go on to become famous herself - but for very different reasons - when she became a contestant on America's Next Top Model in 2010.

She told Daily Mail Online: 'From Middle School there was no time when she was normal. She was very, very weird.

Shocked: Sabrina Szigeti (second from left) was horrified when the yearbook reproduced the 'Nightmare Nazi' drawn by Souvannarath (fourth from left) as teachers were supposed to supervise the yearbook

Fellow pupil: Lexie Tomcheck, who appeared on America's Next Top Model, said: 'She was very odd to the point among a lot of our classmates that no-one was surprised by her arrest. She was a very lonely person.'

'She was very odd to the point among a lot of our classmates that no-one was surprised by her arrest.

'She was a very lonely person - but she isolated herself. 'From what I remember she was even suspended for stabbing someone with a pencil in middle school.'

Miss Tomcheck says she found herself defending Lindsay when she was picked on by other students, sometimes because of her unusual dress sense, often disheveled look and bright red lipstick.

'Now I am kind of regretting defending her because of all this,' she added.

'She was known for putting spells on people. She would do it by saying weird things and then putting on a curse - obviously we did not take her seriously.

'She would break out into laughter in the middle of class for absolutely no reason.

'When we saw that Lindsay did something like this, nobody was surprised. She was the one most likely.'

Souvannarath is currently in a Canadian jail after appearing in court Tuesday to answer charges of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit arson, possession of weapons for a purpose dangerous to the public peace or for committing a criminal offense, and unlawfully conveying through social media a threat to cause bodily harm or death to members of the public.

Souvannarath had posted a chilling warning on her Tumblr account predicting the massacre

Souvannarath's writing is understood to be very disturbing and features stories about serial killers

Her peers are convinced that more should have been done at a young age to prevent her path toward infamy.

They say teachers must have seen numerous instances of her warped behaviour and dark writings and question why nothing was done.

'The school should have known but no one stepped in and did anything,' said Mr Vekony.

'No-one checked on her activities, no-one was alarmed by her behaviour. 'At Geneva we had a big focus on art and freedom of speech, so long as it wasn't sexual or explicitly gory then anything goes.

'So people would draw monsters and demons and that kind of stuff. 'Lindsay obviously needed some professional help, I don't know if she got that help at home but she didn't get it at school. 'Nobody stopped her mind from melting. She rotted inside as a person and she just kept on rotting.

'By the time she left school it was too late - the critical juncture was at high school.'

The Geneva School District said it was unable to release information or discuss allegations involving a specific student because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Illinois Student Records Act.

In a written statement, it said: 'This situation is unfortunate and comes as a shock to the Geneva School District and the community at large.

'Geneva Community Unit School District 304 cares deeply about the social and emotional needs of its students and strives to provide a robust set of supports to any child who demonstrates concerning or problematic behaviors.

'The district provides classroom instruction based on Illinois' social and emotional learning standards and has a team of child psychologists, social workers, and school counselors available to students at all times.