Hello, I’m Mr. Anime, and boy, do I have a show for you.

Imagine that your son calls you into the garage, asking you for help. You figure it is for

another one of his YouTube videos, as you’d helped him with his skits before. When you walk through the door, you hear a loud gunshot. Suddenly the world spins away as you fall to the ground. His face looms above you, and the last thing you see in this world is your child raise the gun again.

That was the tragic end of Rhonda Sesler, who was the first victim of her son, Trey Sesler. Trey would go on to kill his brother and father. His rampage would end at Waller High School, where he had planned to kill over 70 students so that he would be the greatest mass shooter in history.

Uploading Insanity

Trey Sesler was one of the first anime reviewers on YouTube. As a founder of the genre, many other online critics cited him as their inspiration. He would review popular anime and even post up short films on his channel LensCapProductions. Some of these films would include both his brother, Mark, and his mother. While everything seemed fine to his fans at first, like with Randy Stair, cracks began to show his growing darkness.

Mr. Anime, as he was known online, would break up his reviews with more than skits. Trey was also a fan of firearms and would upload showcases of himself shooting different weapons on makeshift ranges around his hometown of Waller, Texas.

As his uploads became less and less about anime, a change in his demeanor was more noticeable. There was a distance in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Trey had been using antidepressants for years and had started drinking heavily. Mixing booze and drugs can be a dangerous cocktail.

On top of this, he’d become more and more reclusive over the years. He uploaded a video in which he compared himself to N.E.E.T.s, a derogatory term in Japan for people not involved in employment, school, or training. (He goes on to state that he doesn’t consider himself a N.E.E.T. and that the whole concept is propaganda.) His lack of success was something that put him at odds with his father, a respected teacher.

Mr. Anime Is Planning Something

Before the tragic murders, Trey began to prepare his fans for the upcoming lack of uploads. He released a video entitled Mr. Anime Is Planning Something, where he explained he would be taking a short break from reviews and thanked his fans for their continued support. Not long after that, he announced that he’d gotten a job in the film industry thanks to his work on YouTube. It is unknown if that was the truth, a delusion, or a lie.

The thing about my family is I would protect them with my livelihood… but at the same time, if anyone was going to hurt them, it was going to be me

On March 20th, 2012, he lured his mother into the garage and shot her four times with a shotgun. His brother Mark went down the hall to investigate the gunshots. Trey walked past him and retrieved a pistol from his room. He then shot his brother before making his way into his parents’ bedroom and shooting his sleeping father, Lawton, in the head.

Mark survived the first shot and managed to crawl into the bathroom and lock the door. Trey retraced his steps. He later explained to police he did this to make sure his family was dead and not suffering. He beat down the bathroom door and finished off his brother, who he’d once upon a time referred to as his best friend.

With his family dead, Trey proceeded to wreck the house. Almost as if he was in a trance, he carved confessions onto the doors. After a while, he left the home and packed up his car with over a hundred rounds of ammo and a Hi-Point model 995 carbine rifle, one of the guns used by the Columbine shooters.

He then drove to Waller Highschool, where he’d graduated just a few years before. Trey sat in the parking lot and waited. He then drove away and was later arrested by police.

Why?

That was the question police desperately wanted to know. Why? Their interrogation of Trey Sesler didn’t give them much of an answer. At times he wept, fully aware of what he’d done. Other times he seemed detached as if it had been another person who’d done the killings. Eventually, he told the police he’d killed his family to save them from the shame of what he’d planned to do, what he’d been planning to do for years.

Police found that Trey had been stockpiling weapons and planning the school shooting since he’d graduated high school. He had attended Blinn College for two years where instead of focusing on his classes, he’d been researching killers. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were favorites of his.

Trey began to practice killing by shooting stray cats and dogs, firing on buildings late at night. He spent years getting into the right headspace to pull off the largest school shooting in history so that he’d forever be remembered. The why of it, the root of his dark obsession, he never said. Nor did he ever explain why he decided against it. The only thing he ever said about why he drove away that day was it had all become “too real.”

The End

Update: Previously this section stated that Trey had died. After speaking with a former classmate for clarity on that, it was determined that Trey Sesler is alive. Updating the article to amend that.

Trey Sesler pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison on August 2nd, 2012. He expressed happiness at being in prison, telling the press he belonged behind bars. (It is of note that while he was being tried, Trey had been under suicide watch.) He is 26 years old.

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(If you enjoyed reading about Tery Sesler, feel free to check out other killers in my Human Monsters category.)

Sources

Real Life Villians

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Trey Eric Sesler

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Addendum

A commenter pointed out that another former youtuber named Anthony Powell, AKA Tony48219, killed his victim in 2009. That would predate Trey’s murders and technically make him the first youtube killer. The Tony48219 channel seems to have been deleted while Mr.Anime’s remains up.

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