Mom says Geneva woman who plotted mass shooting 'not capable of violence'

Lindsay Souvannarath of Geneva is brought into a Halifax, Nova Scotia, court in February 2015. Last week, she was sentenced to life in prison for commit murder. Courtesy of The Chronicle-Herald/Christian LaForce

Did growing up as a biracial child in a suburb that is 94 percent white turn Lindsay Souvannarath into the would-be killer authorities say she is?

The Geneva woman's mother and grandmother think prejudice played a large negative role in her development, according to letters they submitted to a Canadian judge at her sentencing last week.

A Halifax judge sentenced Souvannarath to life in prison April 20 for conspiracy to commit murder. She pleaded guilty a year ago to plotting a mass shooting at a shopping center with a Canadian man she met online.

An investigation revealed Souvannarath was a fan of the Columbine High School killers and believed she might be, in essence, channeling their spirits. She intended to mock her victims as she attacked them, was fascinated by Nazism, believed she was intellectually superior to most people and thought love was weakness, according to evidence that came out in court last week.

"She was a sad and lonely person who wanted very much to have friends, but was rejected by her peers," her mother, Phyllis Souvannarath, wrote the court in letters we obtained this week from Canadian authorities.

Phyllis is white; her husband is Asian.

Even as a preschooler, Souvannarath was concerned she looked different from her peers, her mother wrote.

"Stupidly, when she was seven years old we moved to a suburb that is not very diverse or tolerant. Her appearance, coupled with her unique personality, made her a target for bullying and exclusion," Phyllis Souvannarath wrote.

Her grandmother wrote that Lindsay was never invited to birthday parties or had any friends.

Souvannarath had never been violent, despite her graphic writing, her mother wrote.

"In fact, she has a distaste for violent images on TV and movies. When she visited the killing fields in Cambodia she told her father she was very disturbed by what she saw. Years earlier her first grade teacher gave a graphic and inappropriate description of the Columbine shooting that left Lindsay terrified and unable to sleep alone.

"She is still just as sensitive and is not capable of violence," her mom wrote.

A letter from Lindsay Souvannarath's mother, Phyllis Souvannarath. -

"We have a situation."

Just the words a boss wants to hear, especially on a Friday the 13th.

But that's how Geneva police Cmdr. Julie Nash was informed in February 2015 that a would-be mass murderer lived in town.

Detective Sgt. Bradley Jerdee came to her at 7:15 a.m., saying Halifax Regional Police in Canada had called. They wanted Geneva's help investigating a woman they had arrested while foiling a mass shooting plot.

Geneva police spent the rest of the day helping their Canadian counterparts gather evidence about Souvannarath, according to records now available.

Souvannarath had been arrested eight hours earlier at an airport in Halifax after police there received an anonymous tip that she was on her way to join a man she'd met online in a plot to shoot people at a shopping center.

As Geneva police investigated Souvannarath, her mother called at 10:15 a.m. to report that her daughter -- who did not have a job or a driver's license -- had been missing for the past two days.

What else we learned

The police reports contain numerous previously unknown details about Souvannarath and her life in Geneva before her arrest. Here's some of what we found:

• Souvannarath kept mostly to herself, staying in her room except for meals with her parents. She didn't speak much with them, except about the family's three dogs, police say her parents told them.

• Her mother knew "Lindsay always wrote in very dark contexts, but she saw them as an outlet rather than a warning sign," the police report said.

• Souvannarath had applied to the Peace Corps but was denied, the report said.

• It took 11 hours to prepare and obtain the search warrant that gave police permission to search Souvannarath's house. They confiscated two laptop computers, a desktop computer, an external hard drive, a keyboard, a power cord and a router, according to the police report. All items, except one laptop, came from a common office.

• "It was apparent that (her parents) were oblivious to what Lindsay did online and in her personal life. They especially did not suspect that she wished to take her own life and/or harm others," Jerdee wrote.

Synthetic marijuana, sold as incense or potpourri. - Associated Press, 2010

A Glen Ellyn woman found guilty of selling mislabeled synthetic marijuana can't remain free while challenging her sentence, a federal appellate court has ruled.

Ruby Mohsin is due to report to the U.S. Marshals Service on Tuesday to begin her two-year imprisonment for selling the drug as incense or potpourri from her Aurora cigar store in 2011.

A 19-year-old Aurora man who bought the drug from the store on June 14, 2011, died a few hours later when, authorities say, he suffered a panic attack and crashed his car into a home.

Mohsin is in part relying on a potential language barrier in her appeal. According to court documents, when she told the judge at sentencing that she had made "a grand mistake," what she was trying to express was "ghalti."

That's an Urdu word for a mistake for which one is "accepting full responsibility," her appellate lawyers write. Mohsin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, occasionally used an Urdu translator during the last day of her sentencing hearing.

The judge had cited her failure to accept responsibility as one of the reasons he sentenced her to prison.

Missing Persons Day

More than 647,000 people are reported missing every year in the U.S., and as of the end of 2016, nearly 90,000 cases remain unsolved, according to FBI data.

In a local effort to provide answers to Chicago-area residents with loved ones who've vanished, the Cook County medical examiner's office is hosting a Missing Persons Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Those with missing friends and family will be able to submit DNA samples, medical records, pictures and other information to aid in searches. Emotional support services also will be available to families.

"Our office wants to serve as a central resource for those with long-term missing friends or family," Chief Medical Examiner Ponni Arunkumar said. It's the second year the office has hosted a Missing Persons Day at its headquarters, 2121 W. Harrison St. in Chicago. Last year's event drew more than 100 people, and DNA samples were collected in 23 cases. Officials helped one family learn the fate of a missing Cicero man, who had drowned.

Other agencies taking part in Saturday's event include the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, the Cook County sheriff's office, the Chicago Police Department, Illinois State Police and coroners from throughout the region.

For more information or to register, visit cookcountyil.gov/agency/medical-examiner.

• Got a tip? Send an email to copsandcrime@dailyherald.com or call (847) 427-4483.