The road Holly Marie Colino traveled was a tortured one, littered with bizarre social media posts, threatening graffiti inked on walls in Arizona and Rochester, and verbal assaults on strangers.

That journey, one likely darkened by mental illness, allegedly took Colino to a small parking lot in Brockport on Friday afternoon, where, police say, she pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and fatally shot Megan Dix in the head.

If true, the crime would be a rarity: a random intersection of a killer and victim who did not know one another.

Dix's reason for stopping at the parking lot on South Avenue in Brockport was innocuous: The Orleans County woman simply liked to go there for a serene lunch break and to sometimes sit in her car and answer emails on her computer tablet.

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But what possibly led Colino there is a much more scrambled saga — one that ultimately may require her life, and her apparent battles with severe mental illness, to become an open book. Law enforcement and her defense team will try to reconstruct some of that life, possibly to determine whether she is fit to stand trial.

Colino is now charged with second-degree murder in the homicide of Dix, who was shot a week before her 34th birthday.

Police allege Colino confessed to the killing. She is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing Friday, though that hearing will likely be waived as the charges are sent to a grand jury for a possible indictment.

Colino, 31, is originally from the Rochester area, but had been living in Arizona for several years, according to police. She returned only days before the homicide, according to Brockport Police Chief Dan Varrenti.

In an unusual turn on Monday, Todd Colino, a cousin of Holly Colino's, found graffiti apparently drawn by her on an a wall surrounding apartment dumpsters in Arizona, where he lives. The strange graffiti said that women who mimicked Holly M. Colino were "sex offenders." Todd Colino was sure that the graffiti was his cousin's.

Todd Colino knew that she had been spiraling downward, appearing delusional at times, and he called her brother in Rochester to discuss how to get Holly psychiatric help.

In the telephone call, Todd Colino learned that his cousin was now accused of murder.

"That was an odd chain of events, prior to us even knowing," Todd said. "Obviously, it was too late."

Contrasting images

The photos, side by side, made the rounds on social media Tuesday and Wednesday. One was a 2004 high school photo of Holly Colino — a black-and-white image from East Rochester High School. Her smile is effervescent; her dark hair stylishly draped across her shoulders. She has that yearbook visage of a teenager ready to tackle the world.

It is a promising photo.

Then there is the second photo — Colino's post-arrest mug shot. Her hair is scraggly; her chestnut-brown eyes, so brimming with life in her high school photo, are vacant.

In interviews, record searches, and reviews of Colino's ample social media presence, the Democrat and Chronicle attempted Wednesday to untangle how the smiling teenager morphed into the disturbed woman now accused of murder.

What emerged was a portrait of a young woman who left a troubled household as a teen and, to many friends, seemed to once have limitless potential. But, as the years passed, her mood darkened, and she was overtaken by delusions, apparently believing in recent months that others were stalking her and trying to steal not only her identity but also her very appearance.

Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lived with her father, Richard Colino, in East Rochester. She left home as a teenager, living with different families and friends. Richard Colino, who records show recently lived in Florida, could not be reached Wednesday.

Holly Colino was once good friends with Kaley Garman, the daughter of Linda Garman of East Rochester. Colino alternated between bubbly and "very upset" when she would come over the house to hang out with Kaley as a high schooler, Linda Garman said.

The two women lost touch years ago, she said.

Linda Garman said she was “in shock” to hear this week that Colino was charged in connection to a murder.

“Nobody likes to think that somebody they know could do such a thing,” she said.

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Though she was, according to some, a stellar student, Holly Colino dropped out of high school to support herself.

She then earned a general education development diploma, or GED, and attended Monroe Community College from spring 2005 through fall 2007, MCC officials said.

Colino earned a scholarship to attend the college but did not receive a degree.

Colino lived in Brockport from 2011 to 2014, and was enrolled at The College at Brockport for the fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters, according to a college spokesman. There was no record of her major nor a record of her living in campus housing.

A YouTube video shows Sister Helen Prejean, an internationally known death penalty opponent, speaking at the college in 2012 when she is interrupted by Colino.

"I am Holly Marie Colino ... and I can no longer listen to lies," Colino shouts, as Prejean responds calmly. Colino strides back and forth before Prejean, challenging the Roman Catholic nun, and saying, "I have been a volunteer pastor and a certified intuitive counselor."

Prejean tells the audience, "I've never faced a situation like this before." Colino is then directed to leave and, according to a college police report, "warned not to disturb an event again in the future."

Another 2012 police report shows a Brockport student alleging that she had received two threatening emails from Colino.

There was no hint of that side of Colino in what may have been her last job in Rochester, as a state-licensed unarmed security guard at O’Callaghan’s Pub on Monroe Avenue. She was there from January 2014 to June 2015, co-owner Tom O’Callaghan said.

Colino was competent and never drew a customer complaint, he said. “She was good until one day she just came in, said she needed to take some time off and that was it,” O’Callaghan said.

She moved to Arizona after leaving that position, he said.

What prompted Colino to move to Arizona was unclear Wednesday but she did have family there, including her cousin, Todd Colino, and his brother.

Todd Colino said his brother had once provided housing for Holly in Phoenix, but had to ask her to leave after she became threatening toward his brother's girlfriend.

"My brother's girlfriend had the word 'hater' keyed into the door of her car," he said. "(Holly) called people 'haters' or 'imposters' or 'identity stealers.' "

Another of Holly's cousins, Audra Colino, said that in recent years Holly "was talking in general about people who had wronged her in her life."

"You could see her mental state deteriorating," Audra, 21, said in a telephone interview from California, where she is in college.

This was a very different Holly than the one Audra remembers when she was young and lived in the Rochester area.

"She used to be my favorite cousin," she said. "We used to go to the beach and we'd get ice cream."

Holly became a confidante, someone Audra felt comfortable talking to. But, during Audra's teenage years, Holly's personality soured and became angry.

Audra said that Holly lived with her and her father while Audra was in high school. But Holly was asked to leave as her behavior turned odd.

"She started having this weird perception of me and it kind of made it scary and my dad kicked her out," Audra said. Holly accused Audra of having "obsessions," including one with makeup.

Behavior changes

Similar obsessions — strange concerns about the appearance of women and questions about whether they were trying to model themselves after her — began to manifest themselves in Holly Colino's social media postings.

The disturbing postings on Facebook attack women who she claims are trying to pilfer her identity. And in YouTube videos from the past month, she appears to stalk some individuals and wait for others to approach her, then she verbally assails them.

In one video in which she is sitting in her car, she says, “I have a license, I’m legal, to kill now."

Some of her postings indicate that she recently lost a job with an Arizona security company. She was licensed as an unarmed security guard in Arizona.

Holly Colino's relatives now find themselves wondering just how she apparently descended into mental illness.

There had been signs, especially as she grew more paranoid and began attacking individuals in the bizarre social media posts, but they could not persuade Holly to seek help.

In recent years, Holly has lived in her car and elsewhere, Todd said. Her relatives did not know where she was.

According to police, she returned to the Rochester area last week.

There are graffiti markings in different areas of the community that appear to be her handiwork. Some graffiti was found at the First Baptist Church of East Rochester, which police suspect was written by Colino.

One message on a fence in the parking lot of the Tim Hortons restaurant on Fairport Road said "Honor Holly M Colino. Kill women."

The graffiti has since been scrubbed clean.

GCRAIG@Gannett.com

Includes reporting by staff writers Patti Singer, Sarah Taddeo, Will Cleveland, Steve Orr, Sean Lahman, Justin Murphy, and Olivia Lopez.