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Shooter's Girfriend Reveals Goodbye Note

By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost,
CNN
Posted: 2008-02-18 09:05:45
Filed Under: Nation News
WONDER LAKE, Illinois (Feb. 17) - The girlfriend of the gunman who killed five people and then himself at Northern Illinois University last Thursday told CNN that there was "no indication he was planning something."

"He wasn't erratic. He wasn't delusional. He was Steve; he was normal," Jessica Baty tearfully said in an exclusive interview Sunday.

Baty, 28, dated Steven Kazmierczak off and on for two years and had most recently been living with him.

"He was a worrier," she said. He once told her he had "obsessive-compulsive tendencies" and that his parents committed him as a teen to a group home because he was "unruly" and used to cut himself.

He had been seeing a psychiatrist, Baty said, and was taking an anti-depressant. But Kazmierczak had stopped taking the medication three weeks ago, "because it made him feel like a zombie," she said.

"He wasn't acting erratic," she said. "He was just a little quicker to get annoyed."

She knew he had purchased at least two guns. He told her they were for home protection.

On Valentine's Day, Baty was in class at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where she and Kazmierczak were graduate students studying criminal justice. The students began to talk about a mass shooting taking place at Baty and Kazmierczak's alma mater, NIU in DeKalb.

She didn't think much of it, and her mind drifted to where her boyfriend told her he would be that day -- with his godfather in another town in Illinois.

Tell Us

Police say Kazmierczak burst into an NIU geology class and opened fire with at least a shotgun and two handguns, killing five students while hundreds fled for their lives. Authorities were on the scene within a few minutes but by the time they reached the classroom, Kazmierczak, 27, had shot himself to death.

"The person I knew was not the one who went into Cole Hall and did that," said Baty. "He was anything but a monster. He was probably the ... nicest, [most] caring person ever."

Either the day of the shooting or the day after, Baty received a package in the mail from Kazmierczak. It was a two textbooks with what she described as a "goodbye" note, and a new cell phone.

She has no idea why he sent her a new phone, but read the contents of the note to CNN.

"You've done so much for me," the note said. "You will make an excellent psychologist and social worker someday."

He sent her another package with a gun holster and ammunition in it, Baty said. She said she has no clue why he would have done that.

Baty is haunted by a phonecall Kazmierczak made to her around midnight, the night before the slayings. "He called me at midnight and told me not to forget about him," she said.

Then, Baty said Kazmierczak told her, "Goodbye, Jessica."

Shaking and crying, her family at her side during the interview, Baty said she still loves the man she met in a hallway at NIU when they were both undergraduate students.

Like comments from teachers which have been widely reported, she said Kazmierczak was an achiever who always tried to get ahead in class and seemed committed to criminal justice issues. He planned to go to law school and she hoped to get her Phd.

"He never missed a class," she said. "He was always ahead."

Pictures of their relationship don't betray anything odd. They are scenes of the two of them smiling on Florida beaches, on golf courses and having fun at Disney World.

Police confiscated several items. Among them was a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Antichrist" which Kazmierczak sent to Baty after the shooting. The police also took Kazmierczak's copy of the "Encyclopedia of Serial Killers."

Teachers and others who knew Kazmierczak have said he was fascinated with prison culture. In 2006, when he was a student at NIU, police said, he worked on a graduate paper that described his interest in "corrections, political violence and peace and social justice."

The paper said Kazmierczak was "co-authoring a manuscript on the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States."

"I didn't think he was crazy," said Baty, sobbing. "I still love him."

CNN's Todd Schwartzchild contributed to this report.

2008-02-14 17:10:43
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21649 comments

tbhnjsurf 08:12:56 AM Feb 25 2008

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Again, if people keep rejecting Jesus Christ and his Church, these things will happen more and more and more so before you send your Godless child to one of these Godless schools (high school, college) think twice about rejecting Christ. If any parent truly loved their child, they would show them Christ and His Church.

tcmr1t 07:41:34 PM Feb 24 2008

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He must not have been that good of a person if she was in an "off again, on again" relationship with him. If he was a keeper, then she should have stayed; if he ha issues she should have gone. You don't live with someone you aren't involved with (or rather married to). Why did the police take a book that was sent to her as a gift? I've never understood it; if someone wants to end their life, go ahead; just don't take others out with you. These days normal and moral people are considered "crazy" and crazy and immoral people are considered "normal"; we need only look at the leadership to figure that out.

explicitsoul5 04:30:22 PM Feb 24 2008

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This is for the RACIST comments made about Ms. Johnnie Carr,who was 97 years old. Yet ANOTHER CRAZY WHITE BOY who goes on a murder spree!! Lol!!!

sparkster055 08:14:23 PM Feb 23 2008

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hey ...15min are up.........86' this blog.........jesus christ enough ..this is as bad as
ledger..the OD king of NYC

hunterofthepack 05:04:51 PM Feb 23 2008

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Your boyfriend was nuts.

wellraisednur 02:29:54 PM Feb 23 2008

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EVERY U.S. CITIZEN NEEDS TO KNOW THE ILLEGAL WHO KILLED OUR 4 KIDS
SHE KILLED OUR U.S.A. CHILDREN.
I AM GOING TO SCREAM AND PASS THIS ON TIME AND AGAIN UNTIL IT MAKES THE FRONT PAGES>>>>>>>>>>>>
WOMAN IN COUNTRY ILLEGALLY KILLED FOUR LITTLE KIDS!!!
SAID SHE'S FROM MEXICO, LIED ABOUT NAME, LIED ABOUT HOW SHE DID IT, FLIPPED ENTIRE SCHOOL BUS OVER, 14 MORE SENT TO HOSPITALS, STILL
THERE. SHE KILLED AMERICAN CHILDREN. SHE KILLED U.S.A. CHILDREN!
WHO IS SHE? SOLO PUERQO DIABLO!!
CARE...PLEASE CARE TO READ IT BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT WON'T SECURE OUR BORDERS..SECURE OUR BORDERS/PROTECT UR KIDS!!
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/woman-without-drivers-license-charged-in/n20080222175409990027

cwarpspeed 01:35:03 PM Feb 23 2008

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Why not worldsbestwriter, I mean the 22,000 or so people who have commented on this article. They had as many for the Jessie Davis article, only differene, it was racially motivated and most showed how much hate, they had for Blacks. Now you asked the question. Unlike Bobby Cutss, most of these people are not calling the killer hateful names. His race isn't even brought up too much. So is it "normal," for 22,000 people to stay fixated on this tragedy? I don't know, I could care less. They seem to be very mild though., in their disdain for the killer.

cwarpspeed 01:12:55 PM Feb 23 2008

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Please stop this. I think Baty is Batty. She refers to the loser as "NORMAL." Even though he spent 1 year at a hospital becaus of OCD and Multilation issues. She is as wacky as he was. I am sick of her words, and her stupid expression on the dang picture. She is a nut as well. He was a monster and nothing she can say, will change that. Those people did nothing to him, still they are dead. Aren't you going to cover other stories AOL? Enough already about this killer and this stupid so-called girlfriend. She is a loser as well.

suzanneguera 09:36:25 AM Feb 23 2008

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I HATE THAT THE MEDIA GAVE THIS LOSER A FACE AND A BIO. FREE PRESS FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE LQQKING FOR A PHOTO OP, AT ANY COST.

tarocardman 07:46:31 AM Feb 23 2008

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Coppy cats

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