# 38: Youtube Popstar Murdered At Her OWN Concert

An episode of [Outlore with Eleanor Neale](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1682504024), 24 Aug 2023, 56 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/105f723ac/podcast/play/103880365/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-5-9%2F401851648-44100-2-d09e180cadb19c41.mp3

Today's episode is on The Voice star Christina Grimmie who started her music career as a youtuber - sharing covers of her favourite songs just like other superstars like justin bieber and selena gomez. But when an obsessed stalker fan turned up to her meet and greet, he decided to murder his favourite popstar at the merch table. The Christina Grimmie Foundation - https://christinagrimmiefoundation.org/ Trigger Warning: stalking, cancer, suicide Resources: https://linktr.ee/usualdisclaimer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

## Transcript

[0:05] Hello everyone, and welcome to Usual Disclaimer with Eleanor
[0:09] Neil, a true crime podcast where we crack open some of the most
[0:12] notorious cases in history. Given the topics that we'll be
[0:16] investigating, it goes without saying that this show comes with
[0:20] a content warning. The details can get a bit heavy
[0:23] and you might find some of the themes we discuss triggering.
[0:26] Listener discretion is strongly advised and check the
[0:29] description for some resources and further information.
[0:38] Quickly, before I get into the case, I just want to give my
[0:41] usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no disrespect to
[0:44] anyone that I talk about in this video.
[0:46] This video is for educational purposes and everything that I'm
[0:49] about to say is just information that myself and my team have
[0:53] found on the Internet and have compiled into this one video.
[0:56] There are a couple of content warnings for this case.
[0:59] The topics include stalking, cancer, and suicide.
[1:02] So today's case takes place in Orlando, FL in 2016, a very
[1:08] recent one again, and I'm sure a lot of you actually remember
[1:11] this one happening. That summer, 22 year old singer
[1:14] Christina Grimmie was wrapping up an American tour as the
[1:17] support act for a band named Before You Exit.
[1:20] She'd had such a great time on this tour.
[1:23] She loved performing, she loved singing, she loved hearing her
[1:27] fans sing the words back to her. She loved going out of the
[1:30] venues after the concerts to go and meet the fans on the street.
[1:34] She was really happy with her life and really, really happy
[1:38] with this career that she was paving for herself.
[1:41] Christina had always been really, really into music.
[1:44] Ever since she was a tiny baby, she had been in the church
[1:47] choir. She even taught herself to play
[1:49] a piano, taught herself. I don't know how you do that,
[1:52] especially as a child, but she managed it.
[1:55] And she was just so into music. She grew up in New Jersey with
[1:58] her parents Bud and Tina, and she also had an older brother
[2:01] named Mark OR Marcus. He it's both but for some reason
[2:05] my brain interchanges those so if that gets confusing.
[2:09] Mark and Marcus are the same person and he was like
[2:13] Christina's best friend because there wasn't that much of an age
[2:16] gap between them. He was only like just over a
[2:19] year older than her. So of course they were very
[2:21] close in age. They had a lot of similar
[2:23] interests and one of them, like most fondest memories of
[2:28] childhood was playing video games together.
[2:31] They both loved playing video games, especially Super Mario,
[2:34] and actually when they grew up and became adults, they decided
[2:38] that they wanted to get matching tattoos.
[2:40] And it was those memories of playing Super Mario at home
[2:44] together that led to them getting matching tattoos.
[2:46] That said, player 1 and Player 2, which I think is really cute.
[2:49] Although Christina's childhood hadn't always been smooth
[2:53] sailing. I mean, don't get me wrong, they
[2:55] were a very happy family and they always loved and supported
[2:59] each other. They were always there for each
[3:01] other. Their actual family unit was
[3:03] great, but things had been tough for the whole family, but
[3:07] especially Tina, the mother who had been diagnosed with breast
[3:11] cancer. She'd been through countless
[3:13] rounds of chemotherapy and just different treatments to try to
[3:17] bring it under control a little bit more, and it was working to
[3:22] a degree. It was helping to prolong her
[3:25] life and to make her quality of life better for longer.
[3:29] But they knew it wasn't. It wasn't a complete solution.
[3:34] It wasn't a complete cure. But even though life could be
[3:37] quite difficult for the Grimmie family, they all somehow had a
[3:41] smile on their face. They all kept going.
[3:44] They all kept achieving their dreams and just being this
[3:47] wonderful little family unit. The Grimmie family were
[3:50] Christian, and this actually really influenced Christina all
[3:53] the way through her life. Her first tattoo here on her arm
[3:57] was actually a quote from her favorite scripture.
[3:59] It said all is vanity. She started started getting into
[4:02] singing and piano at the age of 6 and her parents really helped
[4:06] her. Once she'd started like teaching
[4:08] herself to play a piano, her dad went and got a piano lessons.
[4:12] They really, really supported their daughter every step of the
[4:15] way. They recognized that she had raw
[4:19] talent even as a little girl. Like to be able to teach
[4:23] yourself to play a piano, that shows that this kid was gifted,
[4:27] very musically gifted. And her parents knew that this
[4:31] was her passion, and they wanted to help fuel that for her.
[4:36] As she grew up, Christina would record videos of herself singing
[4:40] in her bedroom, and she wouldn't show them to anyone, really.
[4:43] I mean, she started showing them to friends and family after a
[4:45] while, but at first, these videos were just for her own
[4:50] improvement purposes. She would watch them back and
[4:53] see what she could do better, what she could do differently
[4:56] where she was kind of weaker in places.
[4:59] She was really, really serious about her music.
[5:03] And it was when she started showing these videos to friends
[5:06] and family and they were just so amazed by her talent.
[5:10] They were like, put these out there.
[5:13] People need to see these. And that's why YouTube comes in.
[5:16] In the mid to late 2000s, YouTube was just starting to
[5:19] pick up. Well, it had been picking up for
[5:21] a while, but videos were just starting to go viral.
[5:25] As we know a viral video today. You had all them classics at the
[5:28] time like Charlie bit my finger and Chocolate Rain, Nyan cat,
[5:33] Charlie the Unicorn. Why was everyone called Charlie?
[5:36] But yeah, videos were starting to get like millions of views.
[5:40] You viral YouTube videos became a thing in the mid 2000s.
[5:44] YouTube slogan at the time was Broadcast Yourself, which I
[5:48] think sums up YouTube or especially at that time really,
[5:52] really well. Because normal people couldn't
[5:56] really be entertainers. You had to know someone in the
[5:59] film industry or the TV industry to be able to, like, perform, to
[6:03] be able to be someone. But with YouTube, all you needed
[6:06] was a camera and an Internet connection.
[6:09] And you can make your own entertainment.
[6:11] You can be an entertainer. It's very homemade, Yeah, but
[6:15] people can make things and put them out there.
[6:18] That was a brand new like concept at the time.
[6:21] In the mid 2000s, some of the most popular genres of videos
[6:26] were singing covers and comedy skits.
[6:28] They were completely taken over YouTube and Christina found
[6:32] herself making both. One day, one of her friends came
[6:35] up to her and showed her a video of a girl singing on YouTube.
[6:38] And this video had gone viral. It had like loads of views.
[6:42] This girl was getting loads of subscribers.
[6:44] And the friend was like, Christina, you're better than
[6:46] this girl. If this girl can get all these
[6:49] views and all these fans and all these lovely comments, imagine
[6:52] what you could get. And Christina was like, you know
[6:56] what, You're right. She realized that this could
[6:58] actually be an excellent opportunity for her.
[7:02] This was a brand new way to put yourself out there and get
[7:05] yourself noticed. So that night she went home and
[7:09] she created her YouTube channel, which was called Zelda X Love
[7:12] 64. Christina's first ever YouTube
[7:15] video was a cover of Don't Want to Be Torn by Hannah Montana.
[7:18] She posted it on July 17th, 2009 and the video was an overnight
[7:24] success. Christina woke up the next day
[7:27] to thousands of views, hundreds of comments from kind strangers
[7:31] that loved her voice and wanted to hear more of her voice.
[7:35] They were commenting, asking for more, so she gave them more.
[7:39] The next upload was a week later.
[7:41] This time she covered Party in the USA and when that one was
[7:45] posted, it was met with even more positivity than the last
[7:48] one. And so now Christina really got
[7:51] a bug for it. She was really enjoying making
[7:53] YouTube videos, and she decided to make them a weekly thing.
[7:58] Very quickly, Christina Grimmie cultivated a huge audience of
[8:03] very loyal and loving followers. She actually called her fans her
[8:07] friends. You know how people used to have
[8:10] like fandom names like Arianators and Beliebers?
[8:16] Hers were just her friends, which I think is so cute.
[8:20] I think that's that's so YouTube, isn't it?
[8:22] Because you do feel so much more, I don't know, on a friend
[8:26] level with Youtubers than you feel with Ariana or Justin
[8:30] Bieber. I just think that's really,
[8:31] really sweet. And it, it shows how she saw her
[8:34] audience as well. She didn't see them as an
[8:37] audience. She saw them as a group of
[8:39] friends that came to listen to her sing once a week and say
[8:42] something nice about it. Her fan base grew really, really
[8:46] quickly because like I say, they were very, very loyal and they
[8:49] were very proud of Christina. So they would share her videos
[8:53] around all over the Internet and get them circulating, get new
[8:56] people watching them. Her audience was growing
[8:59] literally by the hour. And all of this was so exciting
[9:03] for Christina. She was about 15 years old at
[9:06] this point and nothing like this would ever happen to her before.
[9:09] She was getting so giddy. And everyone else was happy for
[9:13] her, obviously, but her parents couldn't help but be a little
[9:17] bit nervous about it because it is the Internet after all.
[9:21] And this was the mid 2000s. And parents were scared of the
[9:24] Internet and of children putting themselves out on the Internet
[9:27] and who could be seeing that and who could be talking to them.
[9:30] And, you know, it's, it's a bit of an unnerving feeling for a
[9:34] parent that your 15 year old daughter has all these people
[9:37] watching her. You don't know who those people
[9:39] are. You don't know if some of them
[9:41] are creepy men looking at her with weird intentions and not
[9:45] just to hear her sing. So for that reason, her mother
[9:48] and father, I think it was more so her dad, Bud.
[9:50] He started monitoring her comment sections.
[9:53] He wanted to know what people were saying.
[9:55] He wanted to know who was watching his baby daughter.
[9:58] But when he went to that comment section, he was overwhelmed with
[10:03] how much love there was for Christina.
[10:06] There were so many, especially young girls, teenage girls
[10:10] commenting about how Christina had helped them through a hard
[10:13] time and they're they're going through something at the moment,
[10:16] but they just put her videos on and it it takes them somewhere
[10:19] else. And her dad was just sore, proud
[10:24] of his daughter and so happy for her that she was doing the thing
[10:27] that she loved the most. And she was helping people.
[10:31] Like, that is a best case scenario.
[10:33] Isn't that what everyone wants to do with their lives?
[10:35] Something that they love and that other people love?
[10:37] And it was more than just her voice that people loved about
[10:41] Christina Grimmie. A lot of the reason that she had
[10:44] such a loyal fanbase was because she was just a lovely person as
[10:48] well. Like in the intros of her videos
[10:50] before she started singing, she'd be all like silly goofy
[10:54] mood, you know, very relatable, very very sweet.
[10:57] She would chat to her subscribers.
[10:59] She wouldn't just go on and sing and then leave.
[11:01] Like she actually cared. She cared to have a two way
[11:04] dialogue with her friends. People warmed to her for so many
[11:08] different reasons. She was just very easy to love.
[11:11] As Christina's videos snowballed in views, they managed to catch
[11:16] the attention of one very important person, a lady named
[11:19] Mandy Teefee. You might recognise that name if
[11:22] you're a Selena Gomez Stan because that's her mum.
[11:26] Mandy TV is Selena Gomez's mum. Selena Gomez's mum was the
[11:30] person that discovered Christina Grimmie on YouTube all the way
[11:34] back then. Mandy was a former actress and
[11:37] after she finished like acting and being on the screen, she
[11:41] decided to go into the behind the scenes of the showbiz
[11:44] industry. She was a manager now and of
[11:47] course when she saw Christina's videos, she was like, I want to
[11:50] manage her. She's amazing.
[11:52] Like she really wanted to find Christina.
[11:55] She tried to find her actually online other than YouTube and
[11:58] she wasn't having much success. So she went to her husband who
[12:02] was also a manager. I think they kind of worked
[12:04] together on this like behind the scenes entertainment stuff.
[12:06] And she was like, please help me find this girl.
[12:10] We need to we need to manage this girl.
[12:12] We need to make her someone. The first video that they saw of
[12:15] hers was a cover of My Heart Will go on by Céline Dion.
[12:19] And they were just flawed. Like Selena saw it.
[12:21] She thought it was amazing as well.
[12:23] So when this offer find finally arrived at Christina's door,
[12:27] when they finally managed to like track her down, I think
[12:29] they emailed her brother Mark. And once she heard this offer,
[12:34] it was a total no brainer for her.
[12:35] I mean, of course this is Selena Gomez's mum.
[12:38] She knows what's good and what's not.
[12:40] So with that, Mandy and Brian, her husband, were Christina
[12:44] Grimmie's managers and this absolutely skyrocketed
[12:48] Christina's career. One of the first gigs that they
[12:51] managed to get her was as a support act on Selena Gomez U.S.
[12:56] tour. She did AUS tour with Selena
[12:58] Gomez in the scene. Do you remember the scene that
[13:00] band that she used to have with her?
[13:02] I miss Selena Gomez in the scene.
[13:03] This was such a huge life changing opportunity for
[13:07] Christina. She would be in front of
[13:10] hundreds of thousands of potential fans just waiting to
[13:15] discover her. But all of this excitement about
[13:18] the tour was short lived because unfortunately Kristinas mother
[13:23] was just way too sick to be able to come with her.
[13:27] And that also meant that her dad couldn't come with her because
[13:31] he would have to stay at home and look after her mother.
[13:34] So she had no one to take her on this tour.
[13:38] And because she was a minor, she needed someone over the age of
[13:41] 18 with her at all times to supervise her across the US.
[13:45] But lucky for Christina, her brother Mark was eligible.
[13:49] He was over 18 and he was a musician.
[13:53] This was perfect for him. He would love to go on tour.
[13:55] So Marcus very kindly put his life on hold for a couple of
[13:59] months to take his sister touring the US to go and achieve
[14:04] her dream dreams. The two of them had so much fun
[14:06] together on this tour. Mark was kind of like her tour
[14:10] manager and he would also perform in her band because he
[14:13] could play the guitar. So they'd both be on stage at
[14:17] the same time, which I think is so sweet that they got to share
[14:21] that. The whole tour was a blast and
[14:23] coming out of it, Christina was more motivated and inspired and
[14:27] passionate than ever, and she was eagerly awaiting her next
[14:31] big opportunity, which came in 2013.
[14:34] This time Selena Gomez was going on tour again, but on her own.
[14:38] This time. She ditched the scene and it was
[14:40] just the Selena Gomez U.S. tour. And once again, Christina
[14:44] Grimmie was invited along to be a support act.
[14:47] Christina and Selena became really, really close through
[14:51] this whole time. There's like videos and photos
[14:53] of them online because obviously Christina would make these
[14:56] funny, goofy little YouTube videos and every now and again
[14:59] Selena would be in the background and Christina would
[15:01] turn a laptop and Selena would just be like walking by
[15:04] something. They got on really, really well
[15:06] clearly. And Selena really, really
[15:08] believed in Christina's talent. She thought she was amazing,
[15:13] hence why she asked to get her back for tour once again because
[15:17] Selena's fans loved Christina and so did Selena.
[15:21] Christina was doing some really cool stuff through the years.
[15:24] Like in between these tours, she went on the Ellen Show, she
[15:28] opened a show for the Jonas Brothers.
[15:30] She was in an episode of so random.
[15:32] You know how they, you know, sunny weather by the chance the
[15:34] Disney Channel show when they made so random like an actual
[15:38] separate show, like a skit show, and they used to have musical
[15:41] performers. She was on that.
[15:42] I never knew that, but she was on that.
[15:44] I've watched all of those, so I've probably seen that.
[15:53] It was around this time that Christina's whole family moved
[15:57] from New Jersey to LA so that she could be closer to the pulse
[16:02] of the entertainment industry. And this was a really big,
[16:05] difficult decision for the family to make.
[16:07] I mean, obviously her mother was very, very ill.
[16:10] And they would be moving from all of their home comforts, all
[16:15] of their extended family, everything that they know in New
[16:19] Jersey. They were just going to leave it
[16:20] all behind for LA. And that was something that her
[16:23] mother never wanted to do. She never wanted to leave New
[16:26] Jersey. She loved New Jersey, she loved
[16:27] her life, but she could see how important this dream was for
[16:33] Christina. And that was more important to
[16:36] Tina than her home comforts and living in the house that she
[16:41] liked in New Jersey. She wanted to see her daughter
[16:44] achieve her dreams and go touring and become this super
[16:49] powerful superstar. And that was enough for Tina.
[16:53] You know, she no longer wanted to stay in New Jersey.
[16:56] If LA was the place that her daughter needed to be, then that
[16:59] was where they were going to be. So they all moved to LA.
[17:02] And around the same time, this was when Christina hit 2 million
[17:05] subscribers on YouTube, which in today's, uh, economy, YouTube
[17:10] economy, that's kind of, well, I mean, I have two million.
[17:14] It's not as hard to get. Now, back in the day, 2,000,000
[17:18] would have been about 6 or 7,000,000 today into in today's
[17:22] money with the inflation of YouTube subscribers.
[17:25] But yeah, back then there were less people on YouTube.
[17:27] So 2 million subscribers meant more than two million today.
[17:32] Christina was getting quite frankly, too famous for public
[17:37] school. Umm, this was back in New Jersey
[17:40] when she moved to LA. She was homeschooled for this
[17:42] exact reason. But back in New Jersey, the kids
[17:46] at her school reacted to her fame very differently and in
[17:50] very jarring ways. So there was, there was a group
[17:53] of people that thought it was cool and just were happy for
[17:56] her. And that's what you want
[17:57] everyone to be really, isn't it? But there were two other further
[18:01] ends of this scale. There were people that like,
[18:04] thought her followers were really, really cool and like
[18:08] wanted to use her and wanted to be posted and wanted to be
[18:11] shouted out, you know, people that were going to use her for
[18:14] what she has created. And on the other end of that,
[18:17] there were people that thought she was really weird for posting
[18:19] videos on YouTube. They would make fun of her.
[18:21] They would think it was stupid. Trust, I've seen all ends of
[18:24] that scale. So there was that reason that
[18:26] she was homeschooled, but also being homeschooled made it so
[18:29] much easier for her to follow her dreams when she didn't have
[18:33] to spend most of her week in school.
[18:36] She could get her education but also write songs and perform and
[18:40] go on tour and she was doing so much cool stuff.
[18:43] I already told you about a load of it.
[18:44] But there was even more that came when she moved to LA.
[18:47] Like she helped to write a song with Dove Cameron for the Disney
[18:51] Channel show Liv and Maddie, which is really cool, a Disney
[18:54] Channel song. She also wrote her own EP and an
[18:57] album. Her album was called With Love
[19:00] and it peaked at 101 on the Billboard charts.
[19:03] She did write most of the album herself, but Avril Lavigne
[19:06] actually has writing credits on Christina Grimmie's album, which
[19:10] again, really, really cool. I can't imagine how fun it must
[19:14] have been to be Christina Grimmie and to be such an
[19:16] aspiring and passionate musician and to get all of these
[19:20] opportunities at such a young age, in your late teens, your
[19:23] early 20s, She was, she was really living the dream.
[19:27] But her biggest break was still yet to come when she went on The
[19:30] Voice in 2014. I'm sure most of you do know
[19:34] what The Voice is and the whole concept of that show, but for
[19:36] someone that doesn't watch The Voice, I actually had to
[19:38] research that. So I'll tell you just in case
[19:41] you don't know. So obviously it's ATV singing
[19:44] competition, but not like The X Factor.
[19:47] I'm used to The X Factor where there's like they have good
[19:50] singers and then they throw in a couple of shit ones and it's
[19:53] supposed to be like comedy value and you're supposed to laugh at
[19:56] the people a bit about it singing.
[19:57] It's actually really mean when you think about it.
[19:59] But The Voice isn't like that. They don't do like the comedy
[20:03] value thing. Like they only have good singers
[20:06] on there to compete against each other to find the best one.
[20:09] Like it's a serious competition. They actually invite you to
[20:13] audition for the voice. You can't like apply.
[20:16] It's not open to the general public.
[20:18] They invite you to audition if they think you're a good enough
[20:20] singer for the voice. The first audition is called a
[20:23] blind audition because the judges, there's 4 judges and
[20:27] they're not allowed to see the person that's singing.
[20:30] So all of their chairs are like turned to the audience and the
[20:34] singer is behind them on stage singing their little heart out.
[20:37] And basically when they decide that they like that singer and
[20:40] they want to give them a yes, they press a button and their
[20:43] chair turns around. Actually quite a cool concept
[20:45] because then they can't be swayed by like the persons looks
[20:49] or their stage presence or anything.
[20:52] Nothing. The only thing that matters to
[20:54] these judges is the voice that they are hearing.
[20:57] The voice. I just understood it.
[21:00] And basically once the judges turn their chairs round, that's
[21:03] like getting a yes, however many chairs the singer has turned
[21:07] round at the end, they can choose from those judges to make
[21:11] one of them their mentor for the rest of the competition.
[21:14] So there it is a little bit like X Factor.
[21:16] You know what, I think I just explained that in the most
[21:18] confusing way possible. I'm sure you already knew what
[21:21] The Voice was, but just in case you like me and you don't watch
[21:23] TV and don't know what the Voice is.
[21:25] So when Christina auditioned for The Voice, she did another Miley
[21:29] Cyrus classic. She did Wrecking Ball, and she
[21:32] absolutely knocked it out of the park.
[21:33] All four judges were so impressed by her that they all
[21:37] turned round. Most of them, three of them had
[21:40] even turned round before she even reached the chorus.
[21:43] That was Shakira Usher and Adam Levine from Maroon 5.
[21:47] And if those three people think you have an amazing voice before
[21:50] you've even got to the damn chorus, that's insane.
[21:53] All four of the judges did turn, and in the end, like I said, and
[21:56] because all four of them wanted her, that meant that Christina
[21:59] got her pick of the judges who she wanted to be her mentor, and
[22:03] she chose Adam Levine. She made it all the way to the
[22:06] finals and finished in 3rd place, which is just incredible,
[22:11] isn't it, for such a young woman?
[22:13] Especially given that the bar is very, very high for The Voice.
[22:17] Like there's only good singers on there, so you have to be the
[22:20] absolute cream of the crop to win.
[22:22] But her placement in the actual competition hardly even
[22:26] mattered, because point is, she'd been on TV for ages and
[22:31] loads of people knew who Christina Grimmie was now.
[22:33] Loads of people had heard her voice and loads of big people in
[22:37] the music industry wanted to get to know her and wanted her to
[22:41] work with them. She had a bunch of record labels
[22:43] fighting over her after she was on The Voice.
[22:45] One of them was Adam Levine, he wanted her on his own record
[22:49] label. Another one was Lil Wayne.
[22:51] He wanted her on Young Money, which I find quite interesting,
[22:55] but she actually ended up turning both of them down and
[22:57] she went with Island Records. But regardless of how mainstream
[23:02] famous she was, Christina never forgot about her fans, which I
[23:06] think is really, really sweet. She was always making these
[23:08] YouTube videos, like whenever she had a spare few minutes to
[23:12] sing him a song, I'll come and drop in and speak to them.
[23:15] She'd go on her Snapchat story and keep them all updated.
[23:18] They were still her friends and they still meant the world to
[23:20] her. They were still there with her
[23:22] every step of the way. And she was always really,
[23:24] really connected with them. She never forgot that they were
[23:27] the reason why she was living her dream, why she was in the
[23:31] position that she was in, why she could have a record label
[23:35] and why all these people could know her name.
[23:37] And she would get invited on The Voice and make a Disney Channel
[23:39] song and go on tour with Selena. It's all because of those people
[23:42] that watched her YouTube videos. And she was so, so grateful for
[23:46] that the whole time. She took absolutely every chance
[23:48] that she got to be able to meet fans and take photos with them
[23:52] and just get to know them. Just get to know them like the
[23:56] friends that they were to her. After her appearance on The
[23:58] Voice, Christina was obviously booked and busy.
[24:01] Everyone wanted to know her, everyone wanted to work with
[24:04] her. Every big artist wanted her as a
[24:07] support act on their tour. Because I mean, even though she
[24:10] was known now, she wasn't quite big enough to have her own tour,
[24:14] but she was definitely big enough that people were fighting
[24:16] over her for the support act slot.
[24:18] So a few of the tours that she did, she went across Europe with
[24:21] a band called Before You Exit. She did AU U.S. tour with a
[24:25] singer named Rachel Platten and then she joined Before You Exit
[24:29] again on their U.S. tour. She was loving every second of
[24:33] it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't
[24:35] very, very tiring. She was exhausted.
[24:38] So was Mark. I mean, this was their dream to
[24:41] be musicians and to perform and to and to sing to an audience.
[24:45] But in such quick succession, it was really, really tiring for
[24:49] them. And so the two of them had kind
[24:51] of come to this realization that, OK, after this American
[24:55] tour finishes, let's, you know, chill out a little bit, let's
[24:59] have a little bit of time off. To be fair, Christina wanted to
[25:01] get back home and get writing. She wanted to be creating a new
[25:05] body of work. She wanted a new album or a new
[25:08] EP or new, just new songs in general because she'd been
[25:11] playing the same ones the whole time that she'd been on all
[25:13] these tours. And that's not to say she didn't
[25:15] like them, but she was getting ready for a new era.
[25:18] June 10th, 2016 was the night of their final performance on the
[25:23] American tour with Before You Exit.
[25:25] Christina and Mark had already packed all their suitcases,
[25:28] ready to leave the next day, but not before one last banger of a
[25:33] show. The venue of the night was the
[25:35] Plaza Live. It was in Orlando.
[25:37] Did I tell you that? I think it was.
[25:39] Anyway, the Plaza Live had a capacity of about 1250 people.
[25:44] Christina was so excited to perform that night.
[25:46] She'd been posting on socials all day saying come down, come
[25:49] meet me. Like if you're in the Orlando
[25:51] area, come to our last show that night.
[25:54] The show went perfectly. Christina was pretty much on
[25:58] autopilot at this point, like she knew her set inside and out.
[26:03] She would just like go into her own little own little place
[26:07] whenever she was on stage. Her brother was supporting in
[26:09] her band as always, and she sang a mixture of covers that the
[26:14] audience could sing along to her and her own original songs.
[26:17] After the show, as she did with every other show, Christina
[26:21] would go and sit at the merch table afterwards and meet anyone
[26:25] that wanted to meet her. People would come and make a
[26:27] little line at the merch table and buy a shirt or a CD and get
[26:31] to sign it and they'd take pictures and they'd laugh and
[26:34] they'd get to know each other. Her fans absolutely loved this
[26:38] about her. I think, I think this is what
[26:40] makes Christina so different to any other, like, young pop star
[26:44] is that she had this connection with her fans because she had
[26:48] such a social media presence that like, I don't know, they
[26:52] were her friends and she wouldn't charge the money.
[26:54] She would do this for free. She went and sat at the merch
[26:57] table because she wanted to give back to the people that had just
[27:00] given her such a great show. So after her final show finished
[27:05] at about 10:00 PM, Christina headed over to the merch table.
[27:09] And her brother Marcus was there with her.
[27:11] Of course, he was her chaperone for like all of her tours.
[27:14] And he would just always, like, hang around, you know, partly to
[27:18] keep an eye on her, partly to act as, like, a little bit of
[27:20] security just in case. And also because quite a few of
[27:24] Christina's fans actually knew who he was because they had this
[27:27] connection with her. They knew more about her than
[27:30] they knew about mainstream singers because she had this
[27:34] social media presence. They'd seen her brother on her
[27:36] socials before. They wanted pictures with him,
[27:38] too. They wanted his autograph.
[27:40] He'd also just help her out with, like, the merch table.
[27:42] She'd be there meeting and talking to people, and he'd be
[27:45] like, stacking the shirts up and taking the money and stuff like
[27:48] that. He was a really, really
[27:49] supportive brother all the way throughout of all.
[27:52] At the end of the day, he was there to keep Christina safe.
[27:55] That was the main reason he was on top was, you know, to just
[27:59] keep an eye on her. She was a 22 year old woman at
[28:02] this point. She wasn't his baby sister
[28:04] anymore, but she was still his sister and he was still going to
[28:09] watch over us. So the line for Christina's meet
[28:11] and greet was nearing an end at about 10:20.
[28:14] She'd been doing this for a little while and there were
[28:16] about 15 people left in the queue when an older man
[28:21] approaches Christina's table. A couple of people around had
[28:24] already noticed this man waiting in the queue and they thought it
[28:27] was a little bit odd. They just thought he was a bit
[28:30] too old to be there. I know that sounds horrible, but
[28:35] he wasn't in Christina's usual demographic of like, teeny
[28:39] boppers. Like, there were loads of young
[28:41] girls in this queue and then just like an older man and then
[28:43] loads of more young girls. And, you know, people didn't
[28:47] really want to judge this man for his music taste.
[28:49] Anyone can like any kind of music, no matter what you look
[28:51] like. But naturally, when people saw
[28:53] this older man approaching this young woman at a table, they
[28:56] were like, what's what's his intentions?
[28:59] What's going to happen here? And it wasn't just that he
[29:01] didn't look like your typical Christina Grimmie fan, he was
[29:05] also just acting a bit weird, like he was giving people reason
[29:08] to be suspicious of him. He was a bit shifty and awkward,
[29:13] and he was very sweaty and red, even though it wasn't that warm
[29:16] in there. Like no one else was sweaty and
[29:18] red. It didn't seem that Christina
[29:21] thought much of this. I mean, she'd met nervous, shy
[29:25] fans before. And.
[29:27] And that's just what this guy seemed to be.
[29:29] He he was quiet, he was silent actually when he walked up to
[29:33] the table, he just looked at Christina.
[29:36] He didn't say anything, but she thought that was to due to
[29:40] nerves. She thought he was speechless.
[29:41] So Christina did what she always did with nervous fans.
[29:46] She just opened her arms and offered him a hug, let him just
[29:50] walk into her arms so that she could embrace him and tell him
[29:53] thank you for being a fan. She always felt that was one of
[29:55] the best way to deal with these like anxious fans, usually like
[29:59] little girls that would come up to her like shaking, not being
[30:02] able to get their words out. She'd just give him a big
[30:04] squeeze. So Christina opened her arms to
[30:07] this man and that was when everyone realized that he wasn't
[30:11] there as a fan. He was there to murder Christina
[30:16] Grimmie. This man was 27 year old Kevin
[30:19] Lobel. He was a Florida native and had
[30:21] driven 2 hours that day. Well, got in a taxi 2 hours that
[30:25] day to go and see Christina at her final show after seeing her
[30:29] advertising it on her Snapchat. Kevin had been unhealthily
[30:33] obsessed with Christina for quite some time now.
[30:37] The obsession had developed over the years.
[30:40] At first it started with him just being a regular fan that
[30:44] had found this girl singing online, but as the years went by
[30:49] he became very delusional about it and he withdrew from the rest
[30:54] of his life that that wasn't Christina.
[30:57] His life literally consisted of sitting in the house and
[31:02] watching Christina's videos over and over again and checking on
[31:05] her socials to see if she posted anything new and just waiting
[31:09] for another video to be posted. He did have a job, but that was
[31:13] it. He would go out to work at Best
[31:16] Buy and even then he wasn't like front facing with the public
[31:19] because his management thought that he was very awkward and
[31:23] slightly off putting. So they put him in the back.
[31:28] They put him on the Geek Squad, which which you know, which I
[31:31] think meant that he was dealing with like, I don't know,
[31:34] electronics or something in the back.
[31:36] He only really had like one Co worker that he worked with and
[31:40] that was it for his social interaction.
[31:42] He would go home at the end of the day where he lived with his
[31:45] father and his brother and he wouldn't really speak to them.
[31:48] He would just go up into his bedroom and shut himself in for
[31:50] the rest of the night until he had to get up for work the next
[31:53] day. He literally only worked to make
[31:55] money to keep his laptop on so that he could watch Christina
[31:58] videos. Kevin Lobel was like in love
[32:02] with Christina. Well, he thought he was anyway
[32:05] because he thought he knew her. He thought he really knew this
[32:09] girl's personality because he'd watched so many of her videos.
[32:12] And like I said, she would do these like silly goofy intros
[32:15] and like pull faces and stuff. And even though, yes, you are
[32:19] seeing a glimmer into her personality, he didn't know her
[32:23] as a person at all. But because he was so
[32:26] delusional, he didn't even think about the fact that he didn't
[32:30] actually know this woman. He just decided that he wanted
[32:33] to be with her. He wanted to marry her one day.
[32:37] He always thought that he was going to meet her one day and
[32:39] that she was just going to fall head over heels in love with him
[32:42] and they were going to be together.
[32:44] But there was a problem. Well, there was a lot of
[32:47] problems actually. But one of his particular
[32:49] problems was that he was a very, very insecure person.
[32:52] He didn't feel confident enough to meet Christina yet the way
[32:56] that he was looking. And so he embarked on a whole
[33:00] journey to change his appearance, like pretty much
[33:05] every element of his appearance was changed for Christina
[33:09] because he thought that that would make her fall in love when
[33:14] she saw him. He spent so much money doing
[33:16] this as well. He got laser eye surgery so he
[33:19] wouldn't have to wear glasses anymore.
[33:20] He got hair implants. He whitened his teeth.
[33:23] He even went vegan for a couple of reasons.
[33:26] Actually, Christina was, I think she was also a vegan and an
[33:30] animal rights activist. So, but he also went vegan to
[33:34] lose weight, specifically to lose weight.
[33:36] He lost 50 lbs being vegan. And that's not the only like
[33:41] lifestyle change that he made for Christina.
[33:43] He also converted to Christianity after being an
[33:46] atheist all his life. He said that it was Christina
[33:51] that made him believe in God. All of this for a woman that
[33:55] doesn't even know he exists. He is so deluded and so in love
[34:00] with this woman that he has created in his head based on
[34:04] these little clips that he's doing all this putting, throwing
[34:07] all this money at his appearance, thinking that that
[34:12] is the missing puzzle piece to get them together.
[34:15] Like that's you've got a whole load more problems than just how
[34:19] you look. And I mean, I, I don't want to
[34:20] be mean, but I feel like your appearance is the last thing you
[34:24] should be worrying about when your personality is strange
[34:28] beyond comprehension and you're a very off putting person.
[34:32] The murderer side. This man was weird.
[34:35] Strange in every single way. Like I said, he barely left his
[34:39] bedroom because he didn't like socializing, he didn't like
[34:41] seeing people, and it actually got that bad that he put tinfoil
[34:45] up on his windows to block out the light.
[34:48] Are you a vampire? He didn't have any friends, um,
[34:51] well outside of work he had one person that he considered a
[34:55] friend, but I don't think that person considered himself
[35:00] Kevin's friend. It was just a Co worker that was
[35:03] the closest person in his life because it was the only person
[35:07] he ever blooming talked to. So Kevin saw this Co worker as a
[35:11] friend, as his only friend. And this friend was aware of
[35:16] Kevin's obsession with Christina.
[35:18] I don't think he knew quite how bad it was, but he knew that his
[35:22] coworker had a crush on this YouTuber singer.
[35:25] Kevin would watch Kristinas videos at work even.
[35:28] Like he couldn't even have a break while he was on the clock
[35:32] and he would even tell his friend Co worker about Christina
[35:36] and about her journey and about how she was on The Voice and all
[35:39] of this stuff. Like he would talk about her as
[35:41] if she was his girlfriend back at home.
[35:42] Obviously this Co worker was aware that Kevin had this crush
[35:47] on an Internet celebrity and he would kind of tease him for it.
[35:51] That's the kind of thing that you tease your friends for
[35:53] having like a unattainable crush.
[35:55] He'd be like, oh, is it your girlfriend?
[35:57] Kevin didn't like it. Kevin did not like that.
[36:00] And in the month or so before the Orlando show, Kevin's
[36:04] delusions were getting worse than ever about Christina.
[36:07] He was telling this work friend that they were going to be
[36:10] together soon. Like he was going to meet her
[36:13] and they were going to be together soon.
[36:14] He told him about the Orlando show and the meet up and
[36:17] everything. And this Co worker turned to
[36:20] him. And obviously, because Kevin's
[36:21] quite sensitive about this subject, the Co worker tried to
[36:25] give him logic and reason and he was like, you know, I don't
[36:29] think she's going to fall in love with you at the meet and
[36:32] greet. Like I don't think she's going
[36:33] to see you and it's going to be love at first sight.
[36:35] Well, Kevin took that even worse.
[36:37] He was so angry. He was like shouting at this man
[36:40] and threatening to end their friendship over there.
[36:43] He was adamant that his Co workers didn't know anything
[36:45] about him or his relationship or Christina.
[36:48] He told them that he did know her and they played video games
[36:52] together all the time. That's not true but he told his
[36:56] Co workers that I guess to make it more believable.
[36:58] Like no trust like we play video games online all the time.
[37:02] No they didn't. No they didn't.
[37:03] Christina had no idea who this man was.
[37:05] They had never interacted before and that shows just how
[37:08] embarrassed he was to have a crush on someone that didn't
[37:11] even know he existed. Like once people pointed that
[37:14] out to him, he had to lie and get defensive.
[37:24] The month before the Orlando incident, Kevins coworker, his
[37:29] friend, someone that he considered a friend, actually
[37:32] reported him to management because of this weird behavior,
[37:37] because of all these weird things that he was saying about
[37:39] Christina and how obsessed he was.
[37:42] It was just weird to be around. It was just very uncomfortable.
[37:46] I'm sure you can imagine like if someone was so delusionally
[37:50] obsessed with a celebrity and was talking about them all the
[37:52] time as if it was the boyfriend or girlfriend, you would be a
[37:56] bit like go away weirdo. This Co worker was just quite
[37:59] disturbed by Kevin at this point so he went to management and
[38:02] told them everything about his weird obsession with Christina
[38:06] and management. They were like, yeah, OK, sorry,
[38:09] that does sound really weird. But like, he's not breaking any
[38:12] rules. He's not like going against any
[38:14] star policies or like he's not breaking the law.
[38:18] Really. What can management do?
[38:20] Tell him to stop fancying the girl on the Internet?
[38:22] It's a bit of a sticky 1. He was just over sharing his
[38:26] weird thoughts. There wasn't really anything
[38:29] that management could really do. They felt like it just wasn't
[38:32] their place to change this man's personality when it wasn't
[38:36] impacting his work. June 5th was five days before
[38:40] the Orlando show, and that was the last time that Kevin spoke
[38:44] to that coworker. He went into work that day and
[38:47] brought in a bunch of comic books that he borrowed from this
[38:49] guy. He returned them all, told him
[38:52] that he loved him but he was tired and he was ready to
[38:56] ascend. Which in hindsight definitely
[38:59] sounds concerning when especially when you know more
[39:02] about this man and like the the thoughts going on inside his
[39:06] brain. But this Co worker didn't know
[39:10] any of that really. He just had a very surface level
[39:13] relationship with this weirdo that really likes this singer
[39:16] online and like he just kind of put up with him at work so how
[39:20] was he supposed to know what ready to ascend meant?
[39:24] Kevin was a weird guy that said weird things like that all the
[39:27] time. Like if they were to flag every
[39:29] single weird thing he said they would never stop.
[39:32] Kevin had already bought his ticket to Kristinas show, and a
[39:36] month before this he'd gone out and bought his murder weapons.
[39:41] Weapons multiple. He had had this plan in the
[39:43] works for at least a month. On the night before the show,
[39:47] June 9th, Kevin got a taxi all the way to Orlando.
[39:51] It was about a 2 hour journey from wherever he lived and he
[39:54] booked a room in the Marriott Hotel with him.
[39:57] He took a backpack and that's it.
[39:59] He took a backpack with a change of clothes in some toiletries.
[40:03] His concert ticket? And murder weapons.
[40:07] Those murder weapons that he purchased a month prior included
[40:10] a hunting knife, 2 shotguns, and a whole load of ammunition.
[40:14] On the day of the concert, he hid all of these weapons on his
[40:18] person. So when he got to the venue, he
[40:21] was able to just walk straight inside.
[40:23] Back then, they only really did, like, bag searches outside of
[40:26] venues. And I mean, they still do that
[40:29] at most venues now. Security really needs to step up
[40:32] at music venues. I've always said this, but, you
[40:34] know, at least now in, like, big venues, they have metal
[40:36] detectors and stuff that you have to walk through, and they
[40:39] actually, actually do kind of search.
[40:41] Yeah. Well, back then, there was
[40:43] nothing of the sort. He had three weapons just like
[40:47] in different ways, bands and stuff, and he was able to walk
[40:51] into that concert freely. Kevin stood at the back of the
[40:54] audience for the whole show, and there's a few videos that you
[40:58] can see him in and he's not even like dancing or singing along or
[41:02] smiling. He's literally like stood at the
[41:04] back of the room just staring at Christina.
[41:07] Like, I don't know what I expected him to be doing, but it
[41:11] wasn't that. Like, I know that he's got this
[41:13] plan in his head, but you would at least, would you not act the
[41:17] part when you're in the crowd. He just looked so suspicious the
[41:21] whole night. But actually, that makes a
[41:23] little bit of sense when you hear that Kevin was angry at
[41:28] Christina that day, on the day of the concert.
[41:30] He was angry at this woman that he'd never met or interacted
[41:33] with because he had recently found out that Christina had a
[41:37] boyfriend, or at least she was seeing someone.
[41:40] I think it was her producer. And there were a bunch of
[41:42] pictures of them online looking all cute, you know, together.
[41:45] Kevin had seen those and he did not like it one bit.
[41:49] Kevin was so mad at Christina for wanting to be with someone
[41:54] that's not him, he felt betrayed.
[41:56] He is so deluded that the thoughts and emotions that he
[42:00] was experiencing in relation to this whole situation were very
[42:04] similar to that of being cheated on.
[42:05] Even though Christina didn't even know he existed, he in his
[42:10] head, had been in a relationship with her and was going to get
[42:13] married to her. They were going to be together
[42:16] and then all of a sudden he sees these photos and that just
[42:19] shatters this illusion for him and he can no longer see
[42:23] Christina in the same light. He feels so betrayed by her and
[42:28] he is so angry at her and he feels as though she has done
[42:31] something specifically to him. Like I say, he feels cheated on,
[42:37] even though Christina has done nothing wrong here, he feels
[42:40] like she's wronged him and that is believed to be his motive for
[42:44] what he went on to do at her meet and greet that day.
[42:47] When Kevin walked over to her merch table, she saw how nervous
[42:51] he looked, so she stood up, opened her arms to him for a
[42:55] hug, and he pulled a shotgun out of his waistband and shot her
[43:01] multiple times at point blank range.
[43:04] Reports differ on exactly how many shots were fired.
[43:08] We've kind of come to the conclusion that it was 3/1 in
[43:11] the head and two in the chest. Christina instantly fell to the
[43:15] ground. There was no screaming, there
[43:17] was no nothing. She didn't have time to react to
[43:21] this. Christina just fell to the
[43:22] ground and her brother Marcus was standing right next to her
[43:26] as this happened and hearing him tell this story is so harrowing.
[43:31] He said that he just heard this popping noise and it sounded
[43:34] like a fake gun. It didn't even feel real and the
[43:37] next thing he knew, his little sister just fell to the ground.
[43:41] He'd heard these bangs, his sister is on the ground, and
[43:45] then everyone starts screaming and without even thinking, just
[43:49] on raw instinct, Marcus launched himself over the merch table and
[43:55] lunged at his sister's attacker. He tackled Kevin to the ground
[43:58] and tried to wrestle the shotgun away from him, but Kevin was
[44:02] determined to keep hold of this shotgun.
[44:03] He was putting up a fight, but Marcus feared what could happen
[44:07] if this man kept hold of the gun.
[44:09] If no one got it off him, who else was he going to shoot?
[44:12] Was he going to turn around and massacre this whole concert
[44:15] venue? Marcus finally managed to get
[44:17] the gun away from Kevin, and when he did, his grip on actual
[44:22] Kevin loosened a little bit because he was no longer armed
[44:25] and he didn't feel like as much much of A threat.
[44:27] He managed to wriggle out of Marcus's grip and everyone
[44:31] thought that he had been disarmed.
[44:34] Nobody knew that he had another shotgun in his waistband.
[44:38] As Kevin pulled this gun out and everyone saw it, Marcus
[44:41] remembered thinking, that's it, but he was going to be dead and
[44:45] this man was going to shoot up this entire place.
[44:48] This was where they all die. But to everyone's surprise,
[44:51] Kevin Loybel backed up into the wall, raised the gun to his own
[44:55] head, and shot himself. Kevin Lobel died instantly.
[45:00] This whole interaction, from when he arrived at the merch
[45:03] table to when he himself died, was no more than a minute.
[45:08] All of this had happened so quickly.
[45:10] Just a minute ago, Marcus had been stood at the side of his
[45:13] little sister, 22 years old, achieving her dreams, touring
[45:18] the world, doing meet and greets, signing autographs for
[45:22] fans. And now, just like that, some
[45:25] man arrived and killed her. And now she was laying on the
[45:30] floor dead in the middle of her meet and greet, in the middle of
[45:34] doing the thing that she loved doing the most, putting her
[45:38] herself out there for free to her fans, to connect, to make
[45:42] friends, to sign autographs and take pictures.
[45:45] She wanted to do this because she loved her fans.
[45:49] And someone did this to her. A medic in the building was
[45:52] alerted and he rushed over to come and see Christina.
[45:55] He felt for her pulse and he actually found one, although it
[45:59] was very weak and he was worried that it wouldn't stay.
[46:03] He was trying to give her CPR, just trying to keep her alive
[46:07] until an ambulance could come. However, after one shot to the
[46:12] head and two to the chest, it was very unlikely that she was
[46:16] going to survive this. Christina was rushed to a nearby
[46:19] hospital, but later that evening, thousands of miles away
[46:24] from her parents, Christina Grimmie was pronounced dead.
[46:27] Mark was absolutely crushed that he hadn't managed to save his
[46:33] sister that day. He felt almost responsible for
[46:37] being her guardian on that tour. He was the one there that was
[46:41] looking over and making sure that she was OK.
[46:44] But in this one instance, how could he have?
[46:47] How could he have possibly known that that man had a gun in his
[46:51] waistband? And how could he have possibly
[46:54] stopped him before he shot his sister?
[46:56] He couldn't have. I think that's one of the
[46:58] scariest parts of this case for me is that no one could have
[47:02] really stopped this other than having better security on the
[47:05] door at the venue. But you know, they didn't.
[47:08] So he did manage to get in with a gun.
[47:11] No one could have stopped him at that point.
[47:13] I really don't think they could have.
[47:14] How was anyone supposed to know that he was going to do this,
[47:17] other than better security at the venue?
[47:19] This is just one of those unpreventable crimes that scares
[47:24] me so much. Later that night, the news of
[47:27] Christina Grimmie's untimely death hit the Internet and
[47:31] everyone was just so devastated. There were so many tweets and
[47:36] photos and loving messages and fan edits and videos and little
[47:42] collections of like everyone coming together and posting
[47:45] pictures and holding signs and it was lovely.
[47:49] The, the fan response to this. I mean, it was, it was
[47:51] heartbreaking, but it was heartwarming to see how many
[47:55] people loved and was so affected by Christina in her life and the
[48:02] content that she made and the talent that she had and the joy
[48:05] that she brought to the world. So many people were so moved by
[48:09] this woman that they wanted to pay their respects.
[48:13] And among all of those people paying their respects, there
[48:16] were, of course, a bunch of celebrities because Christina
[48:19] had friends in the industry. Selena Gomez posted a memorial
[48:23] photo for Christina Adam Levine, the band Before You Exit.
[48:27] There were tons of people, tons of Youtubers as well, Of course,
[48:31] because she was a YouTube at the heart of it all.
[48:33] That's where she got big. That's, that's where she
[48:36] started. And actually, Adam Levine was so
[48:39] affected by Christina's death that he offered to pay for all
[48:43] of the funeral costs, and he actually paid to get her body
[48:47] transported from Orlando back to California where her family
[48:51] could have her funeral on her next tour.
[48:54] Selena actually dedicated a bunch of songs to Christina, and
[48:58] she actually broke down into tears as she was speaking about
[49:01] Christina and how wonderful and talented she was.
[49:05] It was such a tragic loss for for everyone, for her family,
[49:09] for her friends, for her fans, for the industry, for everyone.
[49:14] She really was something special.
[49:17] So that very night a police investigation was opened into
[49:21] this murder. And I mean there was no question
[49:24] of who did it. They literally had the suspect
[49:27] dead at the scene along with his victim.
[49:29] Kevin was identified very quickly.
[49:31] He had his wallet in his pocket that had his ID in it.
[49:35] So immediately they knew who their shooter was.
[49:37] And when police got in contact with Kevin's family and friend,
[49:42] I was going to say family and friends, but family and one Co
[49:45] worker that he spoke to her when police spoke to them and found
[49:48] out how morbid his obsession was with Christina, the story pretty
[49:53] much told itself. I mean, it was, it was obvious
[49:56] the pipeline of what had happened here.
[49:57] He got into Christina as a normal fan and then became
[50:01] horrifically deluded and obsessed to the point where he
[50:05] viewed her as his, as his object.
[50:09] And when her real life version of herself goes out and dates a
[50:14] new man, he couldn't handle it because his in mind version of
[50:18] Christina was married to him. That was his wife that was
[50:22] cheating on him. He couldn't differentiate what
[50:24] was going on in his mind from reality and that this woman has
[50:29] no idea who he is. They concluded that he had
[50:32] become very jealous and angry finding out that Christina was
[50:35] seeing a new man, and he felt like if he couldn't have
[50:39] Christina then no one could. Police gathered a bunch of
[50:42] evidence that showed that this was premeditated as well, like
[50:46] the fact that he bought his weapons in May and carried this
[50:49] out in June. He'd been telling his coworker
[50:52] that they were going to be together soon for a good few
[50:55] weeks, so I have a feeling he'd already made that plan in his
[50:59] head and he knew how they were going to be together.
[51:02] Police actually discovered on a search of Kevin's bedroom that
[51:05] he'd wiped his hard drive on his computer before he left for the
[51:10] concert that day. And I don't know if they managed
[51:14] to like, find what was on it. I know police have their ways of
[51:17] getting back like deleted and wiped information, but I
[51:20] couldn't find anything about this hard drive online so I I
[51:24] guess they didn't recover the information.
[51:27] I wonder what was on there. It's actually really scary to
[51:30] think what could have been on there because it might not have
[51:33] just been Christina related. We don't know what else this man
[51:38] was getting up to in his bedroom on his own day in, day out, when
[51:42] he wasn't socializing or joining in with the rest of the world.
[51:46] Kevin Loebel's family are reportedly devastated and
[51:50] disgusted with their son's actions, although they haven't
[51:53] spoken publicly on this case much.
[51:56] But they did leave a note on their door for reporters, kind
[51:59] of in the immediate aftermath of this.
[52:02] And the note read, deepest sorrow for the loss to the
[52:05] family, friends and fans of the talented, loving Christina
[52:09] Grimmie. No further comments.
[52:11] Chris Denny's family have since set up the Christina Grimmie
[52:14] Foundation, which is a nonprofit charity that helps victims of
[52:20] gun violence. And I think homicide in general,
[52:24] in the immediate aftermath of the attack of the incident.
[52:28] The help is concentrated in that very immediate aftermath to help
[52:33] victims and survivors to meet their basic needs in those first
[52:38] few days, you know, like paying bills and getting food and, and
[52:41] maybe somewhere to live if they can't stay at home, a hotel
[52:45] room, something like that. Because in those first few days,
[52:48] you're in such shock and your brain isn't processing anything.
[52:52] The last thing that you want to be worrying about is your basic
[52:56] needs and where you're going to get your food from.
[52:58] You know, it just allows victims to have a bit of space and a bit
[53:02] of time to deal with what's going on in their head and in
[53:05] their lives without, you know, all those other annoying little
[53:10] things about human life. Christina's mother, Tina
[53:14] Grimmie, sadly lost her battle with breast cancer in 2018, just
[53:19] two years after the death of her daughter.
[53:22] Tina was such a strong woman. She had had that cancer for 20,
[53:26] 23 years, 23 years that she was just muscling through, going to
[53:31] chemotherapy and living through it regardless is just an
[53:36] incredible woman and she was always so proud of her
[53:39] incredible daughter as well. Over the years, Christina
[53:42] Grimmie's like musical team have released a bunch of her recorded
[53:47] tracks that were never released while she was still here.
[53:50] And I believe, don't quote me on this, but I think a percentage
[53:53] of the money that's earned from these posthumous tracks goes
[53:57] straight to the Christina Grimmie Foundation.
[53:59] It's absolutely tragic that something like this was even
[54:03] able to happen, that the security on that venue wasn't
[54:06] tighter. And I mean, security even today,
[54:09] in 2023, I know this case wasn't so long ago, but in 2016, yeah,
[54:14] maybe the security wasn't as great.
[54:16] But even still today, in the aftermath of something as
[54:19] harrowing as Christina Grimmie's murder, so many venues don't
[54:23] even check bags. I think venues should learn from
[54:26] this story and many other stories of people managing to
[54:31] sneak things into concerts because clearly lives are still
[54:35] being lost to this day from people being able to smuggle
[54:40] weapons into places where they shouldn't be allowed.
[54:43] But that is all I have on this case.
[54:45] There will be a link to the Christina Grimmie Foundation
[54:48] below in the description of this video.
[54:50] Please do check it out. Please do done it.
[54:52] To them, I'm sure it would mean the absolute world.
[54:58] Thank you so much for listening to Usual Disclaimer.
[55:01] At this point, I just want to say that if you've been affected
[55:03] by any of the topics we discussed today, please check
[55:06] the description where we've left some helpful resources.
[55:09] If you want to hear more cases like this one, make sure to
[55:12] follow Usual Disclaimer on your podcast app so that you get
[55:15] notifications when we post new episodes.
[55:18] And if you really enjoyed, I'd love it if you could leave a
[55:21] rating and a review too. Usual Disclaimer with Eleanor
[55:24] Neil is an Audio Boom Studios production.
[55:27] See you next time.

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