Court records reveal that the 15-year-old girl who fatally shot two people and injured six in a Wisconsin Christian school had been undergoing therapy due to her troubled home life with her parents, which included multiple divorces and remarriages.
Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after carrying out a deadly mass shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday, often alternated between her parents’ homes every two or three days during their separation, according to records reviewed by Washington Post. Her parents, Melissa and Jeff Rupnow, first married in 2011, two years after Natalie was born. Natalie recently started using the first name Samantha.
Troubled Home Life
The couple first divorced in 2014, sharing custody of Natalie, with the agreement that she would primarily live with her mother.
They remarried in 2017, but divorced again in 2020, once again agreeing to share custody of their daughter.
Following the second divorce, Rupnow’s time was split more evenly between her two parents—spending two days with her father, two with her mother, then three more with her father, before the schedule flipped the next week.
Shortly after Rupnow’s parents divorced for the second time, they remarried again. However, by April 2021, they were seeking a third divorce. A judge granted the divorce a month later, with a note in the court records that the “parties [were] admonished concerning remarriage.”
In July 2022, over a year later, the parents agreed to share legal custody of Natalie, but it was decided she would primarily live with Jeff.
By this point, Rupnow had started therapy, which was intended to help her make decisions about which parent she would spend her weekends with, according to the records.
The 2022 custody papers said: “The parents report a generally positive co-parenting relationship and will continue to communicate with one another by text messages and phone conversations.”
Multiple Marriages and Divorces
Before marrying Jeff, Melissa was had another daughter, now 20, from a different relationship in which she was never married. Court records show that Rupnow’s half-sister was placed under the care of other legal guardians.
Natalie’s father, is a Christian, who frequently shared photos of his daughter and celebrated her accomplishments, such as earning a purple belt in karate, on his Facebook page.
In a concerning post from August 2024, Jeff Rupnow shared a picture of Natalie firing a rifle at the North Bristol Sportsman’s Club in Sun Prairie. He mentioned that they had joined the club earlier that year and were “loving every second of it.”
On Monday, Natalie opened fire in a study hall at the small K-12 school around 11 a.m. The attack claimed the lives of a substitute teacher and a student. Another teacher and five students were injured, with two of the victims still in critical condition.
Authorities have been investigating how the 15-year-old shooter got her hands on the gun she used during the attack at the Catholic school.
