Updated: 6:29 AM ET, Thu April 18, 2019
A frantic hunt for a Florida teen who was “infatuated” with the Columbine massacre begun after a series of suspicious events occurred which started with the teen buying three one-way plane tickets to Denver.
Sol Pais, 18, traveled to Colorado this week from her residence in Surfside, a suburb of Miami.
As soon as the Miami high school student arrived in Denver on Monday night, she purchased a pump-action shotgun legally from a gun shop that was less than two miles from Columbine High School, the FBI said.
Authorities in Miami immediately notified their Denver counterparts and warned that the student was armed and was a threat to the Columbine High School, which lead to a shut down of at least 19 school districts in the Denver area.
After law enforcement officials knew she was already in the state, they issued an alert Tuesday saying that she was last seen wearing a black shirt and camouflage pants.
Investigators discovered she was moving around the area of Jefferson County, where Columbine High School is located, in an “Uber-type of a system,” Sheriff Jeff Shrader mentioned. As it turns out, a driver had dropped her off at the foothills of Mount Evans, the FBI said.
Police waited for daylight to begin scouring the area for any clues on her possible location.
“It was a long night, we had a 24-hour command post,” Phillips said.
After about 24 hours later, she was found dead Wednesday morning from an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound. Her body was found at the base of Mount Evans, a national recreation area outside Denver, Phillips said.
It’s still unclear as to why Pais traveled to Mount Evans, which is about 60 miles west of Denver. The driver of a rideshare or another vehicle dropped her off there, and later helped police pinpoint the location, authorities said.