According to numerous media reports and witnesses, alleged Newtown, Connecticut shooter Adam Lanza was a 'genius' with computers. And yet, we are told that Lanza apparently left no online footprint. The question must be asked: Was the electronic history of Adam Lanza scrubbed? Many articles, including witnesses' accounts, have described Adam Lanza's advanced skills with computers, a skill-level common with Asperger's sufferers. Indeed, many computer hackers have Asperger's syndrone -- Adrian Lamo, Ryan Cleary, and Gary McKinnon, for example. And yet, Adam Lanza 'left no online footprint?'
According to a New York Daily News article (15 Dec 2012), "[Adam] Lanza, who friends and officials said suffered from Asperger's syndrome or a personality disorder, had a tortured mind. He was socially awkward and at times unstable, but also extraordinarily bright. 'He was smart,' the insider said. 'He was like one of these real brainiac computer kind of kids.'"
A Honolulu Star Advertiser/New York Times (15 Dec 2012) article, 'Gunman left few hints about his life or motives,' noted the alleged shooter's lack of electronic footprints. "In his brief adulthood [Adam] Lanza had left few footprints, electronic or otherwise. He apparently had no Facebook page, unlike his older brother, Ryan... Lanza did belong to a technology club at school that held 'LAN parties' -- short for local area network -- in which students would gather at a member's home, hook up their computers into a small network and play games, The Associated Press reported."
Even 'original' school shooting suspect Ryan Lanza, Adam's brother, had his computers and phone records searched by law enforcement. "Ryan Lanza had been cooperative and was not under arrest or in custody, but investigators were still searching his computers and phone records." This news was reported in an MSN item (15 Dec 2012), 'Conn. gunman recalled as intelligent but remote.'
The MSN article includes a statement by one of Adam Lanza's classmates, Joshua Milas. "Adam Lanza attended Newtown High School, and news clippings from recent years show him on the honor roll. Joshua Milas, a classmate who was in the technology club with Lanza, said that he was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years. 'We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart,' said Milas, who graduated in 2009. 'He was probably one of the smartest kids I know. He was probably a genius.'" The article also notes Adam's attendance at the LAN parties.
Anyone with enough computer knowledge to attend and participate in LAN parties would likely have an online footprint. Where's Adam Lanza's?
