The 15-year-old girl who killed two people and wounded six others when she opened fire at her Wisconsin Christian school had been in therapy over her troubled home life with her parents — who repeatedly divorced and remarried, court records show.
Natalie Rupnow, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the deadly mass shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday, was at times yanked between her parents’ homes every two or three days when they were separated, according to records obtained by the Washington Post.
Her mother and father, Mellissa and Jeff Rupnow, first married in 2011, two years after they had Natalie, who had recently started using the first name Samantha.
They divorced in 2014 and shared custody of Natalie, whom they agreed would live primarily with her mother.
The couple then remarried three years later in 2017 — just to get divorced for a second time another three years after that, in 2020.
This time, they more evenly split custody of their daughter, with Natalie spending two days with her father, then two days with her mother, followed by three days with her father again in a schedule that would alternate weekly, the DC paper reported.
They married for a third time shortly thereafter — but by April 2021 were splitting up again.
A judge granted the divorce a month later but noted that “parties [were] admonished concerning remarriage,” according to court documents.
In July 2022, a mediator ruled that the couple would again share custody of Natalie but she would live primarily with her father.
By that time, Natalie, just 12 years old, was going to therapy sessions which were meant to help determine which parent she would spend her weeks with, according to court records.
Before Natalie was born, her mom had been married and divorced to a different man, and also had a daughter with a man she never married. Natalie’s step-sister, now 20, was raised by other legal guardians, the documents show.
Natalie’s dad, meanwhile, is a Christian who shared photos of his daughter and celebrated her achievements — like earning a purple belt in karate — on his Facebook page.
In one alarming post from August 2024, Jeff Rupnow posted a photo of Natalie shooting a rifle at the North Bristol Sportsman’s Club in Sun Prairie.
He and Natalie, he said in the post, had joined the club earlier this year and “have been loving … every second of it!”
Natalie Rupnow opened fire in a study hall at the small K-12 school around 11 a.m. on Monday.
A substitute teacher and a teenager were killed. Another teacher and five other students were also shot, and two of those victims remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Authorities have not yet identified the victims.
Natalie Rupnow is one of just nine female students who have committed a school shooting since 1999 and is a year younger than the average school shooter, according to an analysis by the Washington Post.
Police are investigating her motive.
