18-year-old high-school dropout Jesse Strang (alias Jesse Van Rootselaar), now associated with the horrific murders of her mother, stepbrother, and six people at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Canada, was quite sadistic as a child.
These revelations came after a neighbour, identified as Melanie, recently claimed that the teenager had tried to kill her own family members in the past by burning the house down.
“He was just sitting out in the front when the fire trucks arrived,” she said to The Telegraph about the school shooter who killed herself after the attack on Tuesday.
Sadistic behaviour from childhood
Jennifer Strang, her dead mother, had once expressed serious concerns about the transgender shooter more than 10 years ago in a Facebook group called Parent Life Network Canada, as per a New York Post report.
“He shows intense empathy when he sees anyone hurt not by her own hand but has a devious grin when he hurts his siblings,” Jennifer had confessed in the group back in 2015, the report said, offering screenshots.
She went on to say that Jesse’s school wanted her tested for behavioural disorders at the time, to which she agreed with some hesitation.
Jennifer also described how Jesse’s behaviour would often fluctuate between being “very helpful and nice”, and being “pretty mean”.
The 36-year-old even questioned whether she was to blame for Jesse’s bizarre behaviours, which also included talking like a baby despite being almost eight years old, the child’s unusual attachment style, and the child’s “somewhat territorial” nature.
The report noted that Jesse slowly grew more dangerous over time, as she became fascinated with gory videos. Back in 2025, she had even created an account on WatchPeopleDie, a twisted platform true to its name.
It added that Jesse’s morbid comments could also be found under a number of videos on the website, from suicide bombers to mass shootings, and more.
The police are now currently looking into both the motive behind the school shooting—said to be one of the worst in Canadian history—and how Jesse acquired the weapons in the first place.
