When Katie was in high school, the family made two major moves. Her sophomore year they moved from Lakeland, Florida, where she grew up, to Owensboro, Kentucky. She'd just settled in when they moved again, a year later, to Oxford, Mississippi. Her father, Robb, who'd been a minister and educator, and Alesia took jobs teaching at a small Christian school. Katie enrolled as a junior and fell in love with a classmate. They started talking about marriage. "This one was just so serious for so young," Olivia said. "She just grew up so fast that year." After the moves, she said, "I think she was ready to have some stability and some consistency."
當斯圖布爾菲爾德上高中的時候,家里發(fā)生了兩件大事。高二時,全家人從她長大的佛羅里達州萊克蘭搬到了肯塔基州的歐文斯伯勒。一年后,他們又搬到了密西西比州的牛津。她的父親羅柏曾是一名牧師和教育家,與阿萊西亞在相同的基督教學(xué)校從事教學(xué)工作。斯圖布爾菲爾德在高三時愛上了她的同學(xué),他們開始談?wù)摶橐?。麥克凱說:“對這么小的孩子來說,談婚論嫁這樣的事情太嚴肅了。那一年,她成長得太快了。經(jīng)過這些之后,我以為她已經(jīng)準備穩(wěn)定下來?!?/p>
She didn't get them. In her senior year Katie's world unraveled. She was already contending with chronic gastrointestinal troubles and surgery. She'd had her appendix taken out the year before, and complications led to the removal of her gallbladder in January of her senior year. Two months later, the Stubblefields told me, the school's headmaster informed them that he would not renew their contracts and then abruptly fired Alesia. Katie, who had trusted the headmaster, felt betrayed.
然而事實并非如此,高三時斯圖布爾菲爾德的世界變得混亂起來。她患上慢性胃腸道疾病,不得不接受外科手術(shù)。一年前,她的闌尾被切除了,并發(fā)癥導(dǎo)致她在高三切除了膽囊。兩個月后,學(xué)校的校長通知斯圖布爾菲爾德的父母,他不會續(xù)簽他們的合同,然后突然解雇了阿萊西亞。曾經(jīng)信任校長的斯圖布爾菲爾德感到自己被出賣了。
Then, on March 25, 2014, Katie picked up her boyfriend's phone and found texts to another girl. When she confronted him, her family told me, he broke up with her.
2014年3月25日,斯圖布爾菲爾德拿起男友的手機,發(fā)現(xiàn)其給另一個女孩發(fā)的短信。當她和男友對質(zhì)后,他們分手了。
Hurt and angry, Katie went to Robert's place in Oxford, where she furiously texted and paced, back and forth. Robert called their mother. While the two were outside talking about how upset Katie was, she went into the bathroom, put the barrel of Robert's .308-caliber hunting rifle below her chin, and pulled the trigger. When Robert kicked in the locked door, he found his little sister covered in blood. "And her face is gone," he recalled, still shaken by the memory.
自覺受到傷害,感覺憤怒不已的斯圖布爾菲爾德去了哥哥羅伯特所在的牛津,在那里她憤怒地發(fā)短信,來回踱步。羅伯特只能給他們的母親打電話。當兩人在外面談?wù)撍箞D布爾菲爾德的暴躁不安時,她走進浴室,把羅伯特的獵槍放在下巴下,并扣動了扳機。當羅伯特踢開鎖著的門時,發(fā)現(xiàn)他的小妹妹渾身是血。他回憶說“她的臉不見了”。