O’FALLON, MO. •A teen accused of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl from her home had a history of burglarizing other homes where young girls lived.John Thomas Classen, 17, was arraigned on charges of kidnapping, burglary and child abuse in the most recent case....
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link to m.stltoday.com]
This is a very disturbing story that hasn't received a lot of publicity. This kid last summer sent a message on some social media site (not sure if it was FB) to one of his friend's 10 year old sister saying he thought she was cute and he loved her. Her brother took it as harmless. It wasn't, he stalked her for months (she didn't know), finally , last week, he broke into her family's home one evening through a basement window her left unlocked previously, after visiting his friend, her brother. He waiting in the basement for 5 hours until around 5AM, when he went upstairs, found the little girl sleeping, grabbed her,and managed to get her out of the house to his car. But, the girl struggled and both if them tumbled down some stairs. The noise woke up people in the house, including her mother, who watched this kid dragging her daughter to his car. She called 911, police acted immediately, setting up a parameter , with roadblocks. Half hour later, they stopped his car, the girl was OK, he was arrested, charged with burglary, kidnapping, etc. Bad enough, but here is where it gets really disturbing:
The kid had stuff on his cellphone, saying he was going to take her to a secondary secure location, explain what was going on, kill her, rape her corpse, clean up, pose her body, photograph her body posed, dispose of her body, then go on the run, hiding out in foreclosed, abandoned homes, steal cars and commit burglaries.This is the final lines he had on his cellphone "kill list":
"She will die as she lived, my only friend. The darkness has engulfed everything. I'll miss you."
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This kid from outwardly appearances was a 'typical' teenager. He has many friends, was liked, he did fine in school. Some very disturbing pics and chat can be found online however (he is all over the internet on social media sites like instagram where he posted pics of himself, friends, and posing even with the little girl he abducted. They are still up under 'johnthomasclassen55'. He also frequented a serial killer discussion site (still up' where he comments about his admiration for killers like Ted Bundy, whom he particularly admired for engaging in necrophilia.
He also frequented sites discussing depression and sadness.
Now it's coming out this kid has an extensive juvenile record (sealed, of course) concerning especially extensive burglaries (often when people were home, and repeatedly of some houses. The homes burglarized also had young girls. Ge also was a car thief.
What we have here us a classic, textbook example of a young, budding psychopath, who got caught just in time, and will hopefully never get out of prison or psyche hospitals. Extremely narcissistic, superficially charming and liked, but a very dark side of showing a history of impulse control issues, disregard for other people and their property, disregard of societal laws and norms. No doubt, if this kid hadn't gotten caught before ye was able to murder and assault this little girl, he would have gone on to being a full fledged serial killer. His last comment about her living and dying, and the 'darkness' is very creepy and disturbing.
United States
