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- LITTLETON, Colo. (Reuters)
- Two Columbine High School sweethearts were found shot to death early
on Monday -- Valentine's Day -- at a popular sandwich shop just two blocks
from the school, the scene of a 1999 massacre in which 15 people were killed.
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- A police spokesman said the two, a boy, 15, and a girl,
16, attended Columbine High in the Denver suburb of Littleton. Their bodies
were discovered in a Subway sandwich shop just two blocks from the school.
The shop is a popular hangout for students, other teenagers and skateboarders.
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- Columbine was the scene of the worst high school shooting
in U.S. history last April 20 when two teenage gunmen, Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher before taking their own
lives.
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- Grief counselors visited classes at the school on Monday
to help students shaken by the news of yet another act of violence close
to home.
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- The teenagers found dead behind the counter of the Subway
shop were identified by friends as Stephanie Hart and Nicholas Kunselman,
who were dating each other.
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- J.J. Hodask, who worked with Kunselman at the shop, said
the boy had the task of closing the store alone on Sunday night. He had
worked there for a month.
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- ``No one can believe this is happening again. It just
never quits here,'' said Hodask, who graduated from Columbine High in 1996
and has worked at the sandwich shop for 16 months.
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- ``He was a good kid and a good worker,'' Hodask added.
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- Jefferson County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve
Davis said police were searching for a white male in his early 20s wearing
a red jacket and flared pants who was seen leaving the sandwich shop. ``It
is unknown whether he is a suspect or someone who may have information
for us,'' Davis said.
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- He said there was no sign of a motive for the killings
but added that police were so busy examining the murder scene that they
had not ``even gotten to the cash register'' or checked the video surveillance
tape.
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- The bodies were found at 12:45 a.m. Mountain Time (2:45
a.m. EST/0745 GMT) by a Subway employee who noticed that all the lights
in the store were still blazing even though it should have closed hours
earlier at 10 p.m.
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- Davis said police had not been able to enter the sandwich
shop to investigate the crime until 7 a.m. because they did not have the
necessary search warrant. He did not explain why a warrant was necessary
in such a situation.
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- Police said the crime was being investigated as a double
murder and not a murder-suicide. While there was no immediate motive, police
said they were probing the possibility that robbery was involved. One of
the teens worked at the shop.
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- Davis said how many times the two were shot and where
they were shot would be ``an investigative key.''
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- Courtney Scott, who brought flowers and a balloon to
the crime scene, said the dead girl was her cousin Stephanie. She said
the boy Nicholas worked at the sandwich shop part-time.
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- ``Nicholas and Stephanie were boyfriend and girlfriend.
They were dating, going out together,'' Scott said.
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- The grim discovery on Valentine's Day shocked Columbine
students. One group came to the parking lot of the sandwich shop and wrote
on the asphalt in blue chalk, ``For God so loved the world he gave his
only son so that we shall not perish but have eternal life.'' (John 3:16).
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- Using pink chalk, they wrote ``God is love.'' The students
also drew a circle around the word ``hate'' and put a slash through it.
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- One teenager from the area, Asley Cagle, 17, said of
the store, ``This is where we all hang out. We always drive by to see who
is chilling. This scares us. We are worried that someone is out there that
did this.''
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