A troubled teenager from Florida has been accused of plotting to kill a classmate, with the disturbing intention of “resurrecting” Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter. Now, Isabel Valdez, 15, has sent a heartfelt letter to the judge, claiming that the internet has turned her into a “horrible, terrible person.”
After her arrest, Valdez initially joked with her co-conspirator, Lois Olivios Lippert, 14, about their future together as “the lesbian couple in prison,” as their mug shots gained attention.
This week, though, Valdez reached out to the court with a three-page handwritten letter expressing her remorse. She mentioned that since her arrest in January, she has been “isolated from the public and the internet,” leading her to reflect on her actions.
“I have been exposed to the Internet since I was a child, and everything bad has happened to me because of it,” Valdez wrote in her letter, submitted to Seminole County Court. “The Internet has made me a terrible, terrible person.”
Valdez asserted that she is “not the same person” as she was three months prior, when she was accused of plotting to ambush a male classmate in a school bathroom, intending to stab him or cut his throat, and then leave flowers and smoke a cigarette.
In her letter, she mentioned contemplating her life choices and requested sympathy from the judge as she goes through a personal transformation.
Valdez reflected on her involvement in a darker online community that glamorizes violence, particularly school shootings such as Columbine and Sandy Hook. She felt a sense of belonging there but ultimately recognized it was detrimental to her well-being. “I was led to believe that violence was a good thing in this community,” she wrote, noting that her so-called friends encouraged harmful thoughts towards herself and others.
She described facing bullying and indicated that she had suffered from suicidal thoughts since the age of seven. Valdez and Lippert, both from Altamonte Springs, were arrested on January 22 after an informant alerted law enforcement to their chilling plan to murder a classmate at Lake Brantley High School.
According to investigators, Valdez was set to wait for the boy in a bathroom, stab him, leave flowers at the scene, and then smoke a cigarette, as he reminded her of Lanza. Court documents revealed that Valdez believed killing the boy might somehow bring him “back from the dead.”
After their arrest, Valdez and Lippert were filmed making unsettling jokes about their plot while in the back of a patrol car. Valdez was even caught saying she wanted to look better for her mug shot but couldn’t find her makeup that day.
They jokingly mentioned that they might gain fame in the true crime community, declaring that at least they’d be recognized in their mug shots.
Both teenagers are currently facing charges of attempted first-degree murder.
