Thursday, 4:30 PM
Other students say suspect in HS slaying talked about weapons and bombs
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff
Classmates at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School today described the 16-year-old who is accused of stabbing another student to death as a social outcast whose inappropriate behavior rang alarm bells.
The alleged attacker, John Odgren, wore trench coats to school, and often a fedora and small, round black sunglasses indoors. He appeared to have few friends, but would boast to anyone within earshot that he had a collection of weapons and that he knew about internet sites were weapons could be purchased, said junior Brianna Hodge, 16.
"He was just a really sketchy kid, he was always making references to killings and weapons and bombs," Hodge said. "He once asked the chemistry teacher for some acid to continue making a bomb."
Odgren also seemed to have problems relating to other students, and would follow girls around and make inappropriate comments, she said.
"He wasn't quite a stalker, but he kept asking my friend out, very persistent, very creepy," she said. "He just wouldn't take no for an answer."
Katie Crowley, also a junior, said Odgren, who also took a course in crime scene forensics at the school, which is located just a few miles from the State Police Laboratory, was the butt of frequent jokes about another Columbine High School-type massacre.
"Who would honesty be like, I want to go out and kill someone," she said. "I think he did it for the attention."
