A Florida teenager, accused of planning to kill a classmate in a bizarre attempt to “resurrect” the Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, wrote a remorseful letter to the judge, blaming the internet for her actions.
Initially, 15-year-old Isabelle Valdez joked with her alleged accomplice, 14-year-old Lois Olivios Lippert, after their arrest, suggesting they would become famous for their mugshots and become a “lesbian couple in jail.”
This week, Valdez shifted her approach, sending a three-page handwritten note to the judge expressing remorse, stating that her isolation from people and the internet since her January arrest had changed her.
In her letter filed in Seminole County Court, Valdez wrote, “I was exposed to the internet at a very young age, and all that was bad stemmed from it. The internet made me a horrible, horrible person.”
She claimed to have changed from the girl she was three months ago, when she allegedly planned to ambush a male classmate in the school bathroom, stab him, and then leave flowers and smoke a cigarette.
“I’ve been thinking about my life and my choices and I please beg and ask of you to please have some sympathy on me for as I want to change and I’m changing as a person,” she pleaded in the letter.
Valdez wrote about her involvement in the online True Crime Community, which idolizes school shootings like Columbine and Sandy Hook, in 2022-2023. Although she felt “seen” in this group, she admitted it was harmful to her.
“I got groomed in this community further into believing that violence was good, the people that were my so-called friends only ever wanted me to harm myself or others,” she explained.
She also described her experiences with bullying and confessed to having suicidal thoughts since the age of 7.
Valdez and Lippert, from Altamonte Springs, were arrested on January 22 following a tip-off about their plot to murder a classmate at Lake Brantley High School, according to authorities.
The intended victim reminded Valdez of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, who killed 20 children and six adults in 2012. She allegedly believed she could bring Lanza back to life by killing the boy, as per court documents.
After their arrest, Valdez and Lippert were caught on video joking about their murder plot in a police car.
Valdez confided in her best friend that she wanted to wear makeup to look good in her mugshot but couldn’t find any that morning, court documents reveal.
“Valdez then said ‘At least they will see me in the mugshot some way or another’” — suggesting that they would become famous in the true crime community, according to the report.
They also joked about becoming a “lesbian couple in jail.”
Both teens face charges of attempted first-degree murder.
