MORRISTOWN, Ind. — Police say a teenage girl who was obsessed with school shootings planned to kill as many people as possible at a rural Indiana high school before turning the gun on herself.
Shelby County Prosecutor Brad Landwerlen charged that girl, 17-year-old Alexis Pickett, with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and intimidation. She has pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents, the investigation began when Pickett’s parents went to police and told them she was showing “warning signs” of potentially hurting herself and others by committing a school shooting.
Pickett initially told deputies they were “empty threats.” According to charging documents, Pickett claimed she had been abused for many years and used true crime as a coping mechanism.
When detectives dug deeper, they discovered a number of disturbing details, including that Pickett had dressed up as a school shooter for Halloween, according to court records.
“We found a number of messages referencing other school shootings,” Landwerlen said of police’s investigation of Pickett. “A lot of research into other school shootings, a lot of references to particularly Columbine.”
The messages were exchanged on various platforms like Telegram and Discord.
During an interview with an adult woman from Ohio, who claimed to be Pickett’s partner, detectives learned that Pickett had been relating to school shooters. She had a particular connection to Columbine school shooter Eric Harris, according to police.
Detectives discovered that Pickett had an obsession with the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 14 people at the school in April 1999 before killing themselves.
Cops found numerous pictures of Klebold and Harris on Pickett’s phone as well as a drawing of the pair, according to charging documents.
The woman also told police that Pickett was planning the school shooting with someone named “Nathan,” and they were going to use her stepfather’s guns to carry it out.
Police said they found a video on Pickett’s phone that was taken inside the high school where she was a student. Pickett told police she sent it to “Nathan” since he “needed to know how to get in and out of the school.”
The two had decided to commit the mass shooting on May 25, 2026, according to court records.
Detectives discovered that Nathan was the name of 17-year-old girl in Mississippi who is transgender. The girl’s real name is redacted in public court filings.
“When asked what would’ve happened if we had not intervened, the response was ‘I would’ve killed a lot of people and myself,'” Landwerlen said.
The case shares a number of similarities with that of Trinity Shockley.
Shockley pled guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit murder, a level 2 felony. The 18-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in state prison and five years of probation upon release.
The charges against Shockley stemmed from a police investigation that revealed she was obsessed with other mass murderers and intended to kill her fellow students at Mooresville High School.
Shockley admired Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who killed 17 people in a 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Investigators discovered that Shockley had a collage of mass murderers in her bedroom, including Cruz and South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof.
There are other co-conspirators named in Pickett’s charging documents, and Prosecutor Landwerlen said those people remain under investigation.
He said it’s possible more charges could be filed in this case, but he doesn’t believe there is any outstanding threat to the school or people’s safety.
Pickett is being held on a $1 million cash bond and is scheduled to be back in court on Jan. 29.