Teen Idol Christina Grimmie was rising to stardom
in 2016, after coming in third place on The Voice. She amassed over 2 million subscribers on YouTube
and was doing tours in the US and in Europe, back to back. Her fans adored her, they would travel
for hours just to hear her sing, just to meet her afterwards. But there was one morbidly obsessed
fan, who didn't have quite pure intentions when he came to visit Christina at her merch table. For a
long time, this fan had been watching Christina's every move online. He was learning everything about
her and on the final night of her American tour, he decided to pay her a visit. Today, we're going to
be talking about the tragic murder of Christina Grimmie. Before we get into the case, I want
to thank Casetify for sponsoring this video. You guys already know how much I love Casetify's
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The link is also down below in the description and that will automatically apply a 15% discount
code at checkout. Thank you again to Casetify for sponsoring this video. Quickly before I get into
the case, I just want to give my usual disclaimer that I'm in absolutely no disrespect to anyone
that I talk about in this video. This video is for educational purposes and everything that I'm about
to say is just information that myself and my team have found on the internet and have compiled
into this one video. There are a couple of content warnings for this case so if any of the following
topics are too sensitive for you right now, please click out of the video. The topics include stalking,
cancer and suicide. So like I say, if you don't want to hear about any of that right now, click out, look
after yourself and hopefully I will get to see you again some other time with a different case but
with all of that being said, let's get into it. So today's case takes place in Orlando, Florida in
2016. A very recent one again and I'm sure a lot of you actually remember this one happening. That
summer, 22 year old singer Christina Grimmie was wrapping up an American tour as the support act
for a band named Before You Exit. She'd had such a great time on this tour. She loved performing,
she loved singing, she loved hearing her fans sing the words back to her, she loved going out of the
venues after the concerts to go and meet the fans on the street. She was really happy with her life
and really, really happy with this career that she was paving for herself. Christina had always been
really, really into music ever since she was a tiny baby. She had been in the church choir, she even
taught herself to play a piano! Taught herself, I don't know how you do that, especially as a child
but she managed it and she was just so into music! She grew up in New Jersey with her parents Bud and
Tina and she also had an older brother named Mark or Marcus. He- it's both but for some reason
my brain interchanges those so if that gets confusing, Mark and Marcus are the same person and
he was like, Christina's best friend because there wasn't that much of an age gap between them. He
was only like, just over a year older than her so of course, they were very close in age, they had a
lot of similar interests and one of their like, most fondest memories of childhood was playing video
games together. They both loved playing video games especially Super Mario and actually, when
they grew up and became adults, they decided that they wanted to get matching tattoos. And it was
was those memories of playing Super Mario at home together that led to them getting matching tattoos
that said Player One and Player Two, which I think is really cute! Although Christina's childhood
hadn't always been smooth sailing, I mean don't get me wrong, they were a very happy family and they
always loved and supported each other, they were always there for each other. Their actual family
unit was great. But things had been tough for the whole family but especially Tina, the mother who
had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She'd been through countless rounds of chemotherapy and
just different treatments to try to bring it under control a little bit more and it was working
to a degree, it was helping to prolong her life and to make her quality of life better for longer but
they knew it wasn't- it wasn't a complete solution, it wasn't a complete cure. But even though life could
be quite difficult for the Grimmie family, they all somehow had a smile on their face, they all kept
going, they all kept achieving their dreams and just being this wonderful little family unit. The
Grimmie family were Christian and this actually really influenced Christina all the way through
her life. Her first tattoo, here on her arm, was actually a quote from her favourite scripture,
it said All is Vanity. She started getting into singing and piano at the age of six and her
parents really helped her. Once she'd started like, teaching herself to play a piano, her dad
went and got her piano lessons. They really, really supported their daughter, every step of the way.
They recognised that she had raw talent, even as a little girl, like, to be able to teach yourself
to play a piano that shows that this kid was gifted, very musically gifted and her parents knew
that this was her passion and they wanted to help fuel that for her. As she grew up, Christina would
record videos of herself singing in her bedroom room and she wouldn't show them to anyone, really.
I mean, she started showing them to friends and family after a while but at first, these videos
were just for her own improvement purposes. She would watch them back and see what she could
do better, what she could do differently, where she was kind of weaker in places. She was really,
really serious about her music. And it was when she started showing these videos to friends and family
and they were just so amazed by her talent, they were like, put these out there, people need to see
these. And that's why YouTube comes in. In the mid to late 2000s, YouTube was just starting to pick
up. Well, it had been picking up for a while but videos were just starting to go viral, as we know
a viral video today. You had all them classics at the time like; Charlie bit my finger and Chocolate
Rain, Nyan Cat, Charlie the Unicorn, why was everyone called Charlie? But yeah, videos were starting
to get, like, millions of views. You- viral YouTube videos became a thing in the mid-2000s. YouTube's
slogan at the time was Broadcast Yourself, which I think sums up YouTube, or especially YouTube
at that time, really really well because normal people couldn't really be entertainers. You had
to know someone in the film industry or the TV industry to be able to like, perform, to be able to
be someone but with YouTube, all you needed was a camera and an internet connection and you can make
your own entertainment, you can be an entertainer. It's very homemade, yeah but people can make things
and put them out there, that was a brand new like, concept. At the time in the mid-2000s, some of the
most popular genres of videos were singing covers and comedy skits. They were completely taken over
YouTube and Christina found herself making both. One day, one of her friends came up to her and showed
her a video of a girl singing on YouTube and this video had gone viral, it had like loads of views,
this girl was getting loads of subscribers and the friend was like... Christina, you're better than
this girl! If this girl can get all these views and all these fans and all these lovely comments,
imagine what you could get and Christina was like... you know what, you're right! She realised
that this could actually be an excellent opportunity for her, this was a brand new way to
put yourself out there and get yourself noticed. So that night, she went home and she created
her YouTube channel which was called Zelda X love 64. Christina's first ever YouTube
video was a cover of Don't Want to be Torn by Hannah Montana. She posted it on July 17
2009 and the video was an overnight success. Christina woke up the next day to thousands of
views, hundreds of comments from kind strangers that loved her voice and wanted to hear more of
her voice. They were commenting asking for more... so she gave them more. Her next upload was a week
later, this time she covered Party in the USA and when that one was posted, it was met with even more
positivity than the last one and so now, Christina really got a bug for it, she was really enjoying
making YouTube videos and she decided to make them a weekly thing. Very quickly, Christina Grimmie
cultivated a huge audience of very loyal and loving followers. She actually called her fans, her
friends. You know how you- people used to have like, um fandom names like, Arianators and Beliebers,
hers were just her friends which I think is so cute! I think that's- that's so YouTube
isn't it because you do feel so much more... I don't know, on a friend level with YouTubers than
you feel with Ariana or Justin Bieber. I just think that's really, really sweet and it- it shows how she
saw her audience as well, she didn't see them as an audience, she saw them as a group of friends that
came to listen to her sing once a week and say something nice about it. Her fan base grew really,
really quickly because like I say, they were very very loyal and they were very proud of Christina
so they would share her videos around all over the Internet and get them circulating, get new people
watching them. Her audience was growing, literally by the hour and all of this was so exciting for
Christina. She was about 15 years old at this point and nothing like this had ever happen to
her before, she was getting so giddy and everyone else was happy for her obviously but her parents
couldn't help but be a little bit nervous about it because it is the internet after all and this
was the mid-2000s and parents were scared of the internet and of children putting themselves out
on the internet and who could be seeing that and who could be talking to them and you know, it's
a bit of an unnerving feeling for a parent that your 15 year old daughter has all these people
watching her. You don't know who those people are, you don't know if some of them are creepy men
looking at her with weird intentions and not just to hear her sing. So for that reason, her mother
and father, I think it was more so her dad Bud, he started monitoring her comment sections. He wanted
to know what people were saying, he wanted to know who was watching his baby daughter but when he
went to that comment section, he was overwhelmed with how much love there was for Christina. There
were so many especially young girls, teenage girls commenting about how Christina had helped them
through a hard time and they're- they're going through something at the moment but they just put
her videos on and it- it takes them somewhere else and her dad was just so proud of his daughter
and so happy for her that she was doing the thing that she loved the most and she was helping
people. Like, that is the best case scenario! Isn't that what everyone wants to do with their lives?
Something that they love and that other people love. And it was more than just her voice that
people loved about Christina Grimmie, a lot of the reason that she had such a loyal fan base
was because she was just a lovely person as well! Like, in the intros of her videos before she
started singing, she'd be all like silly, goofy mood you know very relatable very very sweet!
What the heck was that?! I don't even know! Oh My God, wrong part! Also there's a new- there's a... I don't even know
what I want to say right now. There's a- there's a- I'm- I'm a. She would chat to her subscribers, she
wouldn't just go on and sing and then leave, like she actually cared! She cared to have a two-way
dialogue with her friends. People warmed to her for so many different reasons, she was just very
easy to love. As Christina's videos snowballed in views, they managed to catch the attention of one
very important person a lady named Mandy Teefey, you might recognise that name if you're a Selena Gomez
stan because... that's her mom! Mandy Teefey is Selena Gomez's mum. Selena Gomez's mum was the person
that discovered Christina Grimmie on YouTube, all the way back then. Mandy was a former actress
and after she'd finished like, acting and being on the screen, she decided to go into the behind the
scenes of the showbiz industry. She was a manager now and of course, when she saw Christina's videos
she was like, I want to manage her! She's amazing, like, she really wanted to find Christina. She
tried to find her actually online, other than YouTube and she wasn't having much success so
she went to her husband who was also a manager, I think they kind of worked together on this like,
behind the scenes entertainment stuff and she was like, please help me find this girl, we need to-
we need to manage this girl, we need to make her someone. The first video that they saw of hers
was a cover of My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion and they were just floored! Like, Selena saw it, she
thought it was amazing, as well. So when this offer finally arrived at Christina's door, when they
finally managed to like track her down, I think they emailed her brother Mark and once she
heard this offer, it was a total no-brainer for her. I mean of course, this is Selena Gomez's
mum, she knows what's good and what's not. So with that, Mandy and Brian, her husband, were Christina
Grimmie's managers. And this absolutely skyrocketed Christina's career, one of the first gigs that they
managed to get her was as a support act on Selena Gomez's U.S tour! She did a US tour with Selena
Gomez and the Scene. Do you remember the Scene? That band that she used to have with her, I miss
Selena Gomez and the Scene! This was such a huge, life-changing opportunity for Christina, she would
be in front of hundreds of thousands of potential fans, just waiting to discover her. But all of
this excitement about the tour was a short-lived because unfortunately, Christina's mother was just
way too sick to be able to come with her and that also meant that her dad couldn't come with
her because he would have to stay at home and look after her mother. So she had no one to take her on
this tour and because she was a minor, she needed someone over the age of 18 with her at all times
to supervise her across the U.S. But lucky for Christina, her brother Mark was eligible. He was
over 18 and he was a musician! This was perfect for him, he would love to go on tour. So Marcus,
very kindly, put his life on hold for a couple of months to take his sister touring the U.S, to go
and achieve her dreams. The two of them had so much fun together on this tour, Mark was kind of like her
tour manager and he would also perform in her band because he could play the guitar! So they'd both
be on stage at the same time which I- I think is so sweet that they got to share that. The whole tour
was a blast and coming out of it, Christina was more motivated and inspired and passionate than
ever and she was eagerly awaiting her next big opportunity which came in 2013. This time, Selena
Gomez was going on tour again but on her own this time, she ditched the Scene and it was just the
Selena Gomez U.S tour and once again, Christina Grimmie was invited along to be a support act.
Christina and Selena became really, really close through this whole time, there's like videos and
photos of them online because obviously, Christina would make these funny, goofy little YouTube videos
and every now and again, Selena would be in the background and Christina would turn a laptop
and Selena would just be like, walking by saying something. They got on really, really well clearly
and Selena really, really believed in Christina's talent. She thought she was amazing, hence why she
asked to get her back for tar once again because Selena's fans loved Christina and so did Selena.
Christina was doing some really cool stuff through the years, like, in between these tours she went
on the Ellen show, she opened a show for the Jonas Brothers, she was in an episode of So Random. You
know how they- you know Sonny with a Chance, the Disney Channel show, when they made So Random
like an actual separate show like a skit show and they used to have musical performers, she was on
that! I never knew that but she was on that. I've watched all of those so I've probably seen that
and I had no idea. It was around this time that Christina's whole family moved from New Jersey
to LA so that she could be closer to the pulse of the entertainment industry. And this was a really
big and difficult decision for the family to make. I mean obviously, her mother was very very ill
and they would be moving from all of their home comforts, all of their extended family, everything
that they know in New Jersey. They were just gonna leave it all behind for LA and that was something
that her mother never wanted to do. She never wanted to leave New Jersey, she loved New Jersey,
she loved her life but she could see how important this dream was for Christina and that was more
important to Tina than her home comforts and living in the house that she liked in New Jersey.
She wanted to see her daughter achieve her dreams and go touring and become this super powerful
superstar! And that was enough for Tina, you know, she no longer wanted to stay in New Jersey. If LA
was the place that her daughter needed to be, then that was where they were going to be. So they all
moved to LA and around the same time, this was when Christina hit 2 million subscribers on YouTube
which in today's uh- economy, YouTube economy, that's kind of- well I mean I have two million,
it's not as hard to get now. Back in the day, two million would have been about six or seven million
today, into- in today's money with the inflation of YouTube subscribers! But yeah, back then there were
less people on YouTube so 2 million subscribers meant more than 2 million today. Christina was
getting quite frankly too famous for public school, um- this was back in New Jersey. When she moved to
LA, she was homeschooled for this exact reason but back in New Jersey, the kids at her school reacted
to her fame very differently and in very jarring ways. So there was- there was a group of people
that thought it was cool and just were happy for her and that's what you want everyone to be really,
isn't it? But there were two other further ends of this scale. There were people that like, thought her
followers were really, really cool and like wanted to use her and wanted to be posted and wanted to
be shouted out, you know? People that were going to use her for what she has created and on the
other end of that, there were people that thought she was really weird for posting videos on YouTube.
They would make fun of her, they would think it was stupid. Trust, I've seen all ends of that scale. So
there was that reason that she was homeschooled but also, being homeschooled made it so much easier
for her to follow her dreams when she didn't have to spend most of her week in school, she could get
her education but also write songs and perform and go on tour. And she was doing so much cool stuff!
I already told you about a lot of it but there was even more that came when she moved to LA like,
she helped to write a song with Dove Cameron for the Disney Channel show Liv and Maddie which is
really cool! A Disney Channel song! She also wrote her own EP and an album, her album was called With
Love and it peaked at 101 on the Billboard charts. She did write most of the album herself but Avril
Lavigne actually has writing credits on Christina Grimmie's album which again, really really cool!
I can't imagine how fun it must have been to be Christina Grimmie and to be such an aspiring
and passionate musician and to get all of these opportunities at such a young age, in your late
teens your early 20s, she was- she was really living the dream. But her biggest break was still yet to
come when she went on The Voice in 2014. I'm sure most of you do know what the Voice is and the
whole concept of that show but for someone that doesn't watch The Voice, I actually had to research
this so I'll tell you, just in case you don't know. So obviously, it's a TV singing competition but not
like the X Factor. I'm used to the X Factor where there's like they have good singers and then they
throw in a couple of s**t ones and it's supposed to be like, comedy value and you're supposed
to laugh at the people that are bad at singing. It's actually really mean when you think about it!
But the voice isn't like that, they don't do like, the comedy value thing like, they only have good
singers on there to compete against each other to find the best one like, it's a serious competition.
They actually invite you to audition for The Voice, you can't like apply, it's not open to the general
public, they invite you to audition if they think you're a good enough singer for The Voice. The
first audition is called a Blind Audition because the judges- there's four judges and they're not
allowed to see the person that's singing. So all of their chairs are like, turned to the audience and
the singer is behind them on stage, singing their little heart out and basically when they decide
that they like that singer and they want to give them a yes, they press a button and their chair
turns around. Actually quite a cool concept because then they can't be sweared by like, the person's
looks or their stage presence or... anything, nothing! The only thing that matters to these judges is the
voice that they are hearing... the voice! I just understood it! And basically once the judges
turn their chairs around, that's like getting a yes um- and however many chairs the singer has turned
round at the end, they can choose from those judges to make one of them their mentor for the rest of
the competition. So there it is a little bit like X Factor, you know what... I think I just explained that
in the most confusing way possible. I'm sure you already knew what the Voice was but just in case
you're like me and you don't watch TV, I don't know what the Voice is. So when Christina auditioned for
The Voice she did another Miley Cyrus classic, she did Wrecking Ball and she absolutely knocked it
out of the park. All four judges were so impressed by her that they all turned round, most of them-
three of them had even turned round before she even reached the chorus! That was Shakira, Usher
and Adam Levine from Maroon 5. And if those three people think you have an amazing voice before
you've even got to the damn chorus, that's insane! All four of the judges did turn in the end, like I
said and because all four of them wanted her, that meant that Christina got her pick of the judges,
who she wanted to be her mentor and she chose Adam Levine. She made it all the way to the finals and
finished in third place which is just incredible, isn't it, for such a young woman. Especially given
that the bar is very, very high for the Voice, like, there's only good singers on there so you have to
be the absolute cream of the crop to win. But her placement in the actual competition hardly even
mattered because point is, she'd been on TV for ages and loads of people knew who Christina
Grimmie was now. Loads of people had heard her voice and loads of big people in the music
industry wanted to get to know her and wanted her to work with them. She had a bunch of record
labels fighting over her after she was on The Voice. One of them was Adam Levine, he wanted her
on his own record label. Another one was Lil Wayne... he wanted to earn Young Money, which I find quite
interesting?! Um- but she actually ended up turning both of them down and she went with Island Records.
But regardless of how mainstream famous she was, Christina never forgot about her fans which
I think is really, really sweet. She was always making those YouTube videos like, whenever she had
a spare few minutes to sing them a song or come and drop in and speak to them. She'd go on her
Snapchat story and keep them all updated. They were still her friends and they still meant the
world to her, they were still there with her every step of the way and she was always really, really
connected with them. She never forgot that they were the reason why she was living her dream, why
she was in the position that she was in, why she could have a record label and why all these people
could know her name and she would get invited on The Voice and make a Disney Channel song and go on
tour with Selena, it's all because of those people that watched her YouTube videos and she was so
so grateful for that, the whole time. She took absolutely every chance that she got to be able
to meet fans and take photos with them and just get to know them, just get to know them, like the
friends that they were to her. After her appearance on the Voice, Christina was obviously booked and
busy. Everyone wanted to know her, everyone wanted to work with her, every big artist wanted her
as a support act on their tour because I mean even though she was known now, she wasn't quite big
enough to have her own tour but she was definitely big enough that people were fighting over her for
the support act slot. So a few of the tours that she did, she went across Europe with a band called
Before You Exit, she did a U.S tour with a singer named Rachel Platten and then she joined Before
You Exit again on their U.S tour. She was loving every second of it but that doesn't mean it wasn't
very, very tiring. She was exhausted, so was Mark. I mean this was their dream to be musicians and to
perform and to and to sing to an audience but in such quick succession, it was really really tiring
for them and so the two of them had kind of come to this realisation that, okay after this American
tour finishes, let's you know chill out a little bit, let's have a little bit of time off. To be fair,
Christina wanted to get back home and get writing. She wanted to be creating a new body of work, she
wanted a new album or a new EP or new- just new songs in general because she'd been playing the
same ones the whole time that she'd been on all these tours and that's not to say she didn't like
them but she was- she was getting ready for a new era. June 10th 2016 was the night of their final
performance on the American tour with Before You Exit. Christina and Mark had already packed all
their suitcases, ready to leave the next day but not before one last banger of a show. The venue
of the night was the Plaza Live, it was in Orlando did I tell you that? I think I- anyway! The
Plaza Live had a capacity of about 1,250 People. Christina was so excited to perform that night,
she'd been posting on socials all day saying come down, come meet me like, if you're in the Orlando
area come to our last show. Hey guys, what's up? Um, we're in Orlando today, please come to
the show if you live near Orlando, Florida. We are at the Plaza live, please come out, bye! That night the
show went perfectly, Christina was pretty much on autopilot at this point, like, she knew her set
inside and out. She would just like, go into her own little- own little place whenever she was on
stage. Her brother was supporting in her band, as always and she sang a mixture of covers that
the audience could sing along to and her own original songs. After the show as she did with
every other show, Christina would go and sit at the merch table afterwards and meet anyone that
wanted to meet her. People would come and make a little line at the merch table and buy a shirt
or a CD and get her to sign it and they'd take pictures and they'd laugh and they'd get to know
each other. Her fans absolutely loved this about her, I think- I think this is what makes Christina
so different to any other like, young pop star is that she had this connection with her fans because
she had such a social media presence that like... I don't know, they were her friends. And she wouldn't
charge them money, she would do this for free. She went and sat at the merch table because she wanted
to give back to the people that had just given her such a great show. So after her final show finished
at about 10 pm, Christina headed over to the merch table and her brother Marcus was there with her,
of course he was her chaperone for like, all of her tours and he would just always like, hang
around. You know, partly to keep an eye on her, partly to act as like, a little bit of security
just in case. And also because quite a few of Christina's fans actually knew who he was because
they had this connection with her, they knew more about her than they knew about mainstream singers
because she had this social media presence, they'd seen her brother on her socials before they
wanted pictures with him too, they wanted his autograph. He'd also just help her out with like
the merch table, she'd be there meeting and talking to people and he'd be like, stacking the shirts up
and taking the money and stuff like that, he was a really really supportive brother, all the
way throughout. But above all at the end of the day, he was there to keep Christina safe. That was
the main reason he was on tour was, you know, to just keep an eye on her, she was a 22 year old woman at
this point. She wasn't his baby sister anymore but she was still his sister and he was still gonna
gonna watch over her. So the line for Christina's meet and greet was nearing an end at about 20 past
ten, she'd been doing this for a little while and there were about 15 people left in the queue when
an older man approaches Christina's table. A couple of people around had already noticed this man
waiting in the queue and they thought it was a little bit odd. They just thought he was a bit too
old to be there, I know that sounds horrible but he wasn't in Christina's usual demographic of like,
teeny boppers like there were loads of young girls in this queue and then just like an older man and
then loads of more young girls. And you know, people didn't really want to judge this man for his music
taste, anyone can like any kind of music no matter what you look like. But naturally, when people saw
this older man approaching this young woman at a table, they were like... what- what's his intentions,
what's gonna happen here? And it wasn't just that he didn't look like your typical Christina Grimmie
fan, he was also just acting a bit weird! Like, he was giving people reason to be suspicious of him,
he was a bit shifty and awkward and he was very sweaty and red, even though it wasn't that warm
in there, like no one else was sweaty and red. It didn't seem that Christina thought much of this,
I mean she'd met nervous, shy fans before and- and that's just what this guy seemed to be. He- he was
quiet, he was silent actually when he walked up to the table. He just looked at Christina, he didn't
say anything um- but she thought that was to- due to nerves, she thought he was speechless. So Christina
did what she always did with nervous fans, she just opened her arms and offered him a hug. Let him
just walk into her arms so that she could embrace him and tell him thank you for being a fan. She
always felt that was one of the best way to deal with these like, anxious fans. Usually like, little
girls that would come up to her like, shaking, not being able to get their words out, she'd just give
him a big squeeze. So Christina opened her arms to this man and that was when everyone realised
that he wasn't there as a fan, he was there to murder Christina Grimmie. This man was 27 year
old Kevin Loibel. He was a Florida native and had driven two hours that day, well- gotten a taxi,
two hours that day to go and see Christina at her final show after seeing her advertising it on her
Snapchat. Kevin had been unhealthily obsessed with Christina for quite some time now. The obsession
had developed over the years, at first it started with him just being a regular fan that had found
this girl singing online but as the years went by, he became very delusional about it and he withdrew
from the rest of his life that- that wasn't Christina. His life literally consisted of sitting
in the house and watching Christina's videos, over and over again and checking on her socials to see
if she'd posted anything new and just waiting for another video to be posted. He did have a job but
that was it. He would go out to work at Best Buy and even then, he wasn't like front facing with
the public because his management thought that he was very awkward and slightly off-putting so they
put him in the back, they put him on the Geek Squad which- which you know. Which I think meant that he
was dealing with like, I don't know, Electronics or something in the back. He only really had like, one
co-worker that he worked with and that was it for his social interaction. He would go home at the end
of the day where he lived with his father and his brother and he wouldn't really speak to them. He
would just go up into his bedroom and shut himself in for the rest of the night until he had to get
up for work the next day. He literally only worked to make money to keep his laptop on so that he
could watch Christina videos. Kevin Loibel was like, in love with Christina, well he thought he
was anyway because he thought he knew her, he thought he really knew this girl's personality
because he'd watched so many of her videos and like I said, she would do these like silly goofy intros
and like pull faces and stuff and even though, yes you are seeing a glimmer into her personality, he
didn't know her as a person at all! But because he was so delusional, he didn't even think about the
fact that he didn't actually know this woman. He just decided that he wanted to be with her, he
wanted to marry her one day. He always thought that he was going to meet her one day and that
she was just gonna fall head over heels in love with him and they were going to be together
but there was a problem... well there was a lot of problems, actually but one of his particular
problems was that he was a very, very insecure person. He didn't feel confident enough to meet
Christina yet, the way that he was looking and so he embarked on a whole journey to change
his appearance, like, pretty much every element of his appearance was changed for Christina
because he thought that that would make her fall in love when she saw him. He spent so much
money doing this as well, he got laser eye surgery so he wouldn't have to wear glasses anymore, he
got hair implants. He whitened his teeth, he even went vegan for a couple of reasons actually.
Christina was, I think she was also a vegan and an animal rights activist so. But he also went
vegan to lose weight, specifically to lose weight. He lost 50 pounds being vegan and that's not
the only like, lifestyle change that he made for Christina, he also converted to Christianity after
being an atheist all his life, he said that it was Christina that made him believe in God. All of
this for a woman that doesn't even know he exists. He is so deluded and so in love with this
woman that he has created in his head based on these little clips, that he's doing all this!
Putting- throwing all this money at his appearance... thinking that that is the missing puzzle piece? To
get them together? Like, that's- you've got a whole load more problems than just how you look. And I
mean I- I don't want to be mean but I feel like your appearance is the last thing you should be
worrying about when your personality is strange beyond comprehension and you're a very off-putting
person. The murder aside, this man was weird, strange in every single way. Like I said, he barely left
his bedroom because he didn't like socialising, he didn't like seeing people and it actually got
that bad that he put tin foil up on his windows to block out the light! Are you a vampire? He didn't
have any friends, um- well outside of work. He had one person that he considered a friend but I
don't think that person considered himself Kevin's friend. It was just a co-worker that was the
closest person in his life because it was the only person he ever blooming to talk to so Kevin
saw this co-worker as a friend as his only friend. And this friend was aware of Kevin's obsession
with Christina, I don't think he knew quite how bad it was but he knew that his co-worker had a
crush on this YouTuber/singer. Kevin would watch Christina's videos at work even, like, he couldn't
even have a break while he was on the clock. And he would even tell his friend/ co-worker about
Christina and about her journey and about how she was on The Voice and all of this stuff like,
he would talk about her as if he was his girl- she was his girlfriend back at home. Obviously, this
co-worker was aware that Kevin had this crush on an internet celebrity and he would kind of tease
him for it, that's the kind of thing that you tease your friends for having like a unattainable crush.
He'd be like, oh is it your girlfriend? Kevin didn't like that. Kevin did not like that! And in the month
or so before the Orlando show, Kevin's delusions were getting worse than ever about Christina.
He was telling this work friend that they were gonna be together soon, like, he was gonna meet
her and they were going to be together soon. He told him about the Orlando show and the meet up
and everything and this co-worker turned to him and obviously because Kevin's quite sensitive
about this subject, the co-worker tried to give him logic and reason and he was, like, you know I
don't think she's gonna fall in love with you at the meet and greet, like, I don't think she's gonna
see you when it's gonna be love at first sight. Well, Kevin took that even worse! He was so angry, he
was like shouting at this man and threatening to end their friendship over this. He was adamant
that his co-workers didn't know anything about him or his relationship or Christina, he told
them that he did know her and they played video games together all the time! That's not true, uh-
but he told his co-workers that, I guess to make it more believable, like, no trust! Like, we play
video games online all the time! No they didn't, no they didn't, Christina had no idea who this
man was, they had never interacted before. And that shows just how embarrassed he was to have a
crush on someone that didn't even know he existed, like, once people pointed that out to him, he had to
lie and get defensive and say, well no! No we- she does know who I am! In the month before the Orlando
incident, Kevin's co-worker, his friend, someone that he considered a friend actually reported him to
management because of this weird behaviour because of all these weird things that he was saying about
Christina and how obsessed he was. It was just... weird to be around, it was just very uncomfortable.
I'm sure you can imagine, like, if someone was so delusionally obsessed with a celebrity and
was talking about them all the time as if it was their boyfriend or girlfriend, you would be a
bit like... go away weirdo! This co-worker was just quite disturbed by Kevin at this point so he went
to management and told them everything about his weird obsession with Christina and management, like,
they were like, yeah okay sorry that does sound really weird but like... he's not breaking any rules,
he's not like going against any store policies or like... he's not breaking the law. Really what can
management do? Tell him to stop- stop fancying the girl on the Internet. It's a bit of a sticky
one, he was just over sharing his weird thoughts. There wasn't really anything that management
could really do, they felt like it just wasn't their place to- to change this man's personality
when it wasn't impacting his work. June 5th was five days before the Orlando show and that was the
last time that Kevin spoke to that co-worker. He went into work that day and brought in a bunch
of comic books that he borrowed from this guy, he returned them all, told him that he loved him
but he was tired and he was ready to ascend. Which in hindsight, definitely sounds concerning when-
especially when you know more about this man and like, the- the thoughts going on inside his brain.
But this co-worker didn't know any of that really, he just had a very surface level relationship
with this... weirdo that really likes this singer online and like, he just kind of put up with him at
work so how was he supposed to know what ready to ascend meant? Kevin was a weird guy that said weird
things like that all the time, like, if they were to flag every single weird thing he said, they would
never stop. Kevin had already bought his ticket to Christina's show and a month before this, he'd gone
out and bought his murder weapons. Weapons, multiple. He had had this plan in the works for at least
a month. On the night before the show, June 9th, Kevin got a taxi all the way to Orlando. It was
about a two-hour journey from wherever he lived um- and he booked a room in the Marriott
hotel. With him he took a backpack and that's it, he took a backpack with a change of
clothes in, some toiletries, his concert ticket and murder weapons. Those murder weapons that he
purchased a month prior included a hunting knife, two shotguns and a whole load of ammunition. On the
day of the concert, he hid all of these weapons on his person so when he got to the venue, he was able
to just walk straight inside. Back then, they only really did like bag searches outside of venues
and I mean... they still do that at most venues now. Security really needs to step up at music venues,
I've always said this. But you know at least now in like, big venues, they have metal detectors and
stuff that you have to walk through and they actually- actually do kind of search you. Well back
then, there was nothing of the sort. He had three weapons just like, in different waistbands and
stuff and he was able to walk into that concert... freely. Kevin stood at the back of the audience for
the whole show and there's a few videos that you can see him in and he's not even, like, dancing or
singing along or smiling. He's literally like stood at the back of the room just staring at Christina.
Like I don't know what I expected him to be doing but it wasn't that, like, I know that he's got
this plan in his head but you would at least- would you not act the part when you're in the
crowd? He just looked so suspicious the whole night But actually, that makes a little bit
of sense when you hear that Kevin was angry at Christina that day. On the day of the
concert, he was angry at this woman that he'd never met or interacted with because he
had recently found out that Christina had a boyfriend or at least she was seeing someone.
I think it was her producer and there were a bunch of pictures of them online looking all
cute, you know, together. Kevin had seen those and he did not like it one bit. Kevin was so mad
at Christina for wanting to be with someone that's not him, he felt betrayed. He is so deluded that the
thoughts and emotions that he was experiencing in relation to this whole situation, were very similar
to that of being cheated on. Even though Christina didn't even know he existed, he- in his head had
been in a relationship with her and was gonna get married to her, they were going to be together
and then all of a sudden, he sees these photos and that just shatters this illusion for him and he
can no longer see Christina in the same light. He feels so betrayed by her and he is so angry at
her and he feels as though she has done something specifically to him. Like I say, he feels cheated
on even though Christina has done nothing wrong here, he feels like she's wronged him. And that
is believed to be his motive for what he went on to do at her meet and greet that day. When
Kevin walked over to her merch table, she saw how nervous he looked so she stood up, opened her
arms to him for a hug and he pulled a shotgun out of his waistband and shot her multiple times at
point blank range. Reports differ on exactly how many shots were fired, we've kind of come to the
conclusion that it was three. One in the head and two in the chest. Christina instantly fell to the
ground. There was no screaming, there was no nothing. She didn't have time to react to this, Christina
just fell to the ground and her brother Marcus was standing right next to her as this happened.
And hearing him tell this story is so harrowing, he said that he just heard this popping noise and
it sounded like a fake gun, it didn't even feel real. And the next thing he knew, his little sister
just fell to the ground. He'd heard these bangs, his sister is on the ground and then everyone starts
screaming. It just sounded, like, almost like a fake gun, just a loud pop and Christina's just on the
ground. And without even thinking, just on raw instinct, Marcus launched himself over the merch
table and lunged at his sister's attacker. He tackled Kevin to the ground and tried to wrestle
the shotgun away from him but Kevin was determined to keep hold of this shotgun, he was putting up
a fight. But Mark has feared what could happen if this man kept hold of the gun. If no one got it
off him, who else was he gonna shoot? Was he gonna turn around and massacre this whole concert venue?
Marcus finally managed to get the gun away from Kevin and when he did, his grip on actual Kevin
loosened a little bit because he was no longer armed and he didn't feel like as much of a threat.
He managed to wriggle out of Marcus's grip and everyone thought that he had been disarmed... nobody
knew that he had another shotgun in his waistband. As Kevin pulled this gun out and everyone saw it,
Marcus remembered thinking... that's it, he was gonna be dead and this man was gonna shoot up
this entire place, this was where they all die. But to everyone's surprise, Kevin Loibel backed up
into the wall, raised the gun to his own head and shot himself. Kevin Loibel died instantly. This
whole interaction from when he arrived at the merch table to when he himself died was no more
than a minute. All of this had happened so quickly, just a minute ago Marcus had been stood at the
side of his little sister, 22 years old achieving her dreams, touring the world, doing meet and greets
signing autographs for fans. And now just like that, some man arrived and killed her. And now she was
laying on the floor, dead. In the middle of her meet and greet, in the middle of doing the thing that
she loved doing the most, putting herself out there for free to her fans to connect to make friends to
sign autographs and take pictures, she wanted to do this because she loved her fans and someone did
this to her. A medic in the building was alerted and he rushed over to come and see Christina,
he felt for her pulse and he actually found one, although it was very weak and he was worried that
it wouldn't stay. He was trying to give her CPR, just trying to keep her alive until an ambulance
could come. However after one shot to the head and two to the chest, it was very unlikely that she
was gonna survive this. Christina was rushed to a nearby hospital but later that evening, thousands
of miles away from her parents, Christina Grimmie was pronounced dead. Mark was absolutely crushed
that he hadn't managed to save his sister that day. He felt almost responsible for being her
guardian on that tour, he was the one there that was looking over and making sure that she was
okay but in this one instance, how could he have? How could he have possibly known that that man
had a gun in his waistband and how could he have possibly stopped him before he shot his sister, he
couldn't have. I think that's one of the scariest parts of this case for me is that... no one could
have really stopped this, other than having better security on the door at the venue but you know,
they didn't so he did manage to get in with a gun. No one could have stopped him at that point, I
really don't think they could have, how was anyone supposed to know that he was gonna do this? Other
than better security at the venue, this is just one of those unpreventable crimes that scares me
so much. Later that night, the news of Christina Grimmie's untimely death hit the internet and
everyone was just so devastated. There were so many tweets and photos and loving messages and fan
edits and videos and little collections of like, everyone coming together and posting pictures
and holding signs and it was lovely, the- the fan response to this. I mean it was- it was
heartbreaking but it was heartwarming to see how many people loved and were so affected by
Christina, in her life and the content that she made and the talent that she had and the joy
that she brought to the world. So many people were so moved by this woman that they wanted to
pay their respects. And among all of those people paying their respects, there were of course a bunch
of celebrities because Christina had friends in the industry. Selena Gomez posted a memorial photo
for Christina. Adam Levine, the band Before You Exit, there were tons of people, tons of YouTubers
as well! Of course because she was a YouTuber at the heart of it all, that's where she got big,
that's- that's where she started. And actually, Adam Levine was so affected by Christina's death that
he offered to pay for all of the funeral costs and he actually paid to get her body transported
from Orlando back to California, where her family could have her funeral. On her next tour, Selena
actually dedicated a bunch of songs to Christina and she actually broke down into tears as she
was speaking about Christina and how wonderful and talented she was. It was such a tragic loss for-
for everyone. For her family for her friends for her fans for the industry for everyone! She really
was something special. So that very night, a police investigation was opened into this murder and
I mean, there was no question of who did it, they literally had the suspect dead at the scene, along
with his victim. Kevin was identified very quickly, he had his wallet in his pocket that had his ID in
it so immediately, they knew who their shooter was. And when police got in contact with Kevin's family
and... friend? I was going to say family and friends but family and one co-worker that he spoke to. When
police spoke them and found out how morbid his obsession was with Christina, the story pretty
much told itself. I mean it was- it was obvious the pipeline of what had happened here. He got
into Christina as a normal fan and then became horrifically deluded and obsessed, to the point
where he viewed her as his! As his object and when her real life version of herself goes out and
dates a new man, he couldn't handle it because his in mind version of Christina was married to him.
That was his wife that was cheating on him! He couldn't differentiate what was going on in his
mind from reality and that this woman has no idea who he is. They concluded that he had become very
jealous and angry finding out that Christina was seeing a new man and he felt like if he couldn't
have Christina, then no one could. Police gathered a bunch of evidence that showed that this
was premeditated as well, like, the fact that he bought his weapons in May and carried this out
in June. He'd been telling his co-worker that they were gonna be together soon... for a good few weeks.
So I have a feeling he'd already made that plan in his head and he knew how they were going to be
together. Police actually discovered on a search of Kevin's bedroom that he'd wiped his hard drive
on his computer before he left for the concert that day and I don't know if they managed to like
find what was on it. I know police have their ways of getting back, like, deleted and wiped information
but I couldn't find anything about this hard drive online so I- I guess they didn't recover the
information? I wonder what was on there. It's actually really scary to think what could have
been on there because it might not have just been Christina related. We don't know what else this man
was getting up to in his bedroom on his own, day in day out when he wasn't socializing or joining in
with the rest of the world. Kevin Loibel's family are reportedly devastated and disgusted with
their son's actions, although they haven't spoken publicly on this case much but they did leave
a note on their door for reporters, kind of in the immediate aftermath of this. And the note read
"deepest sorrow for the loss to the family, friends and fans of the talented, loving Christina Grimmie.
No further comments." Christina's family have since set up the Christina Grimmie Foundation
which is a non-profit charity that helps um- victims of gun violence and I think homicide
in general, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, of the incident. The help is concentrated in
that very immediate aftermath to help victims and survivors to meet their basic needs in those first
few days, you know like, paying bills and getting food and and maybe somewhere to live if they can't
stay at home. A hotel room, something like that. Because in those first few days, you're in such
shock and your brain isn't processing anything, the last thing that you want to be worrying about
is your basic needs and where you're going to get your food from, you know? It just allows victims
to have a bit of space and a bit of time to deal with what's going on in their head and in
their lives without, you know, all those other... annoying little things about human life.
Christina's mother, Tina Grimmie, sadly lost her battle with breast cancer in 2018, just two
years after the death of her daughter. Tina was such a strong woman, she had had that cancer for
23 years. 23 years that she was just muscling through, going to chemotherapy and living through
it regardless. It's just an incredible woman and she was always so proud of her incredible
daughter, as well. Over the years, Christina Grimmie's like, musical team have released a bunch
of her recorded tracks that were never released while she was still here. And I believe, don't quote
me on this but I think a percentage of the money that's earned from these posthumous tracks goes
straight to the Christina Grimmie Foundation. It's absolutely tragic that something like this was
even able to happen, that the security on that venue wasn't tighter and I mean ,security even
today in 2023, I know this case wasn't so long ago but in 2016, yeah maybe the security wasn't
as great but even still today in the aftermath of something as harrowing as Christina Grimmie's
murder so many venues don't even check bags. I think venues should learn from this story and
many other stories of people managing to sneak things into concerts because clearly lives are
still being lost to this day from people being able to smuggle weapons into places where they
shouldn't be allowed them. But that is all I have on this case, there will be a link to the Christina
Grimmie Foundation below in the description of this video. Please do check it out, please do donate
to them, I'm sure it would mean the absolute world. But other than that, thank you so much for watching
this video. Thanks again to Casetify for sponsoring this video! Remember if you go through the link
down below in the description, casetify.com forward slash Eleanor, you can get 15% off of your new phone
case, you're very welcome! That's everything from me, thank you so so much for watching! If you enjoyed,
please leave a thumbs up or you can subscribe to my channel. You can click this little circle
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