The woman who gunned down six people inside a mail processing plant in California on Monday may also have killed a former neighbor a few hours before the attack, sheriff's officials said today.
"Evidence and circumstances of both crimes show distinct correlations between the two," said Jeff Klapakis with the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department.
The body was discovered last night at a Santa Barbara condominium complex where former postal employee Jennifer Sanmarco once lived. The victim died from a gunshot wound to the head on Monday, Klapakis said.
On Monday night, Sanmarco fatally shot six postal employees at the mail processing plant before committing suicide in what is believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting by a woman. One of the victims had been hospitalised in critical condition after the attack but died of her injuries today, hospital officials said.
Authorities said it was unclear whether Sanmarco targeted specific employees at the postal center, but US Postal Inspector Randy DeGasperin said "chances are" she knew the people she was shooting at.
The former neighbor was identified by her brother as Beverly Graham, 54.
Les Graham said that his sister had complained about a neighbor who "used to come out and rant and rave in front of her building." He said the family suspects that the neighbor and his sister's killer was Sanmarco.
DeGasperin told reporters yesterday that Sanmarco had left the mail facility on a medical leave in 2003 after her co-workers expressed concerns she might hurt herself. He said police removed her from the building one time.
"She was not making any threats or anything of that nature," DeGasperin said. "It was more for her safety."
Interviews with authorities in this picturesque coastal community and with people in New Mexico, where Sanmarco moved in 2004, paint a picture of a woman who exhibited increasingly bizarre behavior after losing her job.
AP