To many parents, the school closings and the frenzied manhunt drove fears that Columbine still had the power to captivate would-be attackers and that the community would never be free from the massacre, which took place on April 20, 1999, and left 12 students and one teacher dead.

“What does this mean for tomorrow and the next day?” asked Dana Gutwein, 34, who has a first grader and third grader in the Jefferson County Public Schools District, which includes Columbine. Ms. Gutwein was unsure whether she would immediately let her children go back to class when the hundreds of schools that had closed on Wednesday reopen.

“I’ve felt like I’m on the verge of throwing up since this started,” she said.

Across the Denver metro area, parents struggled to find the right words to explain the latest safety warnings to children who have grown up in an anxious era of lockdowns and active-shooter drills. At Columbine, students who were organizing a day of service to mark the 20-year anniversary saw their preparations eclipsed by emergency text messages from the school district, news alerts on their phones and dread.

“This week our message was supposed to be about love and recommitment,” said Rachel Hill, 17, a senior at Columbine. “But now all the news surrounding Columbine is about fear.”

Some parents said they told their children to play close to home on Wednesday. Others shook their heads at how a threat from one teenager could keep half a million students home from school and throw an entire city into panic.</s>(CNN) An FBI official has confirmed investigators are looking into a website believed to be connected to Sol Pais, the Florida high school student who was "infatuated" with the Columbine High massacre and traveled cross-country to Colorado while making threats.

Pais, 18, was found dead Wednesday morning of an apparent self-inflicted shotgun blast at a national recreation area outside Denver, Dean Phillips, the agent in charge of the FBI office in Denver, said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.

Her threats prompted the Wednesday closing of many Denver-area school systems, some of which already were on edge with the 20th anniversary of Columbine only days away.

The website, which CNN is not naming, had scanned, handwritten journal entries from an individual who signed them Sol Pais.

Some of the journals are barely legible -- sometimes because of handwriting, other times because of the scanning. There are a number of crude drawings of weapons, from long rifles to handguns and knives; one drawing has a trench coat figure holding an apparent weapon.

In most of the entries, the individual rambles about feeling like they did not belong in this world or lived in a different dimension. Oftentimes, they would quote song lyrics.

One message on the website offered a dark insight into its potential purpose.

"The purpose of this site is for me to give insight into the thoughts I rarely, if ever, share with others, while remaining somewhat anonymous," one of the messages on its homepage read. "Everything from journal entries to my personal interests -- I want to leave a record of myself before I, well. ..." The final journal entry posted on the website is signed Sol Pais.

CNN has not been able to independently confirm this website belonged to Pais. Phillips confirmed the FBI is looking into the website.

She bought shotgun near Columbine High

Pais' body was found at the base of Mount Evans, a national recreation area, Phillips said.

"She appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," he said. "At this point it looks like she was alone and took her own life with the weapon she procured."

Authorities said Pais arrived Monday in Colorado and immediately bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition.

She purchased the shotgun legally at the Colorado Gun Broker, according to a post on the company's Facebook page. The gun shop is less than two miles from Columbine High School.

The gun shop says Pais passed two background clearances by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The post goes on to say the store had no reason to suspect she was a threat to herself or anyone else.

Phillips said there was no threat to a particular school. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said investigators don't think Pais got onto the grounds of Columbine High School in Littleton.

Pais had made "credible," but not specific, threats before and after traveling from Miami to Denver on Monday night, Phillips said.

She also raised suspicions by purchasing one-way plane tickets for April 15, 16 and 17, the agent said. Police in Florida contacted the Miami FBI office, which alerted the Denver office, Phillips said.

Sol Pais was found dead Wednesday after a search near Denver.

Phillips said he didn't know why Pais went to Mount Evans. The driver of a rideshare or some other vehicle dropped her off there, he said, and later helped police pinpoint the location. Mount Evans is about 60 miles west of Denver.

Pais was considered a threat to the community and schools, but there was no information on any specific threat to a particular place, Phillips said.

Relief and grief in Florida

More than 2,000 miles away, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, police Chief Julio Yero broke the news of Pais' death to her relatives.

Despite their grief, "they are actually grateful that no one else is hurt," Yero told reporters outside the family's home.

"This family contributed greatly to this investigation from the very onset," the police chief said. "They provided us valuable information that led us to Colorado, and a lot of things that assisted in preventing maybe more loss of life."

Yero asked the public to give the Pais family privacy as they mourn.

At least 19 school districts closed

Jefferson County Public Schools, which includes Columbine High School in Littleton, were among at least 19 school districts closed Wednesday as authorities searched for Pais.

With the search over, Jefferson County schools will reopen Thursday, Superintendent Jason Glass said.

But he said there will be "heightened safety and security procedures" ahead of Saturday's anniversary of the Columbine massacre.

The teen was 'really smart,' baffled classmate says

Pais was a student at Miami Beach Senior High School, said Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Prior to news of Pais' death, a man who said he was Pais' father told the Miami Herald he lost contact with his daughter on Sunday.

"I think maybe she's got a mental problem," he told the Herald.

During the search for Pais, the teen's classmates said they were stunned that she was wanted for threats.

"I actually have my third-period math and my second period with her," 17-year-old Drew Burnstine said. "It's just kinda crazy -- she's so close to me, sitting next to me, and she's making these threats across the country."

Drew said he was surprised because Pais was "really smart" and had some of the best grades in the class.

But the teen was very quiet and kept to herself, Drew said.

"She hadn't really said anything to me other than thanking me for holding a door open for her," he said. "That's it."

'This opens a wound'

On April 20, 1999, two students killed 12 of their schoolmates and a teacher in a mass shooting at the high school in the town of Littleton, about 10 miles from Denver.

Sheriff Shrader said this week's potential threat of violence adds more pain to a community still grieving.

"I know that this opens a wound, especially on an anniversary week, for those families who were most deeply impacted by this," he said.

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Superintendent Jason Glass' name and the correct location of the gun shop where Pais purchased the weapon.</s>DENVER, April 16 (Reuters) - A young woman described as "infatuated" with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre was sought by the FBI in Colorado on Tuesday while authorities issued a security alert to Columbine and dozens of other Denver-area schools, citing a threat of violence.

The alert came four days before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, in which two heavily armed teen boys stormed their high school in Littleton, a Denver suburb, and fatally shot 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide. At the time it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

On Tuesday, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office placed Columbine and 21 surrounding schools under a security "lockout," allowing activities inside to continue as usual but restricting entry and exit at the schools.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety later alerted schools throughout the Denver metropolitan area to the threat, recommending they conduct a "controlled release" of students from classes in the afternoon.

The sheriff's office said on Twitter that a woman identified as Sol Pais, 18, was being sought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and sheriff's deputies in connection with the case. It said she was armed and "considered to be extremely dangerous."

A sheriff's spokesman, Deputy Mike Taplin, later told a news briefing that Pais, reported by the Denver Post to be a Florida resident, had traveled to Colorado Monday night and "made threats to commit an act of violence in this area."

"I believe it to be a general threat to schools, not a specific school," he said.

Authorities said that school security was beefed up and students were safe.

Taplin said that the FBI mounted the investigation and alerted local authorities in Colorado after determining Pais posed a "credible threat."

An FBI bulletin described Pais as "infatuated with (the) Columbine school shooting," saying she was believed to be in the Denver-Littleton area "attempting to buy firearms."

The bulletin said authorities lacked probable cause for a formal arrest but that law enforcement should detain Pais for a "mental health" evaluation.

The sheriff's Twitter post, which included two photos of Pais, said she was dressed in a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots. Taplin said she was last seen in the Jefferson County foothills on Monday.

Authorities did not disclose how Pais came to their attention or how the alleged threats were conveyed. Taplin referred further questions to the FBI. A spokeswoman for the FBI's Denver field office did not immediately respond to queries.

The Denver Post reported that one of its correspondents called the home of Pais' parents in Surfside, Florida, located near Miami, and that a man identifying himself as an FBI agent interrupted the call and said the agency was interviewing them.

Jefferson County Public Schools tweeted a list of 22 elementary, middle and high schools placed under lockout. All after-school activities were to go on as scheduled, except at Columbine, where they were canceled as a precaution, the district said.

Security alerts and safety drills have become commonplace in public schools across the United States in the years since the Columbine shooting as campus gun violence has grown more frequent.

In Denver public schools alone, there have been 22 lockdowns and 294 lockouts over the past two academic years, according to school data cited by the Denver Post. (Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; writing by Steve Gorman Editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler)</s>DENVER - A young woman described as “infatuated” with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre was sought by the FBI in Colorado on Tuesday while authorities issued a security alert to Columbine and dozens of other Denver-area schools, citing a threat of violence.

The alert came four days before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, in which two heavily armed teen boys stormed their high school in Littleton, a Denver suburb, and fatally shot 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide. At the time it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

On Tuesday, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office placed Columbine and 21 surrounding schools under a security “lockout,” allowing activities inside to continue as usual but restricting entry and exit at the schools.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety later alerted schools throughout the Denver metropolitan area to the threat, recommending they conduct a “controlled release” of students from classes in the afternoon.

The sheriff’s office said on Twitter that a woman identified as Sol Pais, 18, was being sought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and sheriff’s deputies in connection with the case. It said she was armed and “considered to be extremely dangerous.”

A sheriff’s spokesman, Deputy Mike Taplin, later told a news briefing that Pais, reported by the Denver Post to be a Florida resident, had traveled to Colorado Monday night and “made threats to commit an act of violence in this area.”

An FBI bulletin described Pais as “infatuated with (the) Columbine school shooting,” saying she was believed to be in the Denver-Littleton area “attempting to buy firearms.”

The sheriff’s Twitter post, which included two photos of Pais, said she was dressed in a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots. Taplin said she was last seen in the Jefferson County foothills on Monday.

Authorities did not disclose how Pais came to their attention or how the alleged threats were conveyed. Taplin referred further questions to the FBI. A spokeswoman for the FBI’s Denver field office did not immediately respond to queries.

The Denver Post reported that one of its correspondents called the home of Pais’ parents in Surfside, Florida, located near Miami, and that a man identifying himself as an FBI agent interrupted the call and said the agency was interviewing them.

Jefferson County Public Schools tweeted a list of 22 elementary, middle and high schools placed under lockout. All after-school activities were to go on as scheduled, except at Columbine, where they were canceled as a precaution, the district said.

Security alerts and safety drills have become commonplace in public schools across the United States in the years since the Columbine shooting as campus gun violence has grown more frequent.</s>Columbine High School and over 20 other Denver-area public schools are closed today after authorities said there was an ongoing safety concern over a woman “infatuated” with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, reports the New York Post .

Authorities allege that 18-year-old Sol Pais made undisclosed threats that caused Denver-area schools to lock their doors on Tuesday afternoon. Pais allegedly traveled from Miami to Colorado on Monday night and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition. Authorities currently consider her “armed and extremely dangerous.”

Denver Public Schools announced that all facilities will be closed today, and, additionally, there will be no afternoon athletic competitions or other activities. On Saturday it will be the 20th anniversary of the April 20, 1999 Columbine High School shooting where 15 people died, including 12 students, one teacher, and both shooters.</s>Columbine threat by woman with gun shuts down Denver-area schools

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - Public schools in the Denver area will be closed Wednesday after authorities said a young woman who is "infatuated" with the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School made threats just days before the 20th anniversary of the attack that killed 13 people.



Authorities are looking for Sol Pais, 18, who is thought to have made undisclosed threats that prompted Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver to lock their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon.



All schools in the Denver area were urged to tighten security because the threat was deemed "credible and general," said Patricia Billinger, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety.



The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI say Pais traveled to Colorado from Miami on Monday night and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition.



Denver Public Schools said that all facilities and programs will be closed Wednesday, and there will be no afternoon activities or athletic competitions. The district said the decision to close campuses was in collaboration with other Denver metro-area school districts due to the ongoing safety concern.



On Tuesday, some schools released their students after additional security was called in and canceled evening activities or moved them inside.



"We always have heightened awareness close to high-profile anniversaries like this," Billinger said.



Pais was last seen in the foothills west of Denver, was considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said.



"This has become a massive manhunt ... and every law enforcement agency is participating and helping in this effort," Dean Phillips, special agent in charge of the FBI in Denver, said late Tuesday night.



The FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force issued a notice Tuesday describing Pais as "infatuated with (the) Columbine school shooting." The alert also said police who come into contact with her should detain her and evaluate her mental health.



Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin said the threats she made were general and not specific to any school.



The Denver Post reported that a call to a phone number listed for Pais' parents in Surfside, Florida, was interrupted by a man who identified himself as an FBI agent and said he was interviewing them.



Surfside Police Sgt. Marian Cruz confirmed that her parents last saw her on Sunday and reported her missing on Monday. The Miami Herald and WTVJ are reporting that neighbors say the teen is a senior at Miami Beach High School.



The Associated Press left messages at two numbers listed for Pais' relatives in Florida, while another number was disconnected.



The doors were locked at Columbine and more than 20 other schools in the Denver area as the sheriff's office said it was investigating threats against schools related to an FBI investigation.



Columbine students continued attending classes in the afternoon and left school on time, but after-school activities were canceled on the campus in Littleton, Colorado.



Two teenage gunmen attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher.</s>CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. — The woman at the center of a massive manhunt for allegedly making threats against schools in the Denver metro area is dead, the FBI confirmed Wednesday morning.

Sol Pais, who the FBI said is infatuated with the 1999 Columbine massacre, was found in the woods near the Echo Lake Lodge at the base of Mount Evans Road in Clear Creek County.

On Tuesday, the FBI said Pais flew to Colorado from the Miami area on Monday night and purchased a pump-action shotgun and ammunition in the Denver area.

After receiving threats, several schools, including Columbine High School, were placed on lockout on Tuesday. The lockout later spread to all Denver metro area schools.

On Tuesday night, the vast majority of schools in the Denver metro area announced they would be closed on Wednesday because of the threats that were deemed credible.</s>Many schools in the Denver area will be closed Wednesday as authorities conduct what they're calling a "massive manhunt" for a young woman they say is "infatuated" with the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. They say she made threats just days before the 20th anniversary of the attack in the school that left 13 people dead.

Authorities are seeking Sol Pais, 18, who is thought to have made undisclosed threats that prompted Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver to lock their doors for nearly three hours Tuesday afternoon.

All schools in the Denver vicinity were urged to tighten security because the threat was deemed "credible and general," said Patricia Billinger, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

Some schools released their students after additional security was called in and canceled evening activities or moved them inside.

"We always have heightened awareness close to high-profile anniversaries like this," Billinger said.

Late Tuesday night, several districts announced schools would be closed Wednesday. Among them were Denver Public Schools and Jeffco Public Schools, short for Jefferson County, the district that includes Columbine High:

Pais traveled to Colorado from Miami on Monday night and bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. She was last seen in the foothills west of Denver, was considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached, they said.

"This has become a massive manhunt ... and every law enforcement agency is participating and helping in this effort," Dean Phillips, special agent in charge of the FBI in Denver, said late Tuesday night.

The FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force issued a notice Tuesday describing Pais as "infatuated with (the) Columbine school shooting." The alert also said police who come into contact with her should detain her and evaluate her mental health.

Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin said the threats she made were general and not specific to any school.

CBS Miami reports Pais' family is asking her to turn herself in. The station talked through a closed door with a man identifying himself as her father at the family home in Surfside, Florida.

"She can, please, come home. I think she's going to be OK," the man said.

"It's like a bad dream. We don't know. We don't have any ideas," he said. "I think that maybe she has a mental problem."

The Denver Post reported that a call to the home was interrupted by a man who identified himself as an FBI agent who said he was interviewing Pais' parents.

The doors were locked at Columbine and more than 20 other schools in the Denver area Tuesday as the sheriff's office said it was investigating threats against schools related to an FBI investigation.

Columbine students continued attending classes in the afternoon and left school on time, but after-school activities were canceled on the campus in Littleton, Colorado.

Two teenage gunmen attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher.</s>DENVER (Reuters) - A Florida teenager who authorities said was armed, dangerous and “infatuated” with the Columbine massacre was found dead in Colorado after she traveled to the state days before the 20th anniversary of the school attack, officials said on Wednesday.

After a daylong search, Sol Pais, an 18-year-old student from Surfside, Florida, was found about 40 miles (64 km) west of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenaged male students shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher on April 20, 1999, before committing suicide.

Pais appeared to have been killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said during a news conference with school officials.

Denver area schools were closed on Wednesday as FBI agents, Jefferson County deputies and Colorado state troopers searched for Pais.

Since the massacre at Columbine, there has been a decades-long string of U.S. school shootings, some inspired by copycats who have expressed fascination with the massacre.

Columbine was the second deadliest shooting at a school in U.S. history at the time. Now it stands fifth, surpassed by the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018, the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 and a 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech.

With the rash of school shootings across the nation, security alerts and safety drills have become commonplace. In Denver public schools alone, there have been 22 lockdowns and 294 lockouts over the past two academic years, according to school data cited by the Denver Post.

Pais flew from Miami to Denver on Monday, where she bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, FBI Special Agent in Charge Dean Phillips said at a news conference on Tuesday. Denver is adjacent to Jefferson County.

Some 20 to 30 officers were searching for her near the Echo Lake Campground in the Arapaho National Forest on Wednesday morning, after authorities received reports of a naked woman with a gun running through the woods, CBS4 in Denver reported.

No shots were fired by authorities as they closed in on Pais, the station reported, citing law enforcement sources.

A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools said Pais was student at Miami Beach Senior High School and that there was no threat to schools within the district.

On Tuesday, an FBI bulletin said authorities lacked probable cause for a formal arrest but that law enforcement should detain Pais for a mental-health evaluation.

The sheriff’s Twitter post, which included two photos of Pais, said she was dressed in a black T-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots.

An online journal written by a woman who identified herself as “Sol Pais” contains numerous handwritten entries of despair and anger, peppered with images of weapons.

“Being alive is overrated,” one entry reads, punctuated with an expletive, above a drawing of a handgun going off with the word “ready?” underneath. “I don’t feel at home in this reality,” another page says.

A user on the National Gun Forum used the same screen name as the author of the blog in a series of posts starting in late March seeking advice on how an 18-year-old Florida resident could buy a shotgun in Colorado

“I am planning a trip to Colorado in the next month or so and wanna buy a shotgun while I’m there and I was wondering what restrictions apply for me?” the first post read.</s>Authorities said Tuesday they are looking for an 18-year-old woman suspected of making threats against Columbine High School, just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting that killed 13 people.

The information prompted a lockdown at the high school and several others outside Denver. All students were safe, school officials said.

Sol Pais traveled to Colorado on Monday night and made threats against the schools, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI said. Officials didn't provide further details about the threats or say where she was from.

Pais was last seen in the foothills west of Denver, was considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached.

The doors were locked at Columbine and more than 20 other schools in the Denver area as the sheriff's office said it was investigating threats against schools related to an FBI investigation.

Students left classes on time, but after-school activities were canceled at Columbine in Littleton, Colorado.
Schools in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area are closed as the FBI searched for an 18-year-old Miami Beach Senior High School student described as "infatuated" with the Columbine High School massacre. She traveled to Colorado and purchased a shotgun and ammunition upon arriving, and was deemed a "credible threat" to area schools. She was later confirmed dead.