Jennifer San Marco (December 6, 1961 – January 30, 2006) was born in
Brooklyn, New York, to Frank San Marco and Jeanette San Marco (née San Pietro). She went to
Edward R. Murrow High School, later attending
Brooklyn College. She studied
natural resources management at
Rutgers University but did not graduate. In 1989 San Marco went to
California, where after studying she was hired as a guard at medium-security
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in
Blythe. She quit two days before her
probationary period ended, never giving a reason why, but was described as a good worker. San Marco held down a number of jobs, including a
dispatcher for the
Santa Barbara Police Department in the mid-1990s, a job for which she underwent a background check and
psychological evaluation. She left the job after several months. San Marco then worked at a high school serving lunch before quitting in 2000. She eventually bought a
condominium and went to work for the Postal Service as a clerk. She left on psychological disability following a 2003 incident in which she was pulled out from under a mail-sorting machine and had to be wheeled from her workplace by police in handcuffs. San Marco did return briefly, but was again removed from the building due to her erratic behavior and never returned. Police removed San Marco from the postal facility on February 5, 2001 for strange behavior. At one point, she claimed she wanted to register a cat food business and was rejected because she lived in an unincorporated area of
Cibola County. While being interviewed there, she would often talk to herself. After the rejection, San Marco would frequently come to the office and stare at an employee named Sonya Salazar. Salazar was told to hide when she came to the office. San Marco once made a rude accusation that Salazar had slept with someone; authorities were called. She also came into contact with authorities after she appeared naked at a gas station. She was clothed when the officers arrived and they ultimately let her off with a warning. These run-ins with authorities were frequent and she was once admonished for driving half-naked. San Marco sold her condominium and told people that she was going to visit a sister on the
East Coast. In November 2005, a mental health clinic manager named Darlene Hayes reported seeing San Marco alone in a post office parking lot kneeling at her car and talking to herself. When asked what she was doing, she replied, "They pray before they get in." She was supposedly talking about her sister and brother (who she apparently believed were there). Hayes called the police and left several minutes later. According to a police lieutenant, there was no record of Hayes' call. A man who delivered
propane gas to San Marco and described her as polite, noted that she always paid her bills on time, though he had noticed her talking to an "imaginary friend." A diary was found with over 100 pages of meticulously tracked, perceived slights and offenses she received from people. An auto body worker once said that San Marco claimed that the Postal Service mistreated her, but that she never said anything violent or talked about murder, but that they had to "pay", which may have indicated revenge as another possible motive. San Marco purchased the murder weapon, a second-hand
Smith & Wesson Model 915, and ammunition from two different pawn shops (one in Grants, the other in
Gallup). She was able to do this with no problem; passing
background checks and picking up the weapon two days later. She also got a
buzz cut hairstyle, which left her barely recognizable (and may have helped her gain entry into the building to commit the shooting). == See also ==