Rampage victim's dad learned of daughter's death by tracing cell phone - CNN

Jose Cardoso pays his respects Sunday, May 25, at a makeshift memorial at the IV Deli Mart, where part of a mass shooting took place, in Isla Vista, California. Elliot Rodger, 22, went on a rampage Friday night, May 23, near the University of California, Santa Barbara, stabbing three people to death at his apartment before shooting and killing three more in a nearby neighborhood, sheriff's officials said. Rodger also injured 13 others and died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

A man places flowers on the lawn of the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista on May 25. Two young women -- Katherine Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19, -- were fatally shot outside the house Friday night.

Students gather for a candlelight vigil at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on Saturday, May 24.

Two students comfort each other during the candlelight vigil to honor the victims of Friday night's mass shooting in Isla Vista.

People gather at a park in Isla Vista for the May 24 vigil.

IV Deli Mart owner Michael Hassan, second from left, cleans up his store with employees May 24 as onlookers gather outside one of the shooting scenes. Student Christopher Martinez, 20, was getting a sandwich at the deli when he was fatally shot.

University of Santa Barbara, California, student Derrick Hayes gets emotional outside the IV Deli Mart on May 24 in Isla Vista.

A police officer inspects the gunman's car on May 24 after the killing spree in Isla Vista. The suspect, described as mentally disturbed and possibly bent on retribution, sprayed bullets from his car in a rampage called "premeditated mass murder," Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies said.

A Santa Barbara County deputy sheriff walks along the street May 24 near a shooting scene in Isla Vista.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown speaks at a press conference regarding murder suspect Elliot Rodger on May 24. All the weapons used in Friday's rampage "were legally purchased" and registered to the suspect, Brown told reporters.

Flowers are placed in a bullet hole in the window of a delicatessen in Isla Vista on May 24.

Richard Martinez, father of victim Christopher Martinez, breaks down as he talks to media outside the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office. "Our family has a message for every parent out there: You don't think it will happen to your child until it does," the visibly emotional parent said.

An investigator speaks on a cell phone while examining the gunman's car.

A woman looks at the bullet holes on the window of the deli where part of the shooting spree took place in Isla Vista, California.

Flowers are left on the sidewalk of the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista, California.

Two women comfort each other Saturday near the scene of a shooting. Seven people also were being treated in a hospital for gunshot wounds or traumatic injuries, a sheriff's office spokeswoman said.

A Santa Barbara County deputy sheriff checks out the black BMW sedan driven by the suspected shooter. The gunman died from a gunshot wound after his car crashed, police said. It was unclear whether the fatal head wound was self-inflicted or the result of a firefight with police.

The car of the alleged shooter at the crime scene Saturday. Isla Vista is the residential quarter for students mostly enrolled in UCSB and some in Santa Barbara City College. The community sits on beachfront bluffs just west of UCSB.

The crime scene in the aftermath of the shooting.

Broken glass at the shooting scene Saturday. Authorities said there were multiple crime scenes.

Fire trucks are parked outside an Isla Vista mart Friday night after the deadly rampage. The shootings occurred in a crowded area bustling with activity on Memorial Day weekend.

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• Veronika Weiss wanted to help troubled young people like her assailant, her dad says


• George Chen's mother: "We would die 100 times ... but we don't want our kids to get hurt"


• The University of California Santa Barbara declares Tuesday a day of mourning


• A memorial honoring the six students killed will take place Tuesday afternoon

(CNN) -- As a California university mourns the deaths of six of its students, grieving parents are bracing to do the unimaginable -- bury their children.

A former stay-at-home dad, Bob Weiss had an especially close relationship with his 19-year-old daughter, Veronika. He knew something was amiss Friday night when Veronika, who frequently checked in, didn't call her family.

So Weiss, his wife and his sons raced to Isla Vista. They came across a crime scene outside a sorority house and tracked Veronika's cell phone online.

The phone's location popped up in the middle of the crime scene.

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"We actually were looking at her phone while they were moving her body," Weiss said.

Veronika was one of six college students killed by Elliot Rodger, who was bent on killing beautiful women and popular men after years of self-described rejection and jealousy.

The irony, Weiss said, is that Veronika was exactly the kind of person who would want to help Rodger.

"She was kind. She was the person who would reach out to the kids who weren't the popular kids, some of the nerdy kids, some of the kids that were a little bit like this Rodger kid described himself as."

A day of mourning

A cloud of grief has covered the Santa Barbara area each day since the killer ended the lives of six students from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Thirteen other people were wounded in the shootings.

The university declared Tuesday to be a formal day of mourning, with a memorial service set for Tuesday afternoon.

Counselors are available on campus for anyone needing support, the university said.

'We would die 100 times'

Kelly Wang and Johnny Chen can't understand why their son, George Chen, was stabbed to death by his roommate before the killer went on a shooting rampage. Wang said she would do anything to trade places with her son.

"We would die 100 times,1,000 times, but we don't want our kids to get hurt," Wang told CNN affiliate KABC, weeping.

"This shouldn't happen to any family. This should be the last one in the United States."

A long-planned rampage

The plot may have been years in the making, but the killer gave just minutes' notice before he rained terror across the scenic community of Isla Vista.

Authorities now know Rodger's killing spree across Isla Vista began before he even left home.

The 22-year-old former Santa Barbara City College student fatally stabbed three young men in his own apartment -- George Chen, 19, Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, and Weihan Wang, 20.

Chen and Hong were the attacker's roommates, and Wang was visiting.

A friend of Rodger's family said Rodger recently had a feud with his roommates, complaining to his landlord that they were too noisy and played lots of video games.

The assailant himself outlined his plan to kill two roommates in a 137-page manifesto.

"I'd even enjoy stabbing them both to death while they slept," Rodger wrote.

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The manifesto chronicles his life from birth all the way to his planned "Day of Retribution."

On Friday, minutes before he fatally shot two young women in front of a sorority house and killed a young man at a nearby deli, Rodger e-mailed his writings to two dozen people, including his parents and at least one of his therapists.

"My orchestration of the Day of Retribution is my attempt to do everything, in my power, to destroy everything I cannot have," Rodger wrote.

"All of those beautiful girls I've desired so much in my life, but can never have because they despise and loathe me, I will destroy."

But it wasn't just beautiful girls he wanted to kill.

"All of those popular people who live hedonistic lives of pleasure, I will destroy, because they never accepted me as one of them," Rodger wrote. "I will kill them all and make them suffer, just as they have made me suffer. It is only fair."

Rodger's mother, Lichin, saw the e-mailed manifesto at 9:17 p.m. Friday. She went to Rodger's YouTube page and saw a disturbing video in which her son talked about "slaughtering" women at a sorority house at the University of California at Santa Barbara, family friend Simon Astaire said.

His mother called 911 and Rodger's father, and the parents left Los Angeles, headed for Santa Barbara, the family friend said. En route, they heard there was a shooting. Later that night, they found out their son was the gunman.

Elliot Rodger was found dead after crashing his black BMW, a gunshot wound to the head.

Killer's parents frantically searched for son

Former friend speaks out

One of the people he mentioned by name in the manifesto is Lucky Radley, a childhood friend, who he said became "an object of my extreme jealousy and hatred."

"When I saw that, I was shocked," Radley told CNN's "New Day" on Monday. "I literally didn't believe that was coming from him."

Radley said Rodger was an abnormally quiet boy who barely spoke, even when Radley went to Rodger's house a couple of times to play.

He hadn't seen Rodger since high school. Seeing Rodger's video now, Radley told CNN, "That's the first time me hearing him say more than a one-word answer."

Inside the gunman's head: Rejection, jealousy and a vow to kill 'beautiful girls'

The assailant had been seeing therapists

Rodger's history of mental health issues was no secret to his family, and the young man was seeing at least two therapists prior to his death.

He had been seeing therapists on and off since he was 8, Astaire said. When he went to high school in Van Nuys, California, he met with a therapist "pretty much every day," Astaire said.

Rodger's family contacted police after discovering social media posts about suicide and killing people, family spokesman and attorney Alan Shifman told reporters Saturday.

Six policemen showed up at Rodger's home in Isla Vista on April 30, but they found nothing alarming. So they told Rodger to call his mother and they reassured her that he was OK, according to Astaire.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters Saturday that at the time, deputies "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold."

Brown said Rodger told deputies he was having troubles with his social life, but that he was not going to hurt himself or anyone else.

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Transcript of Elliot Rodger 'Retribution' video

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CNN's Pamela Brown, Greg Morrison, Todd Leopold, Ashley Fantz, Alan Duke and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.

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