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Fatal Fandom: The Story of Christina Grimmie · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Twenty seven year old Kevin James Loible was infatuated with
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a pop star named Christina Grimy. It started as a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: casual enjoyment of Christina's music, but it quickly snowballed into
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: complete obsession. She was the first thing he thought about
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: when he woke up in the morning and the last
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: thing he thought about before he fell asleep at night.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: He knew absolutely everything about her, and every day he
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: tried to find out something new. Christina's journey to fame
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: began as a teenager when she started posting videos of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: herself on YouTube. She'd always had an interest in music,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: playing the piano and singing since she was a little girl,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: but she dreamed of making it in the music industry.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Her YouTube career quickly became a success. People loved her
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: soprano voice, but they also loved her personality and her
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: unique takes on popular songs by singers like Justin Bieber
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and Miley Cyrus. By twenty eleven, seventeen year old Christina
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: had more than a million YouTube subscribers. She released her
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: first album and moved to LA where there were more
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: opportunities for her to grow as a pop star. When
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: she was twenty, she competed on the popular singing TV
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: show The Voice, finishing third and securing a record deal
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: even though she didn't win. Appearing on The Voice was
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest moves in Christina's career, and by
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: now she had a loyal fanbase who were willing to
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: support anything that she did, But none of those fans
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: were more loyal than Kevin Loible. Kevin was a loner,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: with only one close friend, Corey Dinnington, who was his
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: colleague at the Best Buy in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: he worked for several years. According to Corey, Kevin spent
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: most of his time thinking about Christina. He repeatedly watched
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: every video she ever posted on YouTube and constantly refreshed
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: her social media accounts looking for new posts and updates
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: on her life. At one point, Corey became so worried
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: about Kevin's obsession that he talked to their manager about it,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: trying to see if there was anything that can be done. However,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: no action was taken. Honestly, I'm not sure what you
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: could even do about that, And although Kevin wasn't close
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: with any of his other Best Buy coworkers, almost everybody
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: in the store was aware of his obsession with Christina,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: although they didn't realize how unhealthy it was. When Kevin
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: would claim that he wanted to get married to Christina,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the others assumed that he was joking, but Kevin was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: completely serious about pursuing a romantic relationship with the pop star.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: He even went as far as to make significant changes
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to his physical appearance in the hope of winning her over.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: He went on a diet to lose weight, he had
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: hair implants to treat his male pattern baldness, and he
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: paid for laser eye surgery so that he no longer
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: needed glasses. Christina had no idea that Kevin even existed.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: The two of them had never met, but that was
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: about the change. On the tenth of June twenty sixteen,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Kevin got ready to attend a concert in Orlando, Florida,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: where Christina was playing as the opening act. He'd already
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: packed his bag with the necessities a hunting knife, as
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: well as two firearms that he had recently purchased, with
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: loaded magazines for each gun. With the draw string bag
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in hand, he took a taxi to the venue for
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the concert, Plaza Live, one of the oldest theaters in Florida.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Security at the gates to the theater never checked inside
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Kevin's bag, and he made it inside the venue with
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: all of his weapons. One witness who was at the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: concert that night stated that all the security team were
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: mostly concerned about concertgoers bringing in their own food and drinks,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: but they didn't seem that worried about safety or security.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: There were no metal detectors at the entrances and nobody
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: was padded down at the doors. Christina's performance went off
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: without a hitch, while Kevin watched it from the audience.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Once it was time for the main act to play,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Christina went backstage and got ready to sign autographs and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: posts for pictures with the fans that had come to
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: meet her. Kevin lined up with the rest of the fans,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: still holding that draw string back. One by one, Christina
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: took the time to speak with each of her fans.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: She was relatively new to the industry, and she hadn't
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: developed the professional barriers that a lot more seasoned performers
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: had with their supporters. In fact, Christina cherished her fans
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and she trusted them all completely. It meant that she
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: always took the opportunity to hug and accept gifts from them,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and she never suspected that anybody would have a reason
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to harm her. At ten twenty four p m, Kevin
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: was finally next in line. As soon as he approached Christina,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: she reached forward to hug him, but before she was
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: able to, he drew one of the handguns from his bag.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Christina had no time to react. Witnesses at the scene
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: later described how quickly the incident took place. One moment
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: everything was fine, and the next gunshots were ringing through
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the air and people started to scream. Kevin quickly fired
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: three times before he was tackled by Christina's brother, Marcus,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: who was also her manager. However, Kevin was able to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: escape from Marcus's grasp. He backed away, standing against a wall,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and fatally shot himself. Christina didn't die immediately from her wounds,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: even though she'd been shot two times in the chest
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and once in the head. First responders found that she
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: had a weak pulse and carried out CPR before she
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: was urgently transported to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. Her
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: condition was described as critical, but at ten fifty nine
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: p m, less than an hour after being shot, she
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: passed away. Although it's clear that Kevin Lobul's obsession with
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Christina led to his decision to take her life, his
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: exact motives for the crime were never revealed. Some people
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: have theorized that Kevin was enraged after seeing Christina's social
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: media posts about her boyfriend and decided that if he
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't have her, nobody could. However, it appeared as if
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Kevin actually planned on killing Christina and then returning home.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Possibly he had panicked after being tackled by Marcus, leading
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: him to make the rushed decision to end his own
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: life as well. The fallout from Christina's death was immediate.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Selena Gomez, one of Christina's closest friends in the music industry,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: shared a picture that she had taken with her and Christina, captioning,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: at my heart is absolutely broken. Adam Levine, who had
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: been Christina's vocal coach on The Voice had developed a
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: close relationship with the young pop star, made a Twitter
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: post about the tragedy, saying, there are no words. We
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: lost a beautiful soul with an amazing voice. In twenty seventeen,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Christina's grieving family created the Christina Grimy Foundation. Aiming to
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: provide support for other people who have been affected by
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: gun violence, They decided to release one of Christina's unreleased songs,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: a single titled Invisible, and donate all the prophets directly
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to the Christina Grimy Foundation. Christina's family were also distraught
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: at the lack of safety measures that plaus Alive provided,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: claiming that the venue never used metal detectors to search
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: for guns inside bags and stating that the security staff's
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: bag chair had been overly superficial. They believed that a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: more in depth security screening could have prevented Kevin from
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: entering Plaza Live with his firearms. If the venue had
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: been stricter, Christina might still be alive. The Grimmys filed
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a wrongful death lawsuit, but three years later they voluntarily
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: dismissed the case. Even years after her death, Christina's impact
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: on the music world has lasted. At the beginning of
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, her YouTube channel still had almost four
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: million subscribers. Her family continued to release her music because
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: they said it was what Christina would have wanted, and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: all of the songs were already written and recorded. A
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: posthumous album entitled All in Vanity was released in June
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen. The next year, the Grimmys released a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: single that Christina had written during her mother's battle with
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: breast cancer. Her most recent posthumous single was released in
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Two of Christina's close friends, brothers Riley
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and Connor McDonough, wrote a song in her honor in
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. The brothers were members of the band
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Before You Exit, the band that Christina had performed with
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: on the Night for Murder. The inspiration for the song
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: began in twenty nineteen when Riley created a voice memo
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: during his grief, asking God if he could only catch
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a glimpse of Christina. The final song was titled Glimpse
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of Us, and after it was released by the popular
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: singer Joji, it reached number eight on the Billboard Hot
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: one hundred.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: This past week, twenty two year old Christina Grimmy died
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: after being shot Friday night at the Orlando Concert Venue.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: New six reporter Lauren corn joins US Now Live from
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the Plaza Live and Lauren, how are people reacting to
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: the venue opening its doors tonight some six days after
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Friday shooting?
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Well, I got mixed reactions. Some say it's time to
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: move forward to not be scared, while others say, you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: it's still a bit too soon. Meanwhile, throughout the whole
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: day today, more fans are coming over to pay their
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: respects here at this growing memorial for the talented singer.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Fans and friends still decorating a memorial full of flowers, pictures,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: and candles.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Tell guide an angel, and we dedicated to.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Her along the sidewalk at Plaza Live to Remember twenty
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: two old Christina Grimmy. This after police say Kevin James
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Loubel fatally shot the singer while she signed autographs after
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: her concert Friday night.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: Those devastated, it's it's so sad. I mean, I still
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: can't believe it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Now fans and friends from all over the country are
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: keeping her memory alive.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I feel like her family and everyone that cares about
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: her and deserves to know that they still people thinking
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: about her.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: I just remembered how how awesome she was and how
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: much I enjoyed working with her.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: This as the venue will open its doors tonight the
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: first time since the shooting.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: I would be incredibly surprised if there isn't more stringey security.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Some fans say the Plaza Live reopening is just that's respectful.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: I just think.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: That's kind of really to do early to do.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: I just feel they.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Should wait a lot longer out of respect for the family,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: out of.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Respect for her, while others say safety is still a concern.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Would I let my son come here to a concert tonight. No,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: it's harder to discern actually whether they should, what the
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: right time.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Is for you to open.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: But it feels it feels like it was just yesterday.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: That is ten Minute Murder for today Brief and bingeable
• 11:39
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• 11:43
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• 11:45
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• 12:04
  Speaker 1: If you're like me, you're through the course of this
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: wondering why did he kill her? If this whole time
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: he's been obsessing over her music, over her personal life.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: He changed his appearance for her in anticipation of maybe
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: there being some kind of chemistry between the two of them.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Why at the chance where she's trying to hug him
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: that he just immediately take her life. And I thought
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: about that a lot when it came to the course
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of this episode, and the only thing I could come
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: up with is I was attaching mentally well thoughts and
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: motivations to someone that isn't or wasn't mentally well. What
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you and I might do as assumingly mentally well people
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: isn't exactly what someone who is going through a mental
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: health crisis would do. Just by the nature of it,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: they become unpredictable. Being mentally sound means that you're making
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: rash decisions, and he clearly was not. He was very
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: very obsessed with her, and unhealthily obsessed. It was to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the point where his friend slash coworker saw that he
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: was not okay and tried to tell someone about it,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and no knock to his employers there. I mean, I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, you can't blame those people for not
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: doing anything about it, because they're just trying to do
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a job. Is this guy doing his job? Yeah? Is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: he obsessed with this person? It's weird, but sure. Yeah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: You can't expect people to predict unwell people's motivations, That's
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. But it's definitely a very
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: sad situation and the reason why so many pop stars
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and movie stars and very famous people they have to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: have security teams around them at all times because people
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: like this exist in the world and it's a scary
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: place to be, I'm sure for them. All Right, that's
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: going to do it. That's your episode for today. Thank
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: you so much for listening to ten Minute Murder.