Richard Castaldo 's alternate version of events

What does everybody think of this?

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I don't want to call him a liar but the fact that this is so different from what he has ever said before and the fact that he didn't come out with this until 2012 makes it very hard for me to believe any of it.
None of it sounds right to me or very believable.

I don't think Eric ever returned. The FBI investigator thinks that Rachel died immediately after being shot and Eric joined Dylan in the school afterwards. Even in the unlikely event that Eric returned to ask them if they believe in god, and Rachel was still alive, she most likely would have been too badly injured to even answer. Also, Eric and Dylan didn't kill Valeen Schnurr after answering yes, so obviously they weren't specifically targeting Christians.

I didn't understand it when I read his statement, “I’m not always happy I didn’t have the balls to say ‘yes.'”. I would understand if a Christian said that, but he stated that he was and still is agnostic. I guess it would take balls to lie to someone who you think is killing believers and tell them that you do believe in god. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, though. Why would he regret it? Of course, that's giving him the benefit of the doubt that this story is true.

Time combined with the need for an explanation why he lived and Rachel didn't may have led him to "remembering" it that way. I'm sure he has lived with a terrible amount of survivors guilt which was compounded by the loss of his legs. Maybe the believe that Rachel died a hero has made it easier on him to cope with it all? "I didnt have the balls to say yes" could be the line he feeds himself to make it a reality in his mind. He could just be saying it as a way to give her death more meaning. Making her out to be a hero to make himself feel better about surviving while she didnt. I don't see it as too much of a stretch honestly. Dudes had a tough life for sure.

Its hard to speculate. I wasn't there and I rely on official documents.

Having said that, I find Dwayne Fuselier's assessment to sound more probable.

As I mentioned in another thread, E&D spent only a small part of the spree outside, but in this very short time (1-1.5 minutes tops) they engaged a lot of targets, including fiing on kids far away in the distance which must have taken some time and attention (aiming etc).

Sabratha wrote:

Either way, forensic evidence points to the fact that Rachel died very quickly and almost certainly lost consciousness just after being shot. E&D then immidieatly started firing on Lance Kirklin, Sean Graves and Dan Rohrbourgh. they they fired on the group on the knoll, including Hochchalter and then yet fired on people in the soccer field (too far away to hit anyone though). They then reloaded (Eric probably at this moment dropping his coat and some of his gear on the ground) and quickly went inside. They started shooting at about 11:19 and at 11:21 you already have Dylan in the cafeteria. The whole action outside probably lasted some 50-70 seconds max.

What I'm trying to say is that the timeline of the shooting also doesn't give E&D too much time to talk with survivors outside. It all happened very quickly and there was a lot of things the shooters did outside in this relatively short timespan.

Richard was there and he should know how it happened. Hopwever the suspicious points are:

1) As my quote above - we have objective data that the whole action outside was short and this would not leave much time for E&D to talk with the first people they shot.

2) Another objective piece of evidence is Rachel's autopsy. She suffered several wounds, but this includes a "gunshot wound to the head. Entrance - left temple, exit right parietal scalp". This wound resulted in "perforating lacerations to the cerebral hemispheres", which in lay terms means massive brain damage. And a second wound: "entrance left lower chest" resulting in "perforating lacerations of both lungs and the heart".

To sum it up, she suffered massive damage to both brain hemispheres, her both lungs and also her heart in the openign voleys of columbine. I'm no medical expert, but given the extent of her injuries even if she did nto die instantly, I doubt she was in any shape to stay consious and talk with Harris.

3) Richard changed his account at least once. In the 11k documents he clearly emtnoned that he believes o have taken all the wounds from one volley and that he believes E&D thougth him dead because they did not fire at him again and that they "left for a short period of time" and then mentions seeing them by the glass CHS door. He does not mention them approachign them or asking about anything. He does mention hearing Rachel cry tough.

While its possible Richard was in shock when beint interviewd for the 11k, it would be somewhat surprising if he decided to keep the supposed discussion between himself the E&D a secret from the police then.

4) This is the whole "believe in god?" issue that was very overblown in the media and the question was falsely reported to have been asked to Bernal. In short, its a whole media frenzy and christians seem to be vry badly seeking some sense in this by assuming some for of martyrdom for the girls killed. al I' sayign is that there is external pressure riding on this one.

One last note, the link in the OP mentions the "godly christian whore" quote, but I think I fairly decisive proved that the uote was aimed at an entirely different Rachel that they went to class with, not Rachel Scott. So the article itself is suspicious and seesm to try hard to stress the anti-christian rants of E&D and establish connections that simply aren't there.



Bottom line: I do not have a beef with Rcihard, he drew the short straw in life for sure. I have no certainty if they asked Rachel anything or not, but the hard facts (timeline, Rachel's wounds, Richard's initial inteview) would more likley suggest otherwise. Victims often remember tramatic events differently than they happened.

So without further evidence, I find the "she died quickly and they didn't talk to them" version more plausible. Moreover, this would be roughly coherent with Richard's intial statement given in 11k.

I don't think he is deliberately lying, or at least I don't think so.
I think over time he became confused and misrembers what happened. His Mom claims when he first woke up in the hospital that he asked if Rachel was ok and then told her about Rachel being taunted about believing in God ,then shot. Later on even in the year after the shooting he said he didn't remember any of that.

PaintItBlack wrote:

I don't think he is deliberately lying, or at least I don't think so.
I think over time he became confused and misrembers what happened. His Mom claims when he first woke up in the hospital that he asked if Rachel was ok and  then told her about Rachel being taunted about believing in God ,then shot. Later on even in the year after the shooting he said he didn't remember any of that.

Well, speaking from personal experience: If you are on anaesethics or just taken of anaestethics you might not remember what is going on.

Perosnal example: The first day after I was taken off anaestethics in a hospital and was conscious... I do not remember any of that day at all. People later told me that my dad and the mother of one of my friends came along and had a chat with me that day and that I was entirely conscious, sane and talked to them. I do not remember any of that. First thing I remember was waking up the following night and bleeding. I was not even aware I was conscious during the preceeding day AT ALL. I have no recollectiopn of that day even now.

So if his Mom came to see Richard shortly after he was off anaestethics, he might not even remember talking to her. Its normal.

Big uestion is when did the Police talk to him (11k account), but from teh context I assume it was probably a week after the shooting or later.

boringguy wrote:

I don't think Eric ever returned. The FBI investigator thinks that Rachel died immediately after being shot and Eric joined Dylan in the school afterwards. Even in the unlikely event that Eric returned to ask them if they believe in god, and Rachel was still alive, she most likely would have been too badly injured to even answer. Also, Eric and Dylan didn't kill Valeen Schnurr after answering yes, so obviously they weren't specifically targeting Christians.

I didn't understand it when I read his statement, “I’m not always happy I didn’t have the balls to say ‘yes.'”. I would understand if a Christian said that, but he stated that he was and still is agnostic. I guess it would take balls to lie to someone who you think is killing believers and tell them that you do believe in god. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, though. Why would he regret it? Of course, that's giving him the benefit of the doubt that this story is true.

He said he wasn't happy that he didn't have the balls to say yes because his family is religious and he didn't want to disappoint them and he also felt like it was a sign of weakness

The Christian martyrdom everyone wants to put out seems like supreme bullshit