Unconfirmed Picture of Adam from a 4chan Thread

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I feel the eyes are different.

Also, his face is perhaps too "full" to what Adam's was by 2011/12.

He looks similar but at the same time I feel something is off. Don't know what though.

Idk, I have seen this picture many times, but I highly doubt this guy is Adam. Aside from the non-crazy eyes, his nose and chin look different to me. I’d say he looks like Ryan rather than Adam, but he’s probably neither.

They don't lookalike and Adam's headphones didn't have a microphone, and the person in the photo does.

Szabo wrote:

I feel the eyes are different.

Also, his face is perhaps too "full" to what Adam's was by 2011/12.

I think we should get the rifle photograph for comparison (if we're allowed to post it). I don't feel like it's too dissimilar myself but that's just me.

The poster in the Chan thread claiming it's him doesn't seem to be throwing around absurd lies either, which to me lends some credibility to their claim.

Funny, but at first I was going to post the rifle photo without the rifle to show that Adam had a different nose, then I got distracted and forgot about it. Anyway, here it is.
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morgenroede wrote:

Funny, but at first I was going to post the rifle photo without the rifle to show that Adam had a different nose, then I got distracted and forgot about it. Anyway, here it is.

Looking between the two pictures I'm not sure if I see significant difference. I think the nose looks pretty much the same tbh but that's just me.

QuestionMark wrote:

Looking between the two pictures I’m not sure if I see significant difference. I think the nose looks pretty much the same tbh but that’s just me.

Adam’s nose looks wider at the tip and more upturned (there should be a proper English word for this nose shape, but I can’t remember it right now lol). On the other hand, it could be just bad lighting and the overall low quality of the 4chan picture. Here’s another (very) low-quality photo for comparison.

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I've seen this picture before but I don't think it's him

I doubt this is him- it looks similar though.

He looks similar just not quite.
Since we don't have the original file that 4chan OP uploaded, only a ai upscale. We cannot be 100% it is Adam. We cant even compare the ears either since it's obscured by the headset.
The only thing that is similar is the jaw.

Here’s also a screenshot from the DDR video because why not. Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like Adam had a concave nose and the guy from the 4chan photo had/has a straight nose. But in conclusion, yes, we cannot be 100% sure either way.
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Mr Bubbless wrote:

Fairly sure that’s just the angle though, but I see your point

I agree that it might be just the angle (and lighting). Sometimes people look different in photos, so I can’t say for sure if it’s Adam or not.

Mr Bubbless wrote:

The “Crazy-Eyes” that Adam usually had were because of overstimulation and his aversion to light and sound. He would’ve been extremely uncomfortable when getting things like his license photo taken because he would’ve been looking at someone and then exposed to a bright flash and loud noise. It’s possible that if he were in a dark room that he wouldn’t have been as stimulated thus making his eyes appear more relaxed.

Yes, absolutely. I’m not saying that he should have had the exact same deer-in-the-headlights expression as in the license/ID photos, it’s just I would not expect his eyes to look completely normal.

Similarities:
1. Brows are the same size and both curve downwards at the end
2. Similar jawline, "square" type
3. Same hair and eye color
4. Both swoop their hair over to the right side, all photos mirror the image (the one Adam took with the rifle, "Rifle Adam" is what I'll call him) while screenshots don't ("Gamer Adam" is what I'll call him in that photo), so they both have their hair in the same direction
5. Very similar nose bridge
6. Spacing between mouth and nose is almost identical

Differences:
1. Adam's skin looks tanner in the rifle photo, but it's possible the other photo is him at the time when he was hardly ever outside
2. "Gamer Adam" has more relaxed eyes, while Adam's eyes in the rifle selfie are more open, but I imagine Adam looked that way when focused on video games
3. Nose bridge looks a little lower with "Gamer Adam" than "Rifle Adam" but it's probably the angle the photo was taken

My conclusion: It's very likely that the photo is of him. I believe it is. Some people fake these things for attention, but I don't think the guy on 4chan just took any random photo of someone he knew and said it was Adam. I think the photo is authentic, but of course I'm not 100% certain.

Side by side comparison I used (screenshot):
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“some degree of autism”
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Carnifex879 wrote:

I don't think the guy on 4chan just took any random photo of someone he knew and said it was Adam

Maybe the 4chan poster randomly saw this photo on the internet (e.g. on social media) and thought “wow, this guy looks like Adam Lanza”. Then he (if it was a he) invented the backstory and did the same thing as countless other people who post their fake stories on imageboards. It’s just speculation of course. This particular story might be true. I’m not a psychic.

Btw, regarding the claim that Adam asked the OP what they would say if the government offered them to join a program: it doesn’t sound like something Adam wouldn’t ask. But at the same time claiming that Adam asked about it doesn’t sound like something a troll wouldn’t do to imply there was some sort of conspiracy.

I don’t think it’s him

I think at the end of the day it seems like there would be too much effort for too little payoff for this to be a troll. Why put so much effort into a somewhat convincing fake if you're not going to make up some funny or outlandish story? If attention was the goal, why share your find on an anonymous image board?

Most likely not him. Every image taken of Adam in the 2010-2012 period shows he had a bowl cut with bangs. That's definitely not what this dude has.

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And the eyes just look... wrong. Even with the "crazy eyes" gone like in the DDR videos, the shape just doesn't match up.

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QuestionMark wrote:

I think at the end of the day it seems like there would be too much effort for too little payoff for this to be a troll. Why put so much effort into a somewhat convincing fake if you're not going to make up some funny or outlandish story? If attention was the goal, why share your find on an anonymous image board?

Some people want attention without the possibility of their identity being revealed, but everything the poster wrote does sound too ordinary for attention-seeking purposes (except for Adam “actually talking about it” - if it means what I think it means - while showing his face; wouldn’t it be too risky for his paranoid self?). At the same time it takes some special talent to come up with a fake story that would be both bizarre and convincing. Tbh making the story so nondescript seems to me like too little effort for a troll rather than too much (and yeah, that could also mean it wasn’t a troll).

APX8088 wrote:

And the eyes just look... wrong. Even with the "crazy eyes" gone like in the DDR videos, the shape just doesn't match up.

The eye shape also looks different to me but it might just be the angle as well. I think I give up.

Would someone really keep a screenshot of some annonymous player on their computer for all that time? He mentions this was at least a year prior to the shooting.

The more I view the image, the more I'm convinced that's not Adam.

Szabo wrote:

Would someone really keep a screenshot of some annonymous player on their computer for all that time?

Not intentionally.

morgenroede wrote:

QuestionMark wrote:

I think at the end of the day it seems like there would be too much effort for too little payoff for this to be a troll. Why put so much effort into a somewhat convincing fake if you're not going to make up some funny or outlandish story? If attention was the goal, why share your find on an anonymous image board?

Some people want attention without the possibility of their identity being revealed, but everything the poster wrote does sound too ordinary for attention-seeking purposes (except for Adam “actually talking about it” - if it means what I think it means - while showing his face; wouldn’t it be too risky for his paranoid self?).

I think it's possible that when the poster says he "actually talked about it" that means not Adam talking about doing the act itself but about prior mass murders - something that even like one of Adam's few IRL friends also mentioned he spoke about. But the opportunity to ask for clarification is long gone.

APX8088 wrote:

Most likely not him. Every image taken of Adam in the 2010-2012 period shows he had a bowl cut with bangs. That's definitely not what this dude has.

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And the eyes just look... wrong. Even with the "crazy eyes" gone like in the DDR videos, the shape just doesn't match up.

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I did notice that the photo of Adam holding the rifle seemed to have a very similar appearance to the guy wearing headphones. I think a lot of characteristics like the spacing between the mouth and nose, along with their shape and jaw structure both look like Adam. I do agree that the eyes look unusual for Adam. That’s probably the most noticeable difference. His eyes always looked more open in photos we’ve seen, but at the same time, we have very few photos and videos of Adam from this time period, so I believe it’s possibly authentic.

I feel that the photo of adam with headphones and adam with the rifle are similar in too many ways, the only thing that makes me strange for some reason are the eyebrows.

Carnifex879 wrote:

I did notice that the photo of Adam holding the rifle seemed to have a very similar appearance to the guy wearing headphones. I think a lot of characteristics like the spacing between the mouth and nose, along with their shape and jaw structure both look like Adam. I do agree that the eyes look unusual for Adam. That’s probably the most noticeable difference. His eyes always looked more open in photos we’ve seen, but at the same time, we have very few photos and videos of Adam from this time period, so I believe it’s possibly authentic.

I agree that the resemblance in facial structure is almost uncanny. However, upon further comparison I've noticed there are parts that don't match up.

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If you compare the color of his eyes and eyebrows, it's apparent they are slightly different. For some reason, the other rifle pic of Adam in this thread was put through an AI upscaler, which changed the color of his eyes to brown for some odd reason. If you zoom in on the original image which I have in this post, you can see he had blue eyes, which is different from the 4chan pic where they are pretty clearly brown. Also, see how in the first image Adam's cheeks seem to protrude from his face slightly? I can't see them doing this in the 4chan image. In that one, his face has this sort of square-ish shape while in the rifle image his face is noticeably more "skull-like."

I'm afraid at the end of the day I don't think we can really ever prove the image's authenticity unless the original non-Adam image surfaces or we get other pictures of Adam showing his face looking like this. That being said, the more I look at the details of the 4chan pic, the more I'm convinced it's not him.

APX8088 wrote:

If you zoom in on the original image which I have in this post, you can see he had blue eyes, which is different from the 4chan pic where they are pretty clearly brown.

This could be because the 4chan pic was taken in poor lighting/has poor quality. You have to really squint to notice Adam's blue eyes in the rifle pic.

That aside I think it's ironic that every time people try to point out some tiny detail that seems inconsistent with the chan pic and the rifle pic I end up seeing more resemblance, not less. Maybe I'm seeing patterns where there are none though.

QuestionMark wrote:

I think it's possible that when the poster says he "actually talked about it" that means not Adam talking about doing the act itself but about prior mass murders - something that even like one of Adam's few IRL friends also mentioned he spoke about. But the opportunity to ask for clarification is long gone.

Yeah I thought this too at one point, and it actually might be the case. However, a few things still remain unclear. First, the “soon” joke that was made before he supposedly started talking about mass shootings (again, if this joke means what I think it means). I was pretty sure that making school shooter jokes about everyone who is weird/quiet is more of a recent thing (is it not?). Secondly, IIRC he brought up mass shootings in conversations with his DDR friend only a couple of times and it wasn’t anything beyond normal. Would he talk about it excessively with random Starcraft players while not even fully concealing his identity? If the shooting was pre-planned, this would be reckless - more like something Eric Harris would do. And yes, it’s seven years too late, and judging from the other screenshot no one asked the OP for clarification. Which was to be expected, /b/ is hardly the preferred place of gathering for true crime researchers lol.

(also, I realize how pedantic I may sound, but I always try to err on the side of caution when it comes to believing unconfirmed sources; there’s way too much fake info on Sandy Hook - or any other well-known mass shooting, or anything at all really - without me contributing to it)

APX8088 wrote:

If you compare the color of his eyes and eyebrows, it's apparent they are slightly different. For some reason, the other rifle pic of Adam in this thread was put through an AI upscaler, which changed the color of his eyes to brown for some odd reason. If you zoom in on the original image which I have in this post, you can see he had blue eyes, which is different from the 4chan pic where they are pretty clearly brown.

It could be just dilated pupils. Btw Adam had those in the rifle pic too and if you lower the quality his eyes will also appear brown. On the license photo they even seem black.

APX8088 wrote:

Also, see how in the first image Adam's cheeks seem to protrude from his face slightly? I can't see them doing this in the 4chan image. In that one, his face has this sort of square-ish shape while in the rifle image his face is noticeably more "skull-like."

Yes, and the 4chan guy (whether Adam or not) seems to have a narrower and more rounded chin. Could be again the angle though.

As for me, the more I look at the 4chan picture, the more uncertain I feel about it. There are too many differences and similarities and differences that could in fact be similarities and vice versa. Maybe if I look at it longer, it will cause reality to split in two and another dimension of existence to reveal itself.

For some reason, I've noticed in other photos that Adam's eyes are blue, and in some they are brown. Particularly the photo of him waving to the camera as a kid. I've heard it's possible to change eye color over time, and I've also heard that camera quality can change eye color too. One person online said:

"Eye color can change as a result of pupil expansion or dilation. When your pupils expand, the pigments become more concentrated, leading a a darker color. The opposite is true when they dilate."

My guess is that applied to Adam, I'm not sure which eye color he had most of the time, but my guess is brown because of the driver ID photo and a few others from that time period.

morgenroede wrote:

I was pretty sure that making school shooter jokes about everyone who is weird/quiet is more of a recent thing (is it not?).

I don't believe so; I think the trend started right before Columbine with reports on Michael Carneal and Kip Kinkel being labeled "loners", maybe even further back then that (and possibly not even in relation to mass killers at first).

QuestionMark wrote:

I don't believe so; I think the trend started right before Columbine with reports on Michael Carneal and Kip Kinkel being labeled "loners", maybe even further back then that (and possibly not even in relation to mass killers at first).

I know that Eric referenced Michael Carneal in the basement tapes - I mean several Michael Carneals since he said “those fucks in Kentucky” lol - and that some other kids (not only in Columbine) joked about shooting or blowing up their schools, but I would never have thought the general public had this stereotype about “loners” before the 2010s, let alone in the 90s (of course, I’m talking about the mass killer stereotype, not the overall fear of loners). Although I’m not American and probably know next to nothing about the general public in the US.

Carnifex879 wrote:

For some reason, I've noticed in other photos that Adam's eyes are blue, and in some they are brown. Particularly the photo of him waving to the camera as a kid. I've heard it's possible to change eye color over time, and I've also heard that camera quality can change eye color too. One person online said:

"Eye color can change as a result of pupil expansion or dilation. When your pupils expand, the pigments become more concentrated, leading a a darker color. The opposite is true when they dilate."

My guess is that applied to Adam, I'm not sure which eye color he had most of the time, but my guess is brown because of the driver ID photo and a few others from that time period.

Sometimes normally blue/grey eyes can appear more like hazel under certain lighting or when the pupils are dilated, I noticed this too with some people. Adam’s eyes were most definitely blue but not bright blue, thus they could seem different depending on lighting. I guess his eyes usually looked like this, i.e. not brown:
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morgenroede wrote:

QuestionMark wrote:

I don't believe so; I think the trend started right before Columbine with reports on Michael Carneal and Kip Kinkel being labeled "loners", maybe even further back then that (and possibly not even in relation to mass killers at first).

I know that Eric referenced Michael Carneal in the basement tapes - I mean several Michael Carneals since he said “those fucks in Kentucky” lol - and that some other kids (not only in Columbine) joked about shooting or blowing up their schools, but I would never have thought the general public had this stereotype about “loners” before the 2010s, let alone in the 90s (of course, I’m talking about the mass killer stereotype, not the overall fear of loners). Although I’m not American and probably know next to nothing about the general public in the US.

Carnifex879 wrote:

For some reason, I've noticed in other photos that Adam's eyes are blue, and in some they are brown. Particularly the photo of him waving to the camera as a kid. I've heard it's possible to change eye color over time, and I've also heard that camera quality can change eye color too. One person online said:

"Eye color can change as a result of pupil expansion or dilation. When your pupils expand, the pigments become more concentrated, leading a a darker color. The opposite is true when they dilate."

My guess is that applied to Adam, I'm not sure which eye color he had most of the time, but my guess is brown because of the driver ID photo and a few others from that time period.

Sometimes normally blue/grey eyes can appear more like hazel under certain lighting or when the pupils are dilated, I noticed this too with some people. Adam’s eyes were most definitely blue but not bright blue, thus they could seem different depending on lighting. I guess his eyes usually looked like this, i.e. not brown:
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my eyes are blue but they can be any colour depends on lighting

n/a

QuestionMark wrote:

I think it's possible that when the poster says he "actually talked about it" that means not Adam talking about doing the act itself but about prior mass murders - something that even like one of Adam's few IRL friends also mentioned he spoke about. But the opportunity to ask for clarification is long gone.

That would definitely explain why he put the word "Soon" over the image. He probably joked around a little about him doing a mass shooting, and unfortunately Adam ended up actually doing it. Many people have homicidal and suicidal fantasies, you just can't always tell if they'll actually have a strong enough will to follow through with it.

Carnifex879 wrote:

Many people have homicidal and suicidal fantasies, you just can't always tell if they'll actually have a strong enough will to follow through with it.

Completely agree with this. Sometimes people know nothing even about themselves in that regard, and it’s quite a scary thought. Someone who jokes about becoming the next mass shooter without meaning it at the moment may later turn out to be the next mass shooter... sorry, looks like I have gone off on a tangent here. Or maybe not, if Adam also joked about himself like this - something I cannot imagine him doing in that particular situation. But maybe his gaming friends did after all, though like I said I thought it was a recent thing.

I've always believed it's him since the photo came around, I believe this originally came from a player on StarCraft who said they encountered Adam and or something along the lines. This is a mysterious image and if it is 100% Adam it may never be known though I do believe it is him.

I think it could be him, but it's hard to say. The post doesn't seem sensationalised like someone else mentioned, so that makes it more convincing in my eyes. I think it's interesting that Adam looks a lot more 'normal' here, really goes to show his sensory issues were very serious. If it is him, I do wonder why he would have shared a picture of himself though. Adam always struck me as a private person, but then again maybe he'd be indifferent to the idea of sharing a picture of himself and was just fulfilling a request from a friend? I'm not sure.

majipan wrote:

If it is him, I do wonder why he would have shared a picture of himself though. Adam always struck me as a private person, but then again maybe he'd be indifferent to the idea of sharing a picture of himself and was just fulfilling a request from a friend? I'm not sure.

Not just sharing a picture but talking to basically strangers via webcam. I agree here, it’s not something I would expect Adam to do.

morgenroede wrote:

majipan wrote:

If it is him, I do wonder why he would have shared a picture of himself though. Adam always struck me as a private person, but then again maybe he'd be indifferent to the idea of sharing a picture of himself and was just fulfilling a request from a friend? I'm not sure.

Not just sharing a picture but talking to basically strangers via webcam. I agree here, it’s not something I would expect Adam to do.

Yeah, the picture doesn't neccessarily mean he spoke via webcam but even just talking through a microphone I would imagine would be difficult for him. He carried himself pretty well in his anarchy radio call-in I feel, but he probably rehearsed that at least a little bit. It's really hard to say, since Lanza may have been more functional when talking to people online than he was in-person.

majipan wrote:

Yeah, the picture doesn't neccessarily mean he spoke via webcam but even just talking through a microphone I would imagine would be difficult for him.

The 4chan poster said it was a screenshot, so if the story is true it means they were talking via webcam.

majipan wrote:

He carried himself pretty well in his anarchy radio call-in I feel, but he probably rehearsed that at least a little bit.

He seemed to feel quite uncomfortable about that call though.

Quote :

It didn't go as horribly as I anticipated. I wish that I hadn't spoken nonstop about Travis for so long, but I didn't want to seem crazy by randomly bringing up a chimpanzee for unknown reasons. And despite my failed attempt at having a normal voice, I at least sounded less incoherent than usual. I normally speak much softer and swifter, with less articulation, less inflection, and more mumbling.

Quote :

Not just sharing a picture but talking to basically strangers via webcam. I agree here, it’s not something I would expect Adam to do.

Nor giving them his name.

Not him. Adam had a different nose and more wider set eyes.

"The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact." - 4chan
Of course it isn't him.

Adam was very hostile regarding the folk of 4chan due to misinformation they spread about shooters posting there before they die like Robert Hawkins for example, and I don't take him for the kinda guy to turn on his camera or leave it on accidentally.

Here's all the pictures of Adam's headphones and the one in unconfirmed image. I'm afraid I don't know the exact model of Koss they are.
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dyonqqr wrote:

Here's all the pictures of Adam's headphones and the one in unconfirmed image. I'm afraid I don't know the exact model of Koss they are.
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At first I genuinely didn’t believe it was Adam. People have told me rumors throughout the years, that the photo was of a YouTuber who used to make gameplays but deleted his account.

Ive also heard that the photo was just some random person, and it was uploaded after the shooting because it looked like Adam and the OP wanted an golden 5 seconds of internet fame.

But this… really changed my view. The headphones are identical.

asked someone a while back who was interviewed on the news as having known adam in school about this and she didn't think it was him. not saying this 100% discredits it as the headphone similarities are notable.

It's Not Adam sorry guys. I mean they're are millions of those brand headphones, not just owned by Adam.