A Harrisonville teen has been charged after allegedly making threats to kill his girlfriend and shoot other students at his school.
Jacob Vanderecken, 18, has been charged with one count of making a terrorist threat with reckless disregard of risk of causing evacuation/closure at Harrisonville High School, according to the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office.
Harrisonville Police received information in regard to a possible threat that Vanderecken had planned to kill himself at the school using a gun on April 11.
An assistant principal and the school’s resource officer made contact with the teen at his home before the school day had began on April 12, but Vanderecken denied making the treats in person, on Facebook, and by text messages.
The principal and police officer then escorted the teen to school, where the discussion about the threats continued.
At school, the teen’s former 16-year-old girlfriend provided a written statement to police, stating, “she was talking to Jacob on her cell phone, and that Jacob said that he was going to go to school and kill someone.”
According to the probable cause statement, the former girlfriend further stated that Vanderecken said he was going to kill her, then the entire school, and then hang himself.
The former girlfriend also reported to police that Vanderecken had threatened her, and her new boyfriend, earlier in March.
As police continued investigating the situation, another student also reported to law enforcement that Vanderecken had made suicidal threats on Facebook, and that she had received a text message from the former girlfriend that Vanderecken was going to “shoot up the school.”
During another conversation, Vanderecken admitted to school officials that he did threaten violence to himself, his former girlfriend, and the school, and was suspended for the remainder of the school year.
On April 16, police served a search warrant to Vanderecken’s home.
There, Vanderecken was taken into custody and placed on a 24 hour investigative hold and transported to the Cass County Jail.
Police did not find any actual firearms or notes, journals or writings by Vanderecken that indicated any threat, but did seize his cell phone, iPod, computers, and a small amount of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia in the house.
During questioning, Vanderecken later told police that he has been depressed, and his depression has been turning to anger toward people. He stated that he had recently had became angry with his girlfriend when she told him that she had a new boyfriend, and threatened to kill the other boy.
Vanderecken told police he thought his statements would scare others “a little” and that he “wanted to see how everyone would react,” according to statements in the probable cause statement.
Vanderecken remains in the Cass County Jail on a $25,000 cash or surety bond, and is set to appear in court Thursday, April 25.
