The infamous Clear Lake murders. the day 17-year-old Christine Paolila, known as “Miss Irresistible,” killed her two best friends;

Not all teenage girls are lucky enough to have real friends among their classmates whom they can confide in without fear of ridicule. Christine Paolila, in the early 2000s, was one of them. In the small town of Clear Lake, Texas, she courted two of her classmates, “popular” girls, who eventually took her under their wing. She, the sick girl, recognizable by her alopecia (a syndrome that causes loss of hair, eyelashes and eyebrows) and her tri-functional glasses. Rachel and Tiffany, his two “guardian angels,” he announced. At least, until he gunned them down in cold blood on July 18, 2003, with the help of a friend, in a quadruple murder that was sadly nicknamed the “Clear Lake City Massacre.”

New York to Texas

A few months before the murder, Christine Paolila experienced one of the happiest days of her life. At the dawn of spring 2003, her high school students voted her Miss Irresistible under the watchful eyes of Rachel and Tiffany. This sensation is new for the 17-year-old, whose life so far has been marked only by drama and anger. Christine was born in 1986 in Long Island, New York, to Lori, a stay-at-home mom, and Charles, a construction worker. After the tragic death of her father, who died on a construction site when she was just 2 years old, and then her paternal grandparents a few weeks later, Lori fell into heroin and depression. At only 5 years old, Christine was forcibly dragged to her other grandparents, the ones she left behind, with whom no one got along. We explain to him that his mother is ill, that it will be only for a week. One, only. But months pass, then years. Lori, go to rehab.

It would be three years before his mother came looking for him, weaned and determined to build a new life away from his demons in Clear Lake City, a remote corner of Houston County with a population of 40,000. If Christine instantly notices the mirage of calmness and real family life. Lori met a new man and continued psychotherapy sessions, and it was during this period that, suffering from alopecia, she first regretted Sometimes she loses her eyelashes. , eyebrows and hair, and has to wear a wig to hide his bald head. A new challenge for a young girl who becomes the laughingstock of her school. In 2009, six years after the murders, his mother explained in an interview ABC News “It was a very devastating time. He had poor eyesight and had to wear glasses, as they call them. The other kids started teasing him… His classmates would come after him and tear off his wig. It was so painful to watch.”

Love and addiction

At the age of 14, Christine entered high school determined not to let that happen again. And right here, in the hallway of his new school in Clear Lake City, he meets two teenage girls, sweet and “popular.” Rachel, Tiffany, and Christine initially form the perfect trio, organizing a sleepover, confiding in each other their first romantic failures and other secrets that belong only to them. A formerly bullied teenager dares to gain confidence, learns to apply make-up, wears her own wigs, and transforms herself into new clothes. Until she became Miss Irresistible her high school year when she turned 17. It is difficult, in this context full of kindness, to imagine what a day of horror awaits.

In 2003, at the time of her election, the young woman met a certain Christopher Lee Snyder, a 21-year-old bad boy with an already long criminal record. Theft, drug trafficking… This tall blonde with a piercing in her arch is not very good company to be around. Lori Paolila warns her daughter to stay away. As a victim, Christine carries the scars of her past and remains vulnerable and fragile. But in love, he despises his surroundings and continues his relationship with her. Within months, the teenager fell into drug addiction, using heroin daily, trapped in the agony of his emotional dependence on his new companion. It is here, of course, that the knot gets tangled between the three young women. A helpless Rachel and Tiffany leave him, and the handles close; Christine becomes violent, angry, increases the number of paranoid episodes, and becomes entangled in her toxic relationship.

But on July 18, 2003, when he had not seen his two friends for several months, he got a call. They want to reconnect and invite her out for drinks at Tiffany’s. Christine accepts and arrives around 3pm accompanied by Christopher Lee. The young girls, in turn, are in the company of Tiffany’s boyfriend, Marcus Presella, and her cousin, Adelbert Sanchez. A few minutes later, 40 shots were fired, and neighbors saw two people running away. The police arrived at the scene and found 4 bodies, 3 of which were lying on the couches in the middle of the living room, and the other one was a few centimeters away from the landline of the house. “There was a lot of anger and rage in these killings. So we thought maybe there was a personal relationship between the victims and the killer,” Houston Police Sergeant Brian Harris would explain to ABC years later, recalling that day.

From Murder to Organized Crime

A few days later, a composite portrait bearing a striking resemblance to Christine Paolilla and Christopher Lee Snyder is plastered all over town. Investigators have learned that the two teenagers were at the party that day and are being questioned. But the latter take it home with a hammer. they saw nothing, heard nothing. They visited the Gang of 4 in the early afternoon and left when everyone was still alive. It is surprising, but the case has been stopped for three years. Then we tend to have crime related to organized crime. Three years of emptiness, three years during which Christine, like her mother when she was young, sinks into heroin and depression. The year 2006 and an anonymous informant’s call to the police finally lifts the curtain on the case. It must be said that the source is reliable, because it is none other than Christine’s new boyfriend, Justin, to whom she has just confessed the murders with Christopher Lee.

Indeed, suffering from frequent nightmares and paranoid episodes, Christine has just confessed to her actions under pressure from her sketches, which are once again plastered on the streets of Clear Lake. Because for three years, four families are looking for the killers of their children and continue the local and non-professional investigation. His arrest in 2006, when he was 20 years old, will be seen as a liberation. In the interrogation room, Christine tells her story. On the afternoon of July 23, 2003, she and Christopher Lee allegedly went to visit Rachel, Tiffany, Marcus and Aldebert to steal the cannabis before an argument broke out. According to him, his friend allegedly fired all 40 shots. He “just” shot his friend Rachel in the head with the barrel of a gun as she tried to dial 911, the US emergency number.

But if the young woman confessed, the truth still remains a mystery. After learning that he was facing a life sentence after Christine’s arrest, Christopher Lee took his own life in 2006 before being caught by the police. Countless questions remain unanswered. Was this quadruple homicide really the result of a dispute over cannabis? Was Christine, ultimately the only survivor of the attack who claimed psychological impact and mental fragility, really a spectator to her friend’s murderous madness? Or were the two rebellious lovers premeditated in their actions without us really knowing why? Regardless, the verdict of the trial was held. On October 13, 2008, a jury in Clear Lake District Court sentenced Christine Paolila to life in prison. So taking full responsibility.