ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — In a rushed and frantic voice, James Crumbley relayed to an emergency dispatcher that he had "a missing gun at my house" and "I'm really freaking out."
Crumbley placed the 911 call shortly after leaving a Nov. 30 meeting at Oxford High School over troubling drawings on son Ethan's math paper depicting bullets and a dead body.
The 911 call was among a number of key revelations Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and her team emphasized in a preliminary hearing Tuesday before 52-3rd District Judge Julie Nicholson, who will decide whether there is enough evidence to bound James and Jennifer Crumbley over for trial on involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from the rampage allegedly carried out by their son.
The Crumbleys had arrived at the high school at 10:37 a.m. that day for a meeting with school officials, Oakland County prosecutors said.
Within 13 minutes of arriving on school grounds for the meeting over the drawings, prosecutors noted Tuesday, the couple had returned to their vehicle without their son and left the school's parking lot. Minutes later, James was checking on pick-ups for his job at Door Dash.
Less than two hours later, their son allegedly carried out the deadly shooting.
After news of the active shooter on the high school's campus began to spread, James Crumbley called authorities.
"I'm at my house. I have a missing gun at my house ... and my son is at the school," a tearful Crumbley said. "We had to meet with the counselor this morning about something he wrote on the math paper.
"Then someone told me that there was an active shooter. Then I raced home," James Crumbley said. "I’m really freaking out."
—ETHAN'S TEXT MESSAGES
Months prior to getting a gun on Nov. 26, allegedly of his own, prosecutors showed Ethan had access to a handgun and had allegedly talked about shooting up a school.
Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast presented on Tuesday an Aug. 19 video depicting Ethan Crumbley holding a handgun.
In a text message the next day, on Aug. 20, there was an 11-second video, allegedly sent by Ethan, that showed him holding a handgun, Oakland County Sheriff's Office Detective Edward Wagrowski said.
Also on Aug. 20, about three months prior to the shooting, Ethan allegedly wrote in a chat to another juvenile that “It’s time to shoot up a school,” then softened it by adding several “JK” to indicate he was just kidding.
In other texts, “there was talk of kidnapping and killing other classmates,” and of killing baby birds, Wagrowski added.
The detective said Ethan visited an unnamed website “that dealt with school shootings” about 400 plus times just in November 2021.
Wagrowski said there was more than one gun found in the Crumbley home. In addition to the 9 mm Sig Sauer allegedly used at Oxford High, there was a 22-caliber gun and a “small” Derringer found at the residence, he said.
—ETHAN 'DIDN'T DO NORMAL KID' THINGS
Kira Pennock, the 25-year-old owner of a Metamora horse farm, testified that Jennifer and James Crumbley had two horses at the farm, and that Jennifer had become a friend after frequently paying for riding lessons there.
Pennock said Jennifer had confided last summer that her son was "weird" and "didn't do normal kid things," Pennock said.
In a text message in the aftermath of the Nov. 30 shooting, Jennifer told Pennock "my son ruined so many lives today."
The comments came hours after Pennock said Jennifer Crumbley had sent her a screenshot of a troubling drawing her son Ethan made on a math assignment.
Jennifer told Pennock two minutes after leaving the school meeting that day that she'd had a "s--- day," and "just had to go to my son's school and meet his counselor."
"I was alarmed. I thought that was not normal," Pennock testified. "All of the violence, all over the page. It didn’t seem like something a kid would do on a test in school."
After hearing about the shooting, Pennock said: “My thought is that it was Ethan."
Defense attorney Shannon Smith noted Tuesday that Pennock's friendship with Jennifer was limited to horses and small talk. Pennock testified that communications involving Crumbley's son never rose to a level of alarm where she'd thought to call law enforcement.
Not even on the day that she'd seen the drawing, she noted.
—OBSERVATIONS FROM CO-WORKERS
Andrew Smith, Jennifer Crumbley's boss at a real estate company she'd worked for, described Jennifer as a “go-getter" who "handled herself well."
But after learning of the shooting, Smith said Jennifer sounded “frantic” and “concerned” and was in a “panic mode."
Kathy Poliquin, director of human resources for the real estate firm, testified Tuesday that she spoke to Jennifer on the phone on Nov. 30. The day, Jennifer called into the office and was “very hysterical, trying to get to the school." Jennifer admitted the gun was missing, and “it could be Ethan," Poliquin said.
In another call later that day, Jennifer told Smith and Poliquin she was afraid to lose her job. Poliquin testified she told Jennifer: “Tend to your family. Don’t worry about work. Let’s talk about it next week.”
Jennifer was placed on administrative leave. Still, she “wanted to come in,” wanted to work later that week, perhaps a half-day, they noted.
Jennifer, Poliquin testified, also told her employer that she needed check stubs so she could hire a lawyer, and that she would need a loan and asked about her 401(k) retirement savings account.
“As an active employee, she still had access to her check stubs, she just had to log in” online, Poliquin told the court.
James and Jennifer Crumbley face four counts each for the four slain victims — Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17. Each felony charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The couple's son, Ethan, 15, is facing 24 felony counts including murder and terrorism for allegedly carrying out the deadly shooting.
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(Staff writer Mike Martindale contributed to this story.)
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