By  Steve Huff

(Continued) 

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 Seattlerave scene and the victims

As part of the Seattle rave scene, Jason Travers was sometimes nick-named Patches, or with a little more cheek, "Jesus." The bearded, long-haired, native New Yorker had worked for nearly 7 years at a food cooperative in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Travers was a vegan, a vegetarian who strictly abstained from use of any animal products. Travers used the nickname "Skinless" on his MySpace.com profile. Travers was a slender 5'8" and said in his profile that he was a Taoist, though his family told the Seattle Times that he was also a conscientious objector and a "sometimes-Unitarian."

Jason Travers posted the results of a quiz he once took on his MySpace profile. The quiz purported to ask, "Which Tarot Card Are You?" Travers scored as 'The Moon.' Here is a portion of that quiz result:

"You are the Moon card. Entering the Moon we enter
the intuitive and psychic realms. This is the
stuff dreams are made on. And like dreams the
imagery we find here may inspire us or torment
us ( ... )"

Jason Travers was reportedly asleep when he was murdered by Aaron Kyle Huff on March 25, 2006.

Many of the teens and young adults in the 'rave' scene have scene names, screen names, and their given names. Jeremy Martin's scene name was 'Jeremy Chickenhed (sic).' Chickenhed was a performance rock band that made the circuit of local parties. Martin also was a co-founder of Chaos Labs. In a report published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Martin was described as "( ... ) equal parts social butterfly, musician, clown, collector of friends and schemer always cooking up a way to have fun."

Christopher Williamson was known as Deacon808 to other ravers, as well as on MySpace.com. Williamson was a DJ, heavy into very heavy music — according to his profile, "Post Hardcore / Industrial / Death Metal." In his profile at OKCupid, a free personals site, a sly sense of humor was on display, "Hey, I'm Chris ... I'm 21, I live in North Seattle, and I like long walks down dark alleys. Ha, just kidding ..."

In the same OKCupid profile, Christopher wrote that he spent a lot of time thinking about "robots, ninjas," and "zombies." The event that preceded the party where the mass murder occurred was a rave, planned since December, 2005, titled, "Better off Undead." The participants were to attend — intended to be a costume party. The last night of his life, it would seem Christopher Williamson was in his element.

Justin Schwartz, a.k.a. "Sushi," was a buoyant, spirited young man, who looked younger than his 22 years in photos found on his MySpace profile. Schwartz, who stated that his full name was "Justin Grant Unin 'Sushi' Schwartz" filled out a 'meme,' or questionnaire often passed from weblog to weblog, in an entry in his MySpace blog in November, 2005. To the question about what the test-taker's "Worst Fear" was, Justin answered, "dying young."

In early reports in the Post-Intelligencer about the massacre, a woman named Annie Thorne was interviewed on the scene. She'd been told her daughter Suzanne Thorne, 15, was at the after-party. Later reports indicated that someone was speaking for the Thorne family, and making no comment as to her whereabouts or if she'd been among the injured. No one would state publicly what might have happened to Suzanne Thorne, who had been inside the house when Aaron Kyle Huff entered, shooting. Early Monday the 27^th, various young people were posting messages of grief in their blogs that indicated Thorne may not have survived. Suzanne Thorne's MySpace profile was private, due to her age.

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Steve Huff can be reached via email at huffcrimeblog@gmai.com

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