Highland Park Mass Shooting Mystery - Part 1

A tragic mass shooting in a quiet, Illinois suburb exposes a mysterious online puzzle and an unusual cast of characters lurking in the shadows.

It’s finally here. For the past 2 and a half years I have waited patiently for this event, and now, the much-anticipated jury trial of Robert Eugene Crimo III, who I have come to know as “Bobby”, is a mere three days away. As the trial date inches closer, I expected some turbulence to arise, but nothing could have prepared me for the melodramatic plot twist to come.

Before I get into all of that, let’s take a walk down memory lane, all the way back to July 4, 2022, when a hail of bullets rained down on parade goers enjoying a 4^th of July parade in Highland Park, IL, claiming the lives of 7 innocent victims. The tragic mass shooting has long since been memory-holed for the majority of Americans. This isn’t surprising; mass shootings have become a common and predictable occurrence in modern day America. But this particular shooting didn’t follow the typical formula. In fact, it was my investigation into this incident that fundamentally changed the way I look at mass shootings. The investigation was challenging, complicated by media misinformation, political circus acts, and a mysterious online puzzle which led both citizen researchers and law enforcement officials on a scavenger hunt across the web, searching for the motive. This is the story of how everything I thought I knew about mass shootings got flipped upside down. It was time to wake up.

The sleepy, Chicago area suburb of Highland Park, IL is an ideal place for families. Kids frequently grow up and leave the nest to explore, only to return later in life to raise families of their own. Bobby Crimo’s family is firmly rooted in this town, and practically everyone knows them. Bobby’s father, Bob Crimo Sr., owned a local market not far from where the tragic shooting occurred. He had also run for Mayor just a couple of years prior. Bobby’s mother, Denise, lived separate from Bob at the time of the shooting. Their marriage had faced challenges throughout Bobby’s life, but both parents remained cordial and were actively involved in raising Bobby and his two siblings.

On the fateful day of the parade, families set up folding chairs up and down Central Ave. Children relaxed in strollers and wagons, waving American flags. The parade goers included members of Bobby Crimo’s own extended family. Along the parade route were various shops and plazas where Bobby had spent much of his formative years eating ice cream with his family, or recording skateboarding videos with his many friends. Bobby Crimo was known by most people as a normal, local kid. He wasn’t an outcast, or bullied, or particularly anti-social. Spotting Bobby riding his bike along Central Ave. was nothing out of the ordinary, and there was no reason for local shop owners to raise an eyebrow when they saw him doing exactly that on July 4^th, 2022. But at 10:15am, everything would change in a millisecond.

Gunfire rang out. The first volley consisted of 30 rounds fired at a fast clip. The sound signature changed halfway through the volley, as if the shooter moved the gun to a different position, but there was no break in the firing. This first volley of shots landed in front of Walker Bros restaurant, a breakfast staple in Highland Park, shattering the revolving glass doors. Videos taken by parade goers show a moment of shock and confusion washing over the crowd before panic set in and they began to flee. 8 seconds later, the second volley rang out. This volley had fewer rounds, only around 20. A few more seconds passed as the peaceful crowd transformed into a frantic stampede, with parents clutching their children by legs and arms as they desperately ran for cover. A third volley of gunfire marked the end of the rampage. 83 shots were fired in all.

Numbers mark where bullets impacted the sidewalk in front of Walker Bros restaurant.

Bodies littered the parade path. A body of a man laid in the middle of 2^nd street, to the right of Walker Bros. Many more victims were scattered along the cobbled sidewalk in front of Walker Bros and the adjacent Port Clinton Square. Several other victims, some which were mortally wounded, were laying all the way at the back of the square, along the path that desperate parade goers were using to flee the area via the exit to the parking garage. Eyewitnesses would later describe passing these bodies as they fled, covering the eyes of their small children to protect them from the traumatic scene.

Ambulances and police vehicles soon swarmed the area, followed by the media. Videos captured EMTs desperately working to save the most critically injured victims and placing white sheets over others who were already deceased. In total, 7 people were killed and 46 were injured, 25 of them from gunshot wounds. Among the victims, an 8-year-old boy whose spinal cord was severed, leaving him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. And then there was a 2-year-old child, pulled from beneath the bodies of his mom and dad, Irina and Kevin McCarthy. The boy was uninjured, but orphaned by the tragedy. Amid the chaos, police with rifles drawn were seen flocking into nearby buildings in search of the shooter, who had fled the scene, initiating an urgent, state-wide manhunt.

The police announced the suspected gunman’s identity only a few hours later, around 4:50pm, as 21-year-old Robert Eugene Crimo III. According to the official story, Bobby, acting alone, had used an unsecured ladder to gain access to the roof of Ross Cosmetics. Ross was located catty corner to Walker Bros at the corner of Central Ave. and 2^nd Street. The sprawling rooftop, which also had an attached staircase, was surrounded by a short knee wall that would serve as the perfect bracing point for a shooter. Once on the rooftop, police claim Bobby rapidly fired all of his shots, pausing only twice to reload, and then fled the scene in such a hurry that he had left, or dropped his gun. Photos from a nearby security camera captured Bobby near the scene of the crime in an alley, dressed in what appeared to be a wig and women’s clothes.

Crime scene workers are seen on top of Ross Cosmetics.

Security camera captured Bobby Crimo at the scene of the crime, disguised in women’s clothing.

Bobby then ran to his mother’s house a few blocks away, where he was able to gain access to her car and drive to Madison, WI. In his passenger seat lay a Kel Tec Sub-2000 firearm. He stopped along a street in Madison and buried his cell phone before returning to Highland Park, a 5-hour round-trip drive. Police later stated that Bobby had planned a second attack at a parade in Madison but were unsure why he chose to abandon his plan and return to Highland Park instead.

Police identified Bobby as the suspected shooter based on evidence from the gun which he had left behind. By 4:15pm, the SWAT team had arrived at his mother’s house, followed closely by the media. Bobby’s mother, Denise Pesina, confronted SWAT outside the house, yelling and pacing around the yard. The SWAT team also swarmed the home that Bobby shared with his father, Bob. Bob would later describe his shock, saying that he had just heard of the shooting moments prior. When the police arrived at his home, he thought they were about to tell him that his son was among the victims. The unbelievable idea that Bobby was, in fact, the perpetrator of this heinous attack on their community is something that Bob and Denise still struggle with to this day.

Police spotted Bobby driving his mother’s vehicle in the direction of the original crime scene and arrested him without resistance around 6:15pm, 8 hours after the shooting had taken place. That same day, a mailbox listed under the name of Denise Pesina’s business was placed under a police seal, and the UPS store where Pesina's mailbox was located had been locked down entirely by the police. Both homes had been surrounded by police tape. The investigation had only just begun.

Bobby Crimo sits in the back of a police car at the time of his arrest.

***

I had decided to spend the 4^th of July relaxing at home with no major plans… That is, until a researcher friend of mine messaged me on Discord and told me to turn on the news. Less than an hour had lapsed since the first shots rang out, and every major outlet in the country was airing live coverage of the gruesome aftermath of the shooting and the ensuing manhunt. I got to work right away, taking in the details and archiving things as they emerged – eyewitness statements, arial views of the police response, and early descriptions of the key details. These contemporaneous archives would prove invaluable in the weeks and months following the shooting. In the moment, I had no idea that I was embarking on an investigation that would change the entire course of my life.

Days went by, then weeks, then months. There were a lot of us investigating the shooting in the early days, but as time marched on, people lost interest and dropped out. Only the most dedicated of us, around 5 researchers total, would ultimately stick around to unravel the mystery. And boy, was there a mystery. Bobby Crimo was a prolific internet user. He was also a Soundcloud rapper known as Awake the Rapper, a factoid that would garner quite a bit of attention in the media due to his eerie lyrics and music videos which seemed to foreshadow the fatal shooting on July 4, 2022.

Image from Bobby Crimo’s Soundcloud account.

Bobby was also a fan of Alternate Reality Games, or ARGs, carefully constructed interactive narratives that lead internet sleuths on a scavenger hunt for clues with the end goal of deciphering a puzzle. Bobby loved ARGs so much that he created one of his own to promote his music. The puzzle at the end, which could presumably be deciphered using clues from his music videos, was a 27-page book of random numbers, titled Arcturus, which Bobby published for sale on Amazon the year prior to the shooting. It was this puzzle which captured our attention the most. Truthfully, we might have moved on from the investigation much earlier if it weren’t for our growing obsession with solving Bobby’s ARG. Whether or not Arcturus was related to the shooting or just a way for Bobby to promote his music career is still up for debate, but it was our persistence in pursuing the solution that ultimately led us to a series of dark discoveries that would flip the official narrative upside down.

The front cover and first page of numbers in Arcturus.