Santa Barbara shooting: Killer's 'twisted' world and his Malaysian links

PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old Californian gunman who killed six people in Santa Barbara, California last Friday was half Malaysian.

In a document titled "My Twisted World - The Story of Elliot Rodger" that he emailed to a couple of dozen people including his parents and his therapist just hours before he went on a shooting rampage revealed that his mother was of Chinese descent and born in Malaysia.

The 140-page document recounted his life as a child, his family, his friends and the last chapter detailed his murder plans.

According to the document that is going viral on the Internet, his mother, identified as Lichin Rodger, was born in Malaysia and moved to England at a young age to work as a nurse on several film sets.

"She became friends with important individuals in the film industry including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. She even dated George Lucas for a short time," wrote Rodger.

The London-born Rodger also recounted the time his family went on a vacation to Malaysia after his third birthday, which he "enjoyed very much".

"Sometime after my third birthday, we all went on a vacation to Malaysia, my mother's home country. I have only flashes of memory of that vacation.

"I enjoyed it very much. We visited a few of my mother's relatives," he wrote.

Shortly after his seventh birthday, Rodger said his mother and his father, Peter Rodger who works as a film director in Hollywood, were getting a divorce.

"My mother, who only a few months before, told me that such thing will never happen. I was absolutely shocked, outraged, and above all, overwhelmed. This was a huge life-changing event," he said.

On his 13th birthday, Rodger said his mother took him and his little sister, Georgia on a vacation to Malaysia, the first overseas trip without his father.

As soon as they arrived in Penang, he said they met up with a few of their relatives including his grandmother, known only as "Ah Mah".

"We met up with my grandma Ah Mah, my mother's sister Min and her husband Jack and cousin Emma. They were also visiting Malaysia from England," he said.

"During the trip, we toured around the island of Penang, visited George Town, went to a fun water park and had very delicious meals at many exotic restaurants," he added.

Rodger said the vacation was so nice that he didn't even miss his life at home in the United States.

"Three weeks flew by very fast and I cried a little when it was over. It was a good sadness," he wrote.

On the day of his deadly rampage, it was reported that Rodger, who was said to be "troubled" stabbed three people to death at his apartment complex before shooting three more to death elsewhere.

Driving in a black BMW, he allegedly began shooting at people in the beach-side community where many college students live.

Seven people died in the rampage including Rodger who was found dead inside the crashed BMW with a gunshot wound to the head.

It was later revealed that he was diagnosed at an earlier age with Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, meaning he had difficulties with social interaction.

According to reports, he had been seeing therapists on and off since he was eight.

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