Police: Emory student's death part of double-homicide-suicide

<p>People who knew Justin Geiger in this town where he went to high school expressed shock Wednesday that Wyoming police say he was responsible for a double murder-suicide and a knife attack on a fourth person last weekend. One of the dead was an Emory University student.</p><p>Geiger, 19, died from a rifle blast to the head early Sunday morning at a house he shared with other students near the University of Wyoming, Commander Dale A. Stalder of the Laramie Police Department said Wednesday.</p><p>Before turning the rifle on himself, police say they believe Geiger shot and killed Amber N. Carlson, 19, of Denver, and also killed Adam Towler, 20, of Laramie, with a knife.</p><p>Police say Geiger used the knife to wound another man, Anthony Klochak, 19, of Chardon, Ohio. Klochak survived the attack, fled the residence and has been cooperating with the police investigation.</p><p>Geiger, Carlson and Klochak were all University of Wyoming students; Towler had attended Emory, in Atlanta, and planned to transfer to Georgetown University in the fall.</p><p>"We don't know an exact motive yet," Stalder said Wednesday. He said alcohol was involved in the incident, but said he didn't have information about blood-alcohol levels of any of the deceased.</p><p>Geiger graduated last year from Hononegah High School in Rockton, a town of about 6,000 on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line. He had just completed his freshman year at UW, where he majored in marketing.</p><p>Megan Perkins, 18, graduated from Hononegah High School this year. Speaking at a Rockton ice cream parlor where she was working on Wednesday, she said she knew Geiger and said she never expected he would be involved in a crime.</p><p>"It was an 'I can't believe it' kind of thing when I first heard it," Perkins said. "He was the kind of guy who always walked down the halls with a smile on his face."</p><p>Perkins said she thought Geiger, who had played on the school football team, was a good-looking guy. "He really wanted to fit in, I thought," she said. "When I heard that it happened, I felt maybe it was a bad scenario and he was a victim."</p><p>There are only two pictures of Geiger in his high school senior yearbook, and he's not listed as being a member of any clubs.</p><p>Tom Polaski was an assistant football coach at the high school when Geiger played there.</p><p>"My only reaction would be surprise," Polaski said Wednesday, adding that he only knew Geiger in school and in the hallways and described him as, "very polite, very outgoing, and always a smile on his face."</p><p>Regarding Geiger's involvement in the killings, Polaski said, "I can't comment on what is maybe speculation right now."</p><p>John Geiger, Geiger's father, is an insurance salesman in South Beloit, Ill., and moved the family home to nearby Rockton within the last year. An attempt to reach him for comment on Wednesday was unsuccessful.</p><p>Adam Buol, 17, a soon-to-be senior at Hononegah High School, lived in Geiger's old neighborhood, in an upper middle-class area of South Beloit.</p><p>"He and I used to play together in the backyard when we were younger," Buol said of Geiger on Wednesday. "He was two years older, so when I got to high school, we would always make sure and wave at each other in the hall."</p><p>Buol said that Geiger was a thin, athletic type who loved to be outdoors and enjoyed riding his bike in the neighborhood.</p><p>Stalder said he couldn't explain what prompted the killings. He said the investigation would continue trying to puzzle out a motive.</p><p>"We felt that it was important due to the nature of this incident, and its impact on the community, to at least try to come to some preliminary conclusions, and try to let people know as much as we can tell about this incident," Stalder said of Wednesday's announcement blaming Geiger for the deaths.</p><p>"We have a dedicated detective staff of four people who are all working on this investigation, as well as other administrative personnel, and patrol personnel," Stalder said.</p><p>Geiger was the youngest of four children; a sister, Jennifer Saavedra, died in January in Beloit.</p><p>In a 2004 interview in the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, Geiger listed his father as his role model. "He tells me when I'm right and when I'm wrong. He made me everything that I am today. He takes me fishing and everything I want to do."</p><p>___</p><p>Associated Press Writer Ben Neary in Cheyenne, Wyo., contributed to this report.</p>

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