Student Killer Empathizes With Littleton Gunmen

WRAL'sJohn McDonnellheard some disturbing insight Friday on the dynamics of outsider student groups. He spent about two hours in prison with convicted high school killer Matthew Myers.

Myers was part of a group similar to the Trench Coat Mafia, and Myers says the group played a big part in the murder.

"I won't be too surprised if it happens often for the next few years," Myers said.

When he first heard about the Colorado high school murders, Myers empathized with the killers and says he may have done the same.

"If I hadn't been locked up and kept going down the road I was, and things kept building up to a point," Myers says, "I had the knowledge, whether I had the mental capability at the time, I just can't say until I had been pushed that far."

Myers was a member of a group called the "Kindred" when he killed Cumberland County classmate Chris Eggleston in 1997. Like the Colorado killers, Kindred members dressed in black and had a fascination with Gothic.

Myers says he was attracted to the group because he felt like an outcast, a loner.

"Once they accept you and you get the feeling of camaraderie, things can come out from that you would never even imagine in your wildest dreams," he said.

Myers says "Kindred" members ordered Eggleston's killing because classmates considered the group outcasts.

"If somebody rejects you, you're always going to have feelings of anger and hate," he said. "They become the enemy because they refuse to accept you."

Myers insists Westover High School administrators knew the "Kindred" had the potential to become violent.

"Whenever there's tension between two groups of people, even two individuals, every student in the school knows, certainly the faculty know about it, hears about it," he said.

Myers says school administrators should show these outcast groups some respect if they want to understand them.

"I'd be more willing to talk to someone I respected, rather than someone who alienates me," he said.

In a plea agreement, Myers was convicted of second-degree murder, the earliest he can be released is the year 2023.