By William Croyle
Enquirer contributor

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Less than two hours after he was arrested for killing his family and holding 22 classmates at gunpoint, Clay Shrout was interviewed by Boone County Detective Jerry Goins. Following is a recap of that day's events, based on a transcript of that interview, along with interviews from law enforcement officials conducted in recent weeks.

At 5:45 a.m. May 26, 1994, Clay Nathaniel Shrout shot and killed his parents and two sisters in the family's upscale Florence home.

Three hours later, the 17-year-old Ryle High School junior held his trigonometry class and teacher hostage. The standoff ended peacefully, but might not have if Shrout had seen his English teacher that day.

"There's no doubt in my mind if he'd have seen his English teacher first, we'd have had multiple homicides," said Jeff Martin, who was commander at the time of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Boone County Police Department.

One friend, in a written statement a month after the shootings, said Shrout was angry at her because he was flunking English. The friend said Shrout told him that he was going to shoot her on Thursday, May 26. "I didn't tell anybody because, who would have believed me?" the friend said.

Shrout told police he was also angry at his parents for taking away his weapons, and an assistant principal for confiscating his stun gun that week. He even drew a picture of that assistant principal tied to a pole with gasoline poured around him.

In 1994, Shrout pleaded guilty by reason of insanity and received a life sentence. He's eligible for parole in 2019, but Martin said Shrout is not insane and will kill again if he's let out.

Shrout's day planned

Shrout was arrested at Ryle about 9 a.m. He was transported to the Boone County police station, where Detective Jerry Goins (now deceased) interviewed him.

According to the transcript, Shrout had a plan when he set his alarm clock for 5 a.m. that day.

"I was either going to take some stuff and all the money I could find and leave ... or I was going to kill (my family) and take some stuff and disappear," Shrout told Goins. "I didn't want to be stopped so I decided I had to kill them."

Shrout retrieved a loaded Colt .380 Mustang pistol that morning that his father kept in the Jeep. He emptied the gun to figure out how it worked, then reloaded it. He went to his parents' room where they were sleeping and shot them.

His mother, Rebecca, 44, died first. Shrout then went into his sister's room where Kristen, 14, was awake. He shot and killed her.

As he walked past his parents' room to kill his other sister, he heard a noise. His dad, Harvey, 43, was still alive on the bed. "I got scared when I saw him and I fired two more shots at him," Shrout said.

Harvey was now dead. Shrout then shot and killed Lauren, 12, in her room after she told him about a nice dream she had.

"Two reasons why I shot my sisters," Shrout told Goins. "The first one was I didn't want them to have to live without their parents. And also my older sister (Kristin). She had enough intelligence to pick up the phone and call the police ... and I didn't want to be stopped."

The terror continues

Shrout left in the Jeep, but didn't disappear as planned. "I couldn't remember where roads went and some roads were the wrong roads," Shrout said. "I couldn't remember if I was going to go anywhere or not."

He stopped at an Ameristop across from Ryle High to buy juice, then drove to a nearby subdivision and parked in a cul-de-sac. He called some friends, telling one he had just killed his family.

"She didn't believe me," Shrout told Goins.

He then went to the home of another female friend - his prom date from two weeks earlier - who attended another school and was on summer break. She opened the door and stepped outside. "I grabbed her arm and pulled out the gun. I told her to be quiet and walk toward the Jeep," Shrout said.

They drove to Ryle and at about 8:35 a.m. walked into his trigonometry class, where there were 22 students. The friend he kidnapped sat at a desk while Shrout made an announcement.

"He told me that a student had gone crazy and was holding a class hostage and to lock the door," teacher Carol Kanabroski told police in a written statement. "As he was saying this he pulled a gun out from his pants."

This was Shrout's first-period class, but it's unclear why he took them hostage. Martin said Shrout's friends heard him talk about killing but didn't believe him.

Shrout told Goins that his English teacher called his parents earlier in the week because he hadn't turned in "some major assignment." But he said nothing to Goins about wanting to kill her.

In fact, he didn't seem to know what he wanted to do in Kanabroski's class. He sat at her desk holding the gun, but not pointing it at anybody.

"I said I don't care (what you do), just go on doing whatever you were doing," Shrout said. "I'm just going to sit here for a while."

Shrout said most students were quiet. A few cried. Some talked to him.

"I hadn't stopped them from doing anything. I was just sitting there ... drinking a thing of apple juice."

Shrout let Kanabroski answer a knock at the door. It was a student asking her to sign a paper. Kanabroski mouthed to the student that someone had a gun. The student told administrators, who called police. It was 8:46 when Officer Pete Schierloh, about a mile away from the school, got the call.

"'Subject with a gun.' That's all they said," said Schierloh, recalling that day 10 years ago. "I really had no idea what was going on."

Then there was an announcement over the school intercom for Superintendent Ted Wetekamp to report to the main office. But Wetekamp wasn't at the school. The announcement was the school's signal to teachers that there was an emergency - and Shrout knew it.

"Whenever that happens, the teachers are supposed to shut and lock their doors," Shrout said. "No one is supposed to know about that, but we know about that anyway."

It was now 8:48. Assistant Principal Stephen Sorrell came to the door and asked Shrout to come out.

"I said, 'I don't want to,'" Shrout said. "He said, 'We have to talk.' And I'm like, 'Why can't we talk in here?' And he's like, 'If I come in, can they leave?' I said, 'Sure.'"

The students and Kanabroski left the room. Sorrell entered and sat near Shrout on the edge of a filing cabinet. He asked for the gun but Shrout didn't budge - until he saw Schierloh outside the door.

Schierloh, who had just arrived, reached for his gun. Shrout saw that and immediately gave his gun to Sorrell, ending the ordeal. It was 8:52 a.m..

"He just gave up. It was very much a non-event," said Schierloh, who never drew his gun. "From the time I got there to the time I had him in cuffs was about 20 seconds."

It was about 9 o'clock when Martin entered the room to talk to Shrout. That's when Shrout told him about the murders.

Martin sent Sgt. Jack Banks and Lt. Mike Jarmin to the Shrout home. They arrived at 9:11 a.m., entering through an open back door. They went upstairs and found the family dead. All four had been shot in the head.

The coroner arrived at 9:41. Investigators found six shell casings and a bullet hole in a master bedroom window. From Shrout's room they collected numerous items, including drawings, six marijuana cigarettes, and a book, The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies & Magic.

Motives

Shrout told Goins that his parents caught him with alcohol and marijuana. There was the stun gun he was caught with at school. And his English grade dropped from a B+ to an F in one quarter.

His parents grounded him for some of that and also took away his phone, the keys to his truck and some weapons he'd collected, including knives, num-chucks, a sword and a BB gun.

Shrout told Goins he had the weapons for protection, even though he said nobody really bothered him.

"All that I resented was when they took my weapons away," Shrout said. He said his parents had every right to take his truck and phone since they paid for them.

But "they took my weapons and something happened," he said.

He said he argued with his mom a lot, but "I didn't hate her," he told Goins. "Every time I was around her I just got real frustrated. My dad and I got along real well, though."

Shrout said he felt "trapped in a way, like there is no room for me anymore" in society.

"Like colleges. Everyone decided that I had to go to college. This was decided for me before I was born," Shrout said. "I resented them trying to make me out a special mold without asking me what I really wanted to be first."

Martin said Shrout is an evil person who needs to remain locked up.

"Based on what I saw that day, what he told us and why he did things, I have no doubt that if Clay Shrout gets out of prison, he will kill again," Martin said.

E-mail williamcroyle@yahoo.com