From the spare prose of a Glendale Police Department report emerges the macabre scene that confronted police officers and students at Independence High School a little before 8 on the morning of February 12.
That's when police, responding to reports of shots fired, rushed through morning traffic and parents dropping off their kids at the school to a patio area near the school's cafeteria, where they found two 15-year-old girls, one dead and one dying, posed in a morbid mise-en-scene.
Though the names of minors are redacted throughout the police report, the identities of the suspect and the victim are evident from the opening sentence.
"A fifteen year-old white female shot and killed a fifteen year-old Asian female," it reads. "[Suspect 1] left a note on her explaining why she did it."
"Suspect 1," the white female, was Dorothy Dutiel, the spurned lover of the Asian female, or "Victim 1," May Kieu.
Kieu was seated, according to the report, her back against a low wall, with her legs straight out in front of her, while Dutiel was face down, "laying across the legs of the seated victim."
Both girls suffered gunshot wounds. Dutiel, wearing "blue jeans, a black belt [and] black in color converse shoes," was motionless and had no pulse.
Officer Elaine Singer "could feel a pulse on the left side of [Kieu's] neck," and wrote that she also could see the pulse throbbing in Kieu's artery. Singer described Kieu as wearing black spandex pants, a blue long-sleeve shirt, and "brown boot-style shoes."
Another officer stated that a handgun, a 9-millimeter Beretta, was found between Dutiel's legs.
Members of the Glendale Fire Department moved Kieu from where she was sitting, laid her face up and cut her shirt from her body. They placed a breathing apparatus on her mouth and attempted to revive her, but it was of no use.
At 8:07 a.m., both girls were pronounced deceased by the Glendale Fire Department, according to the report.
Nearby was Kieu's red backpack. Dutiel's backpack, also close by, was black, like her clothes, and sported an LGBT "equality" pin.
Also on the scene was Officer Shawn Dirks, who was handed a note that a firefighter had found on Dutiel.
The note said the girls had a relationship, writes Dirks in the report, and in it, Dutiel "says she loved [Kieu] and doesn't anymore, but 'I cannot bear to live without her.'"
This note, as well as others from Dutiel, found at her residence explaining her reasons for the crime already have been published by New Times, along with numerous crime scene photos released by the Glendale Police Department. Parts of these notes are redacted.
In one, Dutiel takes full responsibility for the tragedy, saying what she has done is "unforgivable" and that her family is "in no way affiliated with my actions."
Dutiel says the same of the student who lent her the Beretta, whose name has been submitted for felony charges to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office by the Glendale PD.
"[He] was under the absolute impression I needed it for self-defense," she writes of the gun-lending student. "I lied to get this gun."
In another, she described how she had "struggled with depression," and she detailed what apparently was an intense love affair with Kieu.
"We planned our future together," Dutiel writes. "Our wedding. Our home . . . Every aspect."
However, the week before, to Dutiel's dismay, Kieu moved to end the romance.
Glendale 75thAve Police Report (2) by Stephen Lemons
"Last Saturday, I was informed she didn't love me romantically anymore," the killer explains. "But we did not separate because she told me there was a chance . . . She told me she hasn't loved me like that for a long time. That she's been iffy about us for years."
Dutiel adds: "This week has been the worst in my life."
She claims to be "of sane mind" and acknowledges that what she's about to do is wrong but that her decision is final.
"I never learned to love myself," she writes at one point. "I've always hated who I am."
Firefighters left the bodies of Dutiel and Kieu at the scene, and police erected a pop-up canopy over the bodies, shrouding them with a black tarp as they photographed the area and collected evidence.
The report also describes interviews with several students at Independence High School.
One boy, a senior, heard "two loud pops . . . sounding like fireworks," then saw "a body slouch downward." He said he didn't hear any arguing beforehand.
Another unidentified witness, a friend of Dutiel's, discussed Dutiel's mental state. The witness had talked to Dutiel the day before, and Dutiel asked at one point, "What if I killed myself?"
The witness responded to her, "You're not going to do that, and she was like, 'Okay.'"
The same witness said Dutiel had been suffering "like a mid-life crisis," though only 15. Also, Dutiel lately had not been eating, drinking, or sleeping properly, the witness stated.
More than one witness knew the pair were involved romantically and were aware the relationship was on the rocks.
Yet another witness remembered exchanging Valentine candy with friends on Friday, February 12, and seeing Dutiel and Kieu sitting calmly on the grass together, side by side, before hearing the shots and seeing the bloody aftermath.
None of the witnesses seems to have seen the actual shootings. One witness described seeing "a female student holding a handgun," but the interviewing officer cast doubt on the account after concluding that the witness would not have been able to see the crime scene from where he stood.
There is one handwritten note that is clearly dissimilar to Dutiel's. It describes a small wooden car the person made as a gift for the other as an expression of "the highest level of gratitude and love" and the "physical representation of my soul."
The signer's name is redacted, however.
As for Dutiel, she addressed suicide notes to her parents, her siblings, first responders, and unknown others.
In the one to her parents, Dutiel writes, "I could have handled this better. I decided not to."
