Cho's Problems Date to Early Childhood

In this undated photo released by the Virginia State Police, Seung-Hui Cho is shown. Seung-Hui, 23, the gunman responsible for the April massacre at Virginia Tech was a sickly child _ shy, frail and leery of physical contact by the time he was 3. His teachers said he began showing suicidal and homicidal tendencies by the eighth grade. A new report that provides the most comprehensive look yet at Seung-Hui Cho also shows his parents, teachers and mental health counselors wove a safety net that held him together through most of high school. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police) (Anonymous - AP)

At the urging of teachers, he went to counseling and art therapy before starting seventh grade and was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. He rebuffed his parents' suggestions that he take part in more extracurricular activities, remaining withdrawn.

In March 1999, the eighth-grader began drawing tunnels and caves that a therapist said could signify depression, or worse. A month later, after the murders at Columbine High School in Colorado, he wrote a paper saying he wanted to repeat the attacks _ an exercise he would repeat in the spring of 2006 with a fictional tale that hinted at what was to come.

He was diagnosed in therapy with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder characterized by consistent failure to speak when speech is expected. Sufferers sometimes show "passive-aggressive, stubborn and controlling traits," the report said. Antidepressant drugs helped, and a year later, he was taken off the medication.

At Westfield High School, educators set up an individualized program to help him cope with mutism. He kept his counseling appointments and got good grades, graduating in June 2003 with a 3.5 grade point average in the honors program.

A school guidance counselor urged him to choose a small college close to home, but Cho was determined to attend Virginia Tech. The counselor offered Cho the name of a person to call if he had trouble adjusting, but Cho never called.

The first few years at college were uneventful. He requested a new freshman roommate after finding his first one too sloppy. His parents visited regularly, and his grades were good.

In his sophomore year, he moved in with a senior who was rarely home. He grew interested in writing and began to think about switching his major from business information systems to English. He submitted a book idea to a publishing house, which rejected it.

Panel member Roger L. Depue, who oversaw the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, called Cho's intelligence "his strongest attribute," but said he lacked any social skills.

"One of the big problems with being a loner is that one does not get helpful reality checks from people who can challenge disordered thinking," Depue wrote.

As late as the spring of 2005, Cho exhibited no behavioral problems. But serious problems surfaced in the fall.

Letters home trickled off. He clashed with English teachers, wearing dark glasses, hats and scarves to class and writing violent, disturbing papers. Roommates gave up on trying to befriend him after he stabbed a carpet in a girl's room.

In November and December 2005, female residents complained of annoying instant messages, e-mails and phone calls. Cho was referred to counseling. After campus police told Cho to stop contacting one woman, he told his roommates, "I might as well kill myself now."

That triggered a psychiatric evaluation, an overnight stay and several brief phone sessions with counselors.

After that, the report says, English professors, university administrators and others missed several opportunities to share information and get Cho help.

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Associated Press writer Michael Felberbaum contributed to this report.