August 6, 2009 3:16 PM
- Text
Neighbor: Pa. Gunman Ogled My Daughter
(CBS)
Patricia Cowen lived across the street from George Sodini for the past dozen years.
On Tuesday, Sodini, 48, killed three women and injured nine at a suburban Pittsburgh health club before shooting himself to death. He kept an online journal in which he detailed planning the attack and, reports "Early Show" correspondent Susan Koeppen, posted videos on YouTube discussing his need to work on his emotions in order to attract women.
Cowen is shaken to think a man like that was so close to her family for so long.
She told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Thursday it's "really devastating, just knowing that he was doing the things that he did and the (online) journal he was keeping, to say he was going out for young girls and knowing what he said on July 23 about my daughter -- it's just so devastating to know that somebody like that lives right across the street from you."
In his online journal, Sodini wrote of Cowen's daughter, "Wow!! I just looked out my front window and saw a beautiful college-age girl leave Bob Fox's house (Cowen's fiance), across the street. ... College girls are hoez. ... She was a long haired, hot little hottie with a beautiful bod. ... Some (people, like himself) were simply meant to walk a lonely path in life. I don't usually look out, but just happened to notice."
"It's just so overwhelming," Cowen told Rodriguez, "just the idea of somebody like that thinking like that for a young girl. My daughter is a college student, and, you know, just to think if I would lose somebody like that, I don't know what I would do. It's just so devastating."
Cowen says Sodini "seemed pretty focused on life. He seemed happy. I felt like he was just a loner who liked to keep to himself. He would say 'Hi' on occasion. (I) just never thought that somebody like that would be so capable of what he's done."
She added that, on Monday, she and Fox spoke briefly with Sodini. "My fiance had surgery, and he was asking about the surgery and saying that he was happy that he's (Fox) doing well. He seemed very concerned. Like he was a trustworthy, nice kind of guy that you could trust.
"I would have left him in my house anytime. Just the fear now, knowing what he did, it's just you can't trust anybody these days. It's just so devastating and just so hard to take in. It's just awful. It's just terrible."
On Tuesday, Sodini, 48, killed three women and injured nine at a suburban Pittsburgh health club before shooting himself to death. He kept an online journal in which he detailed planning the attack and, reports "Early Show" correspondent Susan Koeppen, posted videos on YouTube discussing his need to work on his emotions in order to attract women.
Cowen is shaken to think a man like that was so close to her family for so long.
She told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Thursday it's "really devastating, just knowing that he was doing the things that he did and the (online) journal he was keeping, to say he was going out for young girls and knowing what he said on July 23 about my daughter -- it's just so devastating to know that somebody like that lives right across the street from you."
In his online journal, Sodini wrote of Cowen's daughter, "Wow!! I just looked out my front window and saw a beautiful college-age girl leave Bob Fox's house (Cowen's fiance), across the street. ... College girls are hoez. ... She was a long haired, hot little hottie with a beautiful bod. ... Some (people, like himself) were simply meant to walk a lonely path in life. I don't usually look out, but just happened to notice."
"It's just so overwhelming," Cowen told Rodriguez, "just the idea of somebody like that thinking like that for a young girl. My daughter is a college student, and, you know, just to think if I would lose somebody like that, I don't know what I would do. It's just so devastating."
Cowen says Sodini "seemed pretty focused on life. He seemed happy. I felt like he was just a loner who liked to keep to himself. He would say 'Hi' on occasion. (I) just never thought that somebody like that would be so capable of what he's done."
She added that, on Monday, she and Fox spoke briefly with Sodini. "My fiance had surgery, and he was asking about the surgery and saying that he was happy that he's (Fox) doing well. He seemed very concerned. Like he was a trustworthy, nice kind of guy that you could trust.
"I would have left him in my house anytime. Just the fear now, knowing what he did, it's just you can't trust anybody these days. It's just so devastating and just so hard to take in. It's just awful. It's just terrible."
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