At times, the two Mokena teenagers had talked casually about suicide.. Friends say Jeff Niemiec once asked a friend if there was a way to die a “silent death.” Shaun Dunkel had said he wanted to go out in a “blaze of glory.”
So, when the two teens told friends Sunday night that they were “gone for good,” no one took them seriously.
Mokena police said the two Lincoln-Way High School students apparently climbed a 15-foot dirt berm behind the Mokena School campus Sunday night or early Monday morning.
There, not far from their homes, the two best friends placed guns to their heads and pulled the triggers, police said. The teenagers had told friends they wanted to commit suicide together, according to Mokena police investigators.
Dunkel’s father and a friend found the bodies about 4 a.m. Monday. Two .25-caliber semiautomatic handguns registered to Dunkel’s parents were found next to the bodies, police said.
“We thought they were kidding,” said John Magierski, a 15-year-old friend who said he spoke to the two teens late Sunday night. “Man, they were just regular teenagers. No one expected them to do this. None of us can figure out why.”
If Mokena police know why, they are not saying. Police said they have not found suicide notes and immediate family members of the teenagers declined to speak with reporters.
But a dozen friends who gathered Monday at the site of the shootings described Niemiec, 17, and Dunkel, 19, as regular guys who tangled with their parents occasionally, liked to go joy-riding with friends, and generally spent most of their free time playing video games. Neither, they said, seemed to face an immediate or weighty problem.
Niemiec recently ran away from home, but he seemed to be over that particular problem, friends said.
“They had the same problems all of us have,” said Dave Clemente, 14, a friend to both teens. “Nothing to kill themselves over.”
The deaths shook Dunkel’s and Niemiec’s friends and families. It also touched a nerve in this town of about 12,000 people, who awoke to find themselves under the glare of the media. As youngsters arrived at school Monday morning, the sky was dotted with helicopters angling for a view of the scene of the shootings.
At Mokena Junior High School, teachers told pupils two youths had committed suicide near the school. At the neighboring elementary school, no announcement was made, but social workers, psychologists and a nurse were on hand to deal with questions at both schools. Lincoln-Way High School officials also made counselors available to students.
By Monday afternoon, a steady stream of friends and relatives–as well as curiosity-seekers–wandered to the berm where the youths took their lives. The only signs of the deaths were two bouquets and a white poster with red lettering: “We’ll miss you Shaun and Jeff.”
“I just hope Shaun is happy . . . if that’s what he was looking for,” said an emotional Donna Burns, Dunkel’s aunt. “He was a good kid. I can’t believe it.”
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Friends of Niemiec and Dunkel said they saw the teenagers at a park late Sunday night.
“They were just chilling, hanging with friends,” said Magierski.
“No one thought anything was wrong because they were just acting like them crazy selves,” added Scott Hilger, 15. “Nothing was up. Just a regular day.”
As the other teens headed home, Dunkel and Niemiec remained at the park. Magierski said he was at his home, across the street from the park, when Dunkel and Niemiec started to leave about 9:15 p.m.
“Jeff said, `We’re gone for good,’ ” Magierski recalled. “Shaun told him to shut up and he was like, `We got to go. We can’t talk anymore.’ “
It was not clear where the two teens went immediately after they left the park.
But at some point, they climbed a wooded berm between the Mokena School campus and a park. The secluded spot is a popular hangout for teenagers.
“It was Jeff’s favorite place because it was peaceful,” said Hilger. “Whenever he got mad, he’d come up here to think. He said it was like the top of the world where you can just clear your mind.”
As friends searched for answers as to why the teenagers killed themselves, at least one wondered if it could happen again.
“It really scares me because I’m afraid someone’s going to do it,” said Shannon Rogers, 15. “What if some other kid thinks this is the best way to get rid of their problems? What if they see this and think it’s the best way out?”