DENVER — James Eagen Holmes came from a welltended San Diego enclave of two-story homes with redtiled roofs, where neighbors recall him as a clean-cut, studious young man of sparing words.
Tall and dark-haired, he stared clear-eyed at the camera in a 2004 high school yearbook snapshot, wearing a white junior varsity soccer uniform — No. 16. The son of a nurse, Arlene, and a software company manager, Robert, James Holmes was a brilliant science scholar in college.
The biggest mystery surrounding the 24-year-old doctoral student was why he would have pulled on a gas mask and shot dozens of people early Friday in a suburban Denver movie theater, as police allege.
In the age of widespread social media, no trace of Holmes could be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere on the Web. Either he never engaged or he scrubbed his trail.
A longtime neighbor in San Diego, where Holmes grew up, remembers only a “shy guy ... a loner” from a churchgoing family. In addition to playing soccer at Westview High School, he ran cross-country.
Holmes struggled to find work after graduating with highest honors in spring 2010 with a neuroscience degree from the University of California, Riverside, said the neighbor, retired electrical engineer Tom Mai.
Holmes enrolled last year in a neuroscience doctoral program at the University of Colorado-Denver but was in the process of withdrawing, said school officials, who didn’t provide a reason. The school later said in a statement that he left the program in June 2012.
As part of the advanced program in Denver, a James Holmes had been listed as making a presentation in May about Micro DNA Biomarkers in a class titled “Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders.”
In academic achievement, “he was at the top of the top,” recalled UC-Riverside Chancellor Timothy White.
From a distance, Holmes’ life appears unblemished, a young man with unlimited potential. There are no indications he had problems with police before Friday.
Julie Adams, whose son played junior varsity soccer with Holmes, said her son remembered little about the suspect, which was unusual for the tightknit team.
Jackie Mitchell, a furniture mover who lives several blocks from the suspect’s apartment building, said he had drinks with Holmes at a bar on Tuesday night, though he showed no sign of distress or violence.
After Holmes approached him, “we just talked about football. He had a backpack and geeky glasses and seemed like a real intelligent guy, and I figured he was one of the college students,” Mitchell said.
When Mitchell saw Holmes’ photo after the shooting, “the hair stood up on my back,” he said. “I know this guy.”
San Diego Superior Court spokesman Karen Dalton said there were no records found under Holmes’ name, not even for a traffic ticket. Riverside County prosecutors also have no criminal record for him, said John Hall, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. The only mark on his record in Aurora was a speeding summons from October, Oates said.
On Friday, San Diego police spokesman Lt. Andra Brown spoke to reporters in the driveway of the Holmes’ home, on behalf of the family.
“As you can understand, the Holmes family is very upset about all of this,” she said. “It’s a tragic event and it’s taken everyone by surprise.”
Information for this article was contributed by Elliot Spagat, Julie Watson, Eileen Sullivan, Alicia A. Caldwell, Pete Yost, Tom Hays, Amy Taxin, Colleen Slevin, Eric Carvin and Judith Ausuebel of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 07/22/2012