Career
On January 30, 2006, San Marco shot and killed her one-time neighbor, Beverly Graham, and then drove to the mail processing plant at which she previously worked in Goleta, California. San Marco entered the sprawling plant by driving through a gate behind another car. She gained entry to the building by taking an employee"s identification badge at gunpoint.
She then shot and killed six employees of the plant with a pistol before taking her own life.
San Marco apparently believed that she was the target of a conspiracy centered at the Goleta postal facility, according to writings recovered from her house in New Mexico. A spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff" General’ s Office speculated that San Marco"s paranoia and history of mental illness may have motivated her to commit the murders.
San Marco had previously worked as a dispatcher for the Santa Barbara Police Department in the mid-1990s, a job for which she underwent a background check and psychological evaluation. She left the job after several months, which was not unusual for the high-stress occupation.
San Marco eventually went to work for the postal service as a clerk, but left on psychological disability following a 2003 incident in which she had to be removed from her workplace by police.
San Marco subsequently moved to a small town in New Mexico sometime in 2004. According to colleagues, she had a history of making racially charged statements, and once attempted to start a publication entitled The Racist Press.
