A Michigan bowling coach, who tragically shot a 17-year-old girl in her home, had been sending her inappropriate messages, according to the girl’s father. This revelation has added to the shock in the small community.
In Bedford Township, Michigan, a community about an hour from Detroit, residents have been grappling with the heartbreaking news that Ryne Leist killed 17-year-old Gwendolyn Smith, whom he coached, before reportedly taking his own life.
As community members discussed the events of June 14 on Facebook, allegations about Leist’s unsettling behavior surfaced, although one local urged caution against making hasty judgments.
That’s when Smith’s father Levi jumped in.
“I’ve seen enough of the emails he sent my daughter before he killed her to know it’s not speculation,” Levi Smith cryptically posted in a Facebook discussion group for Bedford Township.
“He deserves to rot in a special hell,” Smith said of Leist, 33.
Leist volunteered as the coach of the bowling club at Bedford High School, where Gwendolyn Smith was on the team. He is believed to have shot the girl multiple times in her stepfather’s home, authorities said.
Smith’s stepfather returned home at around 6 p.m. to discover the mortally wounded teen and her alleged killer.
Gwendolyn Smith, described as a “kind,” “talented” and “extraordinary young woman,” had just graduated high school two weeks before.
Former friends and classmates of the Leist meanwhile, told a different tale about the coach.
“I do remember him being a loner,” said Monica Mckenzie. “Somehow he slipped through the cracks.”
Kara Thornton said she knew Leist when she was 15 and he was 20.
“He got my name tattooed on his arm. We never dated, I never wanted to,” said Thornton, who now lives in Hawaii.
“He would try sleeping with me and my friends, he’d meet us at parks and then drive us to the middle of nowhere, giving us alcohol…he was always so gross, always trying to date underage girls,” she claimed.
“A few years back he was trying to be a ‘photographer’ to take nudes of women,” she added.
“It’s hard looking back and realizing how f—d it all was, haven’t thought about him in years.”
It’s unclear if Leist broke into the victim’s stepfather’s home or was let in, said authorities, who didn’t specify the nature of the relationship between the two.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did clarify that “Gwendolyn did not consider the relation between the two of them to be romantic.”
Smith’s death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office, and Leist died of suicide.
Leist volunteered as a coach with the school’s bowling club, a gig he’d obtained through his employment at the local bowling alley.
He had recently resigned from that position.
Levi Smith could not be reached for comment.
