On a cold afternoon in February 1996, Moses Lake, Washington, was rocked when 49-year-old algebra teacher Leona Diane Gray Caires was shot and killed in her fifth-period classroom. A 14-year-old student entered the room wearing a western-style duster and armed with a rifle and two handguns. He opened fire, killing classmates Manuel Vela Jr. and Arnie Fritz, critically wounding 13-year-old Natalie Hintz, and shooting Caires in the back as she stood at the blackboard.

Stephen Caires, the school’s assistant principal and Leona Caires’ husband, discovered his wife mortally wounded after hearing the commotion. The gunman held remaining students hostage until gym teacher Jonathan Lane intervened and subdued him. The shooter’s troubled home life and an apparent influence from Stephen King’s novel Rage were noted during the investigation. Tried as an adult, the perpetrator was convicted on multiple counts, including first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, and received a lengthy sentence.

Does anyone have memories of Leona Caires, her time at Frontier Junior High, or information about that day that could add to the record?