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Massacre suspect trolled Web for sex

James Holmes is believed to have posted this photo on AdultFriendFinder.com, showing the accused movie theater gunman with red hair prior to the attack.

James Holmes is believed to have posted this photo on AdultFriendFinder.com, showing the accused movie theater gunman with red hair prior to the attack. (Adultfriendfinder.com)

DERANGED: Cops yesterday use a video camera to peer inside the apartment of Colorado gunman James Holmes, who booby-trapped his pad before the massacre at the theater, where police checked his car. (
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Before launching his movie massacre, “Dark Knight” killing suspect James Holmes was unraveling — dropping out of a prestigious grad-school program, detaching from his family and trolling the Web for bizarre sex romps.

Police are looking into a posting on the sex Web site AdultFriendFinder.com that was apparently put up by Holmes to find group partners, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

In his lurid ad, he darkly alluded to crimes to come.

“Will you visit me in prison?” wrote the poster, who used the screen name “classicjimbo” to look for partners who were into “Women, Couples (man and woman), Groups or Couples (2 women).”

The sex posting features an image allegedly of Holmes sporting the red hair he wore at yesterday’s massacre.

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He describes himself as 6 feet tall and single “with an athletic body” — though he admits he has a “short/average”-size penis.

“Looking for a fling or casual sex gal,” he wrote. “Am a nice guy. Well, as nice enough of a guy who does these sort of shenanigans.”

The profile was accompanied by a photo of a woman licking her fingers behind him.

Holmes’ hunt for online sex came as his life seemed to be coming apart. For all his brains, Holmes, 24, had a sick and scary mind that had worried people since his high-school days and that was only growing worse.

“I could totally see this happening,” a teammate on Holmes’ high-school soccer team told The Post.

“It’s not like at the time I’d report him or anything, but when it happened, I thought, ‘Of anyone I know, I could see him committing something like that.’ ”

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Holmes’ trouble also affected his academic life, as he announced he was dropping out of the neuroscience doctoral program at the University of Colorado.

He was raised in a quiet suburban area of San Diego by his nurse mother and software-manager father.

Holmes led a seemingly idyllic childhood. He attended Westview HS, one of California’s best, where he ran cross-country in addition to playing soccer.

“He was so introverted,” said the former high-school teammate. “He always had a smile on his face. He didn’t have many friends.

“He was a guy we were kind of unsure of,” the teammate said. “We weren’t sure why he was even on the soccer team. He wasn’t very good.”

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After high school, Holmes attended the University of California, Riverside, where he studied neuroscience.

The young man whose brain was becoming as sick as a Batman villain concentrated his study at Riverside on “how we behave,” said the school’s chancellor, Timothy P. White.

“It’s ironic and sad,” said the chancellor, who added that when it came to academic achievement, Holmes “was at the top of the top.”

Nevertheless, after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree, he couldn’t find work when he went back home to live with his parents in 2010.

In June 2011, Holmes enrolled in the University of Colorado at Denver Ph.D. neurosciences program.

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As part of the advanced program at the school, Holmes had been listed as making a presentation in May about micro-DNA biomarkers in a class named “Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders.”

But a short time later, he began the process of withdrawing from the program, the university said.

“He was incredibly smart, quiet, but he didn’t strike me as disturbed,” a fellow medical student said.

About the same time, he started methodically stocking up on guns and stockpiling buckets of ammo. He made four purchases between May and early July.

Tom Mai, who lived next door to Holmes in San Diego for about a decade, said he was a “quiet guy” who helped his family with yard work but rarely spoke.

“He seemed to be a normal kid. I don’t know what triggered it,” Mai said.

“I’d see him smoking weed behind the apartment,” said Lance Bradshaw, 25, who lived across the street from Holmes in Aurora. “Nobody ever really talked to him. He was alone a lot.”

Holmes visited a local bar Tuesday, said Jackie Mitchell, a furniture mover who lives several blocks from the suspect’s apartment building in Colorado.

Mitchell said they shared some drinks and that Holmes didn’t seem distressed or violent.

“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.

Holmes’ family stayed out of sight yesterday, only releasing a statement saying they were “trying to process” what had happened.

“Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy,” the statement said, asking for privacy.

But his mother seemed suspicious of him. Reached yesterday morning by reporters, she indicated her gut instinct said her son was involved.

“You have the right person,” she said. “I need to call the police . . . I need to fly out to Colorado.”

Additional reporting by Kristen Castillo and Christa Nianiatus, with Post Wire Services