Six people were murdered in their son’s California killing spree, and life for the confused parents has been “hell on earth” ever since.
“We are crying in pain for the victims and their families,” the parents of Elliot Rodger, who launched a deadly revenge-for-rejection rampage over his inability to get girls, said in a statement released Thursday.
“It breaks our hearts on a level that we didn’t think possible. The feeling of knowing that it was our son’s actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as hell on earth.”
Hollywood director Peter Rodger and his ex-wife, Li Chin Rodger, are so distraught over the murders — and their son’s subsequent suicide — that they left it up to a family friend to deliver their message.
Family spokesman Simon Astaire said Thursday that the parents can’t speak without stammering and can barely articulate full sentences.
“They are unable to get the words out,” Astaire told NBC’s “Today.” “They are unable to express their sorrow.
“It is just awful,’’ Astaire said. “They’re going through absolutely enough at the moment. They are mourning the victims more than they are mourning their son.”
Astaire said Rodger’s parents are practically wasting away.
“They have gone down in size,” Astaire said. “They’re virtually unrecognizable.”
Now, Astaire said, the parents hope to do whatever they can to prevent similar mass murders.
“It is now our responsibility to do everything we can to help avoid this happening to any other family,” the statement said.
“Not only to avoid any more innocence destroyed, but also to identify and deal with the mental issues that drove our son to do what he did.”
Rodger’s boiling rage was spelled out in a 137-page manifesto, titled “My Twisted World,” in which he lashed out at women for rejecting him and at men for being more suave with the ladies.
The rambling screed, in which Rodger outlined his entire life, called out everyone he hated and detailed his plan to kill as many people as possible on his “Day of Retribution,” which he had been planning for at least three years.
Rodger e-mailed the manifesto to several people moments before he left his apartment Friday.
“The mother got a phone call from the social worker [who] said, ‘Have you seen your e-mail?’ ” Astaire said.
“So she goes to her e-mail, she opens it up, she reads the first three or four lines of the e-mail, and then she automatically, instinctively goes to YouTube. She looks at YouTube, and there was his retribution video.
“Within 30 seconds, she rings up her ex-husband, Peter Rodger. So he goes and looks on his iPhone, and he looks at this YouTube that was posted, and Peter says, ‘We have to go there. We have to get to him.’ ”
Rodger’s parents raced in separate cars from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, but were too late.
By then, Rodger, 22, had slashed three men to death in his apartment, then left armed with three handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
He headed to two sorority houses, where he shot and killed two girls, opened fire on a local deli, killing one man, and ran down at least two bicyclists with his black BMW while shooting at people on the street.
He injured more than a dozen people before killing himself with one of the guns.