Preferred Pronouns Sparked Outrage. The Real Threat Was Ignored.
Three weeks before the Father’s Day quadruple murders, the little town of Kellogg, Idaho, became a landmark in the culture wars.
That was at the start of June, after 18-year-old Travis Lohr was told that he would not be allowed to walk in the local high school’s upcoming graduation ceremony because of a statement he made at an assembly where seniors were invited to impart words of wisdom to the younger students.
“Boys are boys and girls are girls,” he famously said. “There is no in-between.”
Word of Kellogg High School’s sanction quickly spread through social media and beyond. The local sheriff, Holly Lindsey, who happens to be the first woman to hold the position and also happens to live with a woman teacher at the same school, alerted administrators of possible mass protests in support of Lohr and accompanying trouble.
“The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office has informed the Kellogg School District of concerns regarding the safety of students, staff and families due to a number of outside groups and agitators,” the school district announced. “Based on the information provided, the decision has been made to postpone the graduation ceremony scheduled for June 3, 2023. When it is determined that the ceremony can be held safely, that information will be shared. We regret having to make this very difficult decision but the safety of our staff, students, their families and local law enforcement is our top priority.”
As it happened, the only protests were 100 locals who picketed outside the school for an hour and a half. An off-duty school bus driver was fired after he joined them, waving an American flag. The graduation went ahead at the school gymnasium on June 3, as originally planned, though Lohr was still not allowed to walk.
But there was actual dire danger brewing in Kellogg that involved sexual crime and guns and had nothing to do with trans kids and pronouns and protesters. One senior who was permitted to join the procession was 18-year-old Devin Smith—even though numerous classmates attest that he had a long history of inappropriate and harassing behavior with girls at Kellogg High. The school was apparently unable or unwilling to address the ongoing problem.
Threats Force School in Gender Flap to Suspend Graduation
“He was a child. He needed help and he wasn’t receiving it,” Amanda Rae Hooker, the mother of a classmate, told The Daily Beast.
Afterwards, Devin posed for a family photo with his 41-year-old mother, Kenna Guardipee; his 16-year-old brother, Aiken Smith; and his grandfather, 65-year-old Kenneth Guardadipee. Devin wore a black cap and gown and a yellow stole with “2023” on one end and the school’s logo, a wildcat, on the other. He held his diploma in his left hand.
Just before graduation, Devin’s family had moved into the lower apartment in a two-family house on West Brown Ave. in Kellogg, across from the assisted living facility where his mother worked as a cook. The upper apartment had long been occupied by 31-year-old Majorjon Kaylor, his wife Kaylie Kaylor, their two pre-teen daughters, and a younger boy.
“We share a backyard,” Kaylie posted on a Facebook page that she has since made private. “My kids stay on their side but they are out there a lot. They jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler. Almost every single time the older boy goes outside on his porch and seems to be watching them. I tried to brush it off since it’s their yard too but my momma gut couldn’t shake it.”
On June 13, 10 days after the graduation, Kaylie called police to report that Devin had exposed himself to her girls. She subsequently posted an account of the incident on Facebook. She said she was outside with the girls when one of them said she saw a boy in a downstairs window.
“I say yes it’s their house, it’s fine and she goes no mom the boy, he’s shaking his penis!,” Kaylie wrote. “This dude was staring out the window directly at my girls and I and beating his d#$% off. I saw his naked body jump up on his bunk bed and scoot back.”
“I immediately ran to get Major who went down to go bang on the window, he was gone so Major went to the front door and had to knock several times before he got an answer. I am freaking distraught.”
She wrote that she and her husband called the police.
“I don't take stuff like this lightly,” her post continued. “I just want to protect my children but people always act like you are being dramatic… Now my kids can’t play outside like they’ve been able to for years when there was just a sweet old lady living below us.”
Target Disappeared a Book for Toddlers During Anti-Pride Fury
Kaylie added that when police had responded, Devin began crying and insisting that he had just been getting dressed.
“Well never in my life had I seen someone get dressed in that manner,” Kaylie wrote. “He knows what he did and so do we.”
The police took the case to the Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney with a recommendation that Devin be charged with indecent exposure. Nothing was done for reasons only the prosecutor’s office can explain, and so far it has not. In the meantime, Kaylie cut and pasted an image of Devin in his cap and gown from the graduation that caused a social media uproar about all things transgender.
“This is the sicko who made eye contact with my daughter while masturbating and exposing himself,” she wrote. A half dozen of Devin’s former classmates replied that he had been behaving similarly at school for years. No transgender kid is known to have ever hurt a kid at Kellogg High. This transgressor kid was a whole other story, one that the powers that be had failed to effectively address for year after year.
“I went to school with him for kindergarten all the way up to sophomore year,” Farren Fields wrote. “He is a creep and will not stop. He has been doing this kind of thing for a long ass time now. The police department needs to lock his ass up for life. He is disgusting?”
“I went to school with him too and can absolutely attest to him being a creep,” Scott Schultz wrote. “Definitely need to have something done about him.”
“I've had issues with him in the past as well,” Savannah Higgins wrote. “I tried getting the school to do something, but all they did was give him a slap on the wrist… He’d take pictures of girls at our school and so much worse. It’s scary and disturbing, especially now that he’s out in society. Keep your kids safe. I tried getting a restraining order against him years ago when I first had issues with him and it got denied because I can’t ‘deny a kid the right to an education.’ Stay safe.”
On June 18, Kaylie posted a testament to her husband, who was spending Father’s Day working underground as a miner.
“Happy Father’s Day to the best dad ever. I see all that you do for your kids and I. You work hard and stand your ground and don’t give up. You’re the exact person I want our kids looking up to. Our life together is the greatest and I’m so amazingly lucky to have someone like you as the father to my children. The kids and I love you. Can’t wait for you to get home from work. [heart emoji]”
A state police affidavit says that when Majorjon did arrive home, he went inside the family’s upstairs apartment and emerged with a .45 caliber Hi Point semi-automatic pistol in a holster on his hip. Kellogg was about to become a landmark in the saga of gun violence shrugged away by the same folks who call themselves pro-life and go into fury about people choosing their preferred pronouns.
After the shooting was done, Majorjon made what was apparently a call to the police.
“[Kaylie] overheard him talking on the phone, saying he had killed four people,” the affidavit says. “[He] handed her his phone, keys and wallet and asked her to hold onto them. [He] said he did what he had and to tell their kids he protected them.”
The police arrived at 7:24 p.m. Majorjon had holstered his pistol, unhitched his belt and put it in his black Dodge pickup truck.
“There were what appeared to be blood and tissue on the pistol,” the affidavit noted.
There was one round in the chamber and five in the magazine, meaning he must have reloaded at one point. The affidavit says that Majorjon told police that during the argument preceding the shooting he became “upset they didn’t seem to take his concerns with Devin Smith seriously.”
“[Majorjon] said he ‘snapped’, ‘lost it,’ and ‘did something about it,’” the affidavit says. “[Majorjon] referred to Devin Smith as a pedophile.”
Majorjon was arrested and arraigned on four counts of murder and ordered held without bail. His next hearing is on July 3. The prosecution filed court papers saying it will not be seeking the death penalty.
Nowhere in the affidavit does Majorjom express remorse for killing Devin’s brother. Aiken was as well regarded as Devin was disliked. Aiken reported in a social media post late last year that he was a member of his school’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.
One friend reported online that he had spoken with Aiken shortly before the shooting. The friend said Aiken had talked about how bad his brother was. Other kids had been saying until it all ended the way things too often do when a firearm is involved.
On Friday, Amanda Rae Hooker, whose daughter graduated with Devin in the delayed ceremony that briefly made Kellogg a focus of the culture wars, did not attribute Father’s Day bloodshed to a righteous gun owner forced to stand his ground against lawlessness and leftist grooming and indoctrination. Hooker instead spoke of a child who needed help he never got.
“But that’s no cause to kill four people,” she said.
Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
