Professor accused in murder plot: ‘Daddy was so sad’

In emails addressed to his wife, the UC Irvine professor accused of setting fires and plotting mass murder at his son’s high school said he was “eaten away by sadness” after the teenager’s suicide.

In a pair of emails filed in court late Tuesday by Orange County prosecutors, Rainer Reinscheid depicts graphic plans to use machine guns to kill 200 students at Irvine’s University High School and administrators, sexually torture and assault two female staff members, and then kill himself at a nearby park where his 14-year-old son, Claas Stubbe, committed suicide in March.

“I have dreams about going to Uni High and setting the place on fire, burning down every single building, and then killing myself in the same place Claas died,” the 48-year-old associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences wrote his wife in April.

The email concludes: “I will give myself a wonderful ending and be with Claas very soon. I like this plan, finally a good idea.”

In the second email, Reinscheid requested that his wife pass along “one story” to their remaining children.

“Daddy was so sad when Claas passed away, he was just eaten away by his sadness and stopped breathing,” he wrote.

Reinscheid’s wife, Wendy Reinscheid, told police her husband had been suffering from deep depression and sadness since his son’s death, according to court documents.

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This story was reported by Times Staff Writers Tony Barboza, Christopher Goffard and Kate Mather.