Will Cho's online activity offer clues?

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The Virginia Tech killer went to the Internet less than a month before the massacre to get ammunition clips that fit one of the two handguns he used in the rampage, an eBay spokesman said Saturday.

Seung-Hui Cho also used the account to sell items ranging from Hokies football tickets to horror-themed books, some of which were assigned in one of his classes.

The online auction site lists the purchase date of the empty clips as March 22, about three weeks before the attack in which Cho, 23, killed 32 people and himself.

eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the purchase of the clips from a Web vendor based in Idaho was legal and the company has cooperated with authorities.

A search-warrant affidavit filed Friday stated that investigators wanted to search Cho's e-mail accounts, including the address Blazers5505@hotmail.com, which Durzy confirmed was Cho's.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators are "aware of the eBay activity that mirrors" the Hotmail account.

The eBay account demonstrates the prime role computer forensics and other digital information have played in the investigation. Authorities are examining the personal computers found in Cho's dorm room and seeking his cellphone records.

One question they hope to answer is whether Cho had any e-mail contact with Emily Hilscher, one of the first two victims. Investigators plan to search her Virginia Tech e-mail account.

Authorities say Cho had a history of sending menacing text messages and other communications, written and electronic.

In late March, Cho bought two 10-round magazines for one of the weapons used in the massacre.

Cho sold tickets to Virginia Tech sporting events, including last year's Peach Bowl.

He also sold many books about violence, death and mayhem. Several of those books were used in his English classes.

His eBay rating was superb: 98.5 percent. That means he received one negative rating from people he dealt with on eBay, compared with 65 positive.

Andy Koch, Cho's roommate from 2005-06, said he never saw Cho receive or send a package, although he didn't have much interaction with him. Students can sign up for a free lottery on a game-by-game basis, and the tickets are free.

"We took him to one football game," he said. "We told him to sign up for the lottery, and he went and he left like in the third quarter, and that was it. He never went again."

Mourning the lost

Meanwhile, Saturday, mourners gathered for the funerals of some of Cho's 32 victims, and some students extended a note of forgiveness to Cho.

A small tribute to Cho was added to a growing memorial of stones in the center of the campus. "I just wanted you to know that I am not mad at you. I don't hate you," read a note among flowers at a stone marker labeled for Cho. "I am so sorry that you could find no help or comfort."

About 100 members of the Virginia Tech marching band played in a memorial service for bandmate Ryan Clark, 22.

Hundreds of mourners packed the gymnasium at Clark's former high school, Lakeside High School, in Evans, Ga., to hear rousing songs from his former bandmates and praise for the young man with a contagious laughter who engaged everyone.

In Virginia, more than 1,800 people packed St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Chantilly for a service for Reema Samaha, 18, who was killed while sitting in French class.

"Reema's last name means forgiveness," her father, Joe Samaha, told the crowd. He offered condolences to the families of other victims, as well as Cho's family, "which has also lost a son."

A memorial service was also held in Virginia for Hilscher, 19, who was killed in the same dorm as Clark.

About 1,500 people filled the football field of Hilscher's alma mater, Rappahannock County High School in Washington, D.C.

Material from Reuters is included in this report.