Proper news from Britain - News from Britain you won’t find anywhere else. Not the tosh the big media force-feed you every day!
'What are you, a psychopath?'
The voice is Tyler Robinson's - deep and sarcastic. The year is 2020 and the then 17-year-old high school student is mocking a friend for misspelling his username while playing the online videogame Minecraft.
A further seven minutes into the lengthy recording - obtained exclusively by the Daiy Mail - a message flashes up on the screen indicating that Robinson's character died having fallen 'from a high place.' He and his friends break into uncontrollable laughter.
This haunting footage is from a different time. A time when Tyler Robinson was just an ordinary kid playing videogames in his bedroom and joking with friends. Indeed, high school contemporaries have told us he had a large group of friends, was never targeted by bullies and, crucially: 'He never got mad at people. He was always the type to just shrug his shoulders and be like, if you're an idiot, I don't care.'
So where on earth did it all go wrong?
For just five years later, the now 22-year-old Tyler Robinson is in police custody charged with the aggravated murder of conservative activist and polemicist Charlie Kirk, 31. The father-of-two, an influential Trump ally and - central to this story - a devout Christian and vocal opponent of trans and gay rights, was shot as he spoke at Utah university, the first stop on a 15-leg tour around campuses.
Prosecutors have declared they will seek the death penalty for his killer. Robinson has yet to respond to the charges.
The truth, as the Daily Mail lays bare today, is that after graduating from high school Robinson's life spiraled out of control. He dropped out of college, moved in with - and began dating - a transgender internet enthusiast and developed a taste for grotesque humanoid-animal 'furry' pornography.
This is the story of Tyler Robinson and his transgender lover Lance Twiggs – two people at the center of an FBI investigation into the assassination that has convulsed America and the wider world, though no charges have been brought against Twiggs.
Robinson attended Pine View High School in Utah, graduating in 2021.
'I think most people would describe him as a little bit weird because he was kind of an oddball,' admitted classmate Gibson Wright. 'I'd say he still had a solid group of friends. He wasn't a complete loner. He was almost shy, very timid. We weren't close but I sat with him at lunch where he'd play video games.'
Indeed, a number of Tyler's classmates have spoken of his playing Super Smash Bros – a derivative of Super Mario – on the Nintendo Switch.
Writing anonymously via social media site Discord – where Robinson is alleged by prosecutors to have confessed his crimes to friends last week – one school friend recalled: 'We'd just sit at the table in school and eat lunch, talk and laugh about video games. Politics weren't on our minds at all.'
'They were a group of gamers,' added another classmate of Tyler and his friends. 'All they would do was sit down with their Nintendo Switches at lunch and play Smash Bros. That was almost every single day, like for their entire lunch. They also had silly little quirks like talking to each other in lisps and using friendly banter. "Shut your b**ch a** up" was their famous sentence. They would shorten it to SYBAU. A lot of them were neurodivergent.'
Other classmates recall how intelligent Robinson was, with one saying he was 'easily top ten in his class.'
No wonder then that upon graduation in 2021 he received a $32,000 (£23,600) scholarship to Utah State University. However, Robinson only lasted one semester as a pre-engineering major before dropping out.
The son of a construction worker and a care worker, Robinson then returned to his hometown of Saint George in southwest Utah near Arizona and enrolled at Dixie Technical College where he was, by the time of his arrest, a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship programme.
It was during his time at Dixie Tech that Tyler Robinson's life began to unravel.
Neighbors have confirmed to the Daily Mail that, around two years ago, Robinson moved into a three-bed condo in the smart Fossil Hills apartment complex in Saint George – five miles from his family home – which boasts a hot tub, fitness center and swimming pool.
This property – valued at around $320,000 - is owned by a devout Mormon family called the Twiggs who own a number of houses in the area. After Robinson moved in, another roommate moved out, leaving just Robinson and the owner's 22-year-old son Lance S. Twiggs living there.
A family member confirmed to us that Twiggs was transitioning from a man to a woman, though it is unclear whether he had taken any biological or surgical steps. As court documents refer to Twiggs as a 'biological male', the Daily Mail has chosen to refer to him as such.
So, who is Lance Twiggs and could anything have happened between them to turn Tyler Robinson into an alleged cold-hearted killer?
Lance also studied at Utah Tech University and is now understood to work part-time as a plumber. According to one joint TikTok account on which Lance and a friend share gaming videos, he aspires to be a professional gamer – particularly enjoying the games Apex Legends, Valorant and Rocket League.
Lance's social media accounts paint a picture of oddball humor. In one video, for example, he pretends to open a microwave with a plastic wand before putting a bottle of the energy drink Mountain Dew inside.
Overall, however, his digital footprint has a sinister undertone. In one thread on the chat forum Reddit from two years ago, Twiggs – under the username 'lancelott3' – responds to the question 'What's your experience with spiritual abuse?' with this reply: '[I] was told i was possessed by a demon and then within 30 mins kicked outta the house because i started laughing and wouldn't go to the bishop for a blessing. later found out they just didn't like me and were looking for a way to get me out of the house, wasn't even 18 at the time.'
According to a Twiggs family member who wished to remain anonymous, it is true that Lance was evicted by his parents.
The family member also claimed that Lance had wrongly been portrayed as 'soft' by the media and in fact he was 'a drug user who almost overdosed, turned up at family Easter clearly high, spouting political slogans and was addicted to the deep web [corners of the internet that can't be indexed by search engines].'
'He is full of evil and hatred,' admitted a second family member when approached by local news earlier this week. 'He's not a healthy person. He is very angry with anyone who is supportive of conservative ideals and Christian values.'
From Twiggs's Reddit posts, we have also established that he claims to have struggled with bulimia and has made jokes about being beaten by his mother. Twiggs wrote in one thread that he'd been recommended treatments for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and a brain tumor through targeted social media adverts and has also joked about spending his parents' money
Indeed, a glance at his public account on the US payment app Venmo shows that despite falling out with his family, his mother Amy Twiggs regularly deposits cash into his account including in the past three years for: insurance, piano lessons, prescriptions and a visit to the doctor.
So, what happened next when a seemingly seriously disturbed Lance Twiggs befriended Tyler Robinson a year ago?
It is unclear whether the pair knew each other before becoming roommates, but they started dating with Lance describing Tyler to family as his 'boyfriend' and even wanting to introduce him to his parents. But what did the pair have in common, aside from their love of video games?
For a start, both men have joked about being beaten by family members.
Six months ago, on Reddit, Twiggs replied to a meme of a 'Mom' wielding what appears to be some sort of whip, writing: 'this but unironically.'
Robinson meanwhile commented in January 2024 on a friend's gaming profile: 'he beats me when mom goes on her work trips,' seemingly referring to his father. However, as this post was amid a string of humorous posts, there is no indication that Robinson was being serious.
And then there's the issue of the pair's sexual interests. Online accounts uncovered by the Daily Mail reveal Tyler Robinson had an interest in gay pornography featuring humanoid-animal characters known as 'furries'. These are typically anthropomorphic cartoon animals engaging in often unspeakably graphic acts.
Robinson's gaming account on the computer gaming site Steam also shows he downloaded a dating simulator called 'Furry Shades of Gay' which purports to be about 'love, queer relationships, hot gay sex and slapstick humor'.
Robinson is linked to an account on FurAffinity.com which shares graphic images of humanoid animals, and offers search criteria including bondage and hypnosis.
The account history reveals the user viewed material created by an artist called RedRusker who had previously made pedophiliac furry cartoons (known as 'cub' porn) including one featuring an anthropomorphised possum who was supposedly 8 years old.
Another of RedRusker's sickening sketches features a dog having sex with a horse.
It is unclear the extent to which Twiggs shared his partner's sexual proclivities, if it all. However, in a widely shared image, Twiggs is pictured wearing a brown 'onesie' with a dog's face on the hood – exactly the sort of outfit worn by furry enthusiasts engaging in cosplay.
This all leads us to to the chilling question FBI investigators will surely be asking: did Twiggs have any prior knowledge of the attack? After all, he and Robinson were in a relationship and living under the same roof.
A lengthy apparent text exchange between Robinson and Twiggs released by prosecutors this week appeared to suggest Twiggs had no idea of his partner's plan.
'You weren't the one who did it right????' asked Twiggs.
'I am, I'm sorry' came Robinson's reply, before later urging his partner to 'delete this exchange'.
However, there is another text that raises the question about what Twigg knew in advance.
For in one of the messages, Robinson asks: 'Remember how I was engraving bullets?'
Here presumably he refers to the anti-fascist slogans that were found on the shell cartridges found with the murder weapon recovered by police. But how on earth could Lance Twiggs have watched his boyfriend engrave rifle shells with hateful slogans and not have known or asked what they were for?
There is another intriguing detail that could perhaps flip this murder investigation on its head, pertaining to an allegedly flirty and innocent relationship thought to be between Twiggs and another, more hunky man - who we are not naming.
On July 9, 2022, this man posted a mirror selfie to Instagram, rings on his fingers, chains around his neck. Lance Twiggs replied to the post, 'pls come to Utah', along with a red heart emoji. While this was three years ago, we know that the pair's friendship continued.
As late as October last year, digital banking records show Twiggs made a transaction to this man for 'chik fi la', apparently a reference to the popular US fast food outlet Chick-fil-A. The month before that, the man paid an amount to Lance, adding the flirty caption, 'L7 weenie' – a playful term to describe an 'uncool' person from the comedy movie The Sandlot. The pair are also 'friends' on Steam.
Will we ever know if there was something more between them than friendship - and, indeed, if Tyler Robinson knew of this other man?
According to Utah Sheriff Nate Brooksby, part of the deal that saw Robinson hand himself in to police was that he could sit with his parents when he arrived at the station.
'Tyler was sitting in an interview room with his parents when the lead investigators arrived,' the Sheriff explained. 'He was sitting on a very comfortable couch with a water bottle in his hand, not restrained. He was cooperative, sombre, quiet.'
As far as we are aware, the one person Robinson hadn't requested to be with him was his partner Lance Twiggs.
As police now quiz the pair separately, one can't help but think the answers they seek may lie in the highly unconventional relationship between them.
To listen to Josh Boswell on how internet communities and political polarization may have converged to spark this shocking crime – follow Daily Mail podcast 'The Assassination of Charlie Kirk,' out now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.