By Burt Hubbard
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Sarah Davis watched from 1,700 miles away the tragedy unfolding Tuesday at Columbine High School and wondered if her online buddy Eric Harris was one of the students shot.

Or if he was the one doing the shooting.

"Both possibilities crossed my mind. I had a gut feeling about it," Davis, 18, said Sunday. "I tried to call him for a long time, but couldn't get through."

Her parents told her the next day that Harris and Dylan Klebold had killed 13 people and wounded 21 before killing themselves.

Davis and Harris became friends in the sixth grade when Harris lived in Plattsburgh, N.Y. After the Harris family moved to Colorado about four years ago, they kept in touch, first by letters and later by e-mail.

The correspondence was typical teen chatter, Davis said.

He told her he and a friend were planning a road trip this summer and were going to stop in Plattsburgh to see his old friends. There was no mention of bombs or the Trench Coat Mafia, she said.

"Only once did I really get an e-mail that gave me a glimpse of the other side of him," she said. Davis can't remember exactly what was in the e-mail Harris sent about a year ago, only that it disturbed her.

The two grew apart in the past year. The last message was about a month ago. The last telephone call was about a year ago after Harris and Klebold were arrested for breaking into a car.

"I couldn't believe he would do it," Davis said. "He told me it wasn't something they had planned, it was just a spur of the moment thing."

Columbine students saw a more sinister side to Harris, Klebold and other members of the Trench Coat Mafia.

The first time Peter Maher rumbled with the Trench Coat Mafia, one member of the group brandished a shotgun. The second time, a member waved a knife.

Maher and his friends traded words last Fourth of July with Harris, Klebold and others from the Trench Coat Mafia in a convenience store parking lot.

"As we were driving away, I looked behind and one of them in trench coats had this big pistol-grip shotgun in the air," he said.

The two groups encountered one another later the same day at a fireworks stand. More words were exchanged and another member of the Trench Coat Mafia pulled a knife, Maher said.

At least one member of the group, Columbine student Chris Morris, has hired an attorney.

Staff writers Lynn Bartels and Jeff Kass contribued to this article.