Neighbors: Temple Shooter's Ex Said He Had 'Dropped Off the Face of the Earth'

Aug. 7, 2012 — -- The gunman who murdered six Sikh worshippers in Milwaukee before being killed by police had "dropped off the face of the earth" weeks before the shooting, said neighbors who had recently spoken to the shooter's former girlfriend.

Sharon and Terry Page -- who said they are unrelated to the shooter, Wade Michael Page -- live below Misty Cook, who dated Page, and Cook's young son.

When Sharon and Terry Page saw Cook on Monday morning, the day after the shooting, Misty seemed "kind of out of it," Sharon Page said.

"She said, 'Did you hear what happened to Wade?' as of then we'd just found out it was him," Sharon said.

Sharon said Misty appeared "shocked."

"No emotion. Didn't cry. No crying. Blank stare," she said. "She apologized to us for putting us through all this chaos."

According to Sharon and Terry Page, Misty and Wade moved in to the apartment on March 1, but Wade moved out in the middle of June. After that point, according to comments Misty made to Sharon, Wade virtually disappeared.

"She told us that for six weeks she hadn't heard anything of him," Sharon said. "That would have been about the time after he left, so she must have gotten a hold of a co-worker and said he hadn't been at work for three weeks. She said he kind of just dropped off the face of the earth."

Wade, Sharon and Terry Page said both were quiet and "never really talked to us at all really."

Ex-Stepmother: 'I Wish I Had Answers'

Wade Page's ex-stepmother, Laura Page, told ABC News overnight that had no idea why he had committed such a crime but questioned what effect his military service may have had.

"The last time I saw Wade was at Christmas time and he was very happy with the military at that point," Laura Wade told ABC News, referring to Christmas 2001, a few years after he left the service. "Now I greatly question that direction. I don't know if the military was good for him. I don't know. I wish I had some answers. And we're not going to have answers because he's dead."

Laura Page said she hadn't been in contact with Wade for a long time but the boy she remembers was a "lovely, gentle child."

"I can't imagine what could have gone through his mind for him to do something like this, or anyone to do something like this," she said. "You can't be functioning normally obviously. But we'll never know why."

ABC News' Caroln McKinley and Angela Hill contributed to this report.

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