Columbine victim's death from health problems related to 1999 school
shooting ruled a homicide
[March 14, 2025]
By COLLEEN SLEVIN
DENVER (AP) — The death of a woman who was partially paralyzed in the
Columbine High School shooting has been ruled a homicide, raising the
death toll of the 1999 attack to 14.
Anne Marie Hochhalter died Feb. 16 of sepsis — an extreme reaction to
infection — and complications from her paralysis were a “significant
contributing factor” in her death, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office
said in an autopsy report obtained Thursday. She was 43.
Twelve students and one teacher were shot and killed on April 20, 1999,
in the attack on Columbine. The two student gunmen took their own lives.
Hochhalter’s brother, Nathan Hochhalter, said a pressure sore, a common
problem for people living with paralysis, led to sepsis. He said he knew
that his sister’s life would likely be shorter because of her paralysis
but her death this early was unexpected.
“We didn’t think it would be this bad this soon,” he said.
Hochhalter struggled with intense pain from her gunshot wounds in the
years following the shooting, but fought hard to to overcome the
complications of her injuries and remain positive, family and friends
said. She was tireless in her drive to help others, including people
with disabilities and members of her family, and she loved dogs, they
said.
Hochhalter chose to forgive the mother of one of the gunmen, writing in
a 2016 letter to Sue Klebold: “’A good friend once told me, ‘Bitterness
is like swallowing a poison pill and expecting the other person to die.’
It only harms yourself. I have forgiven you and only wish you the best."
Hochhalter’s own tragedy was compounded six months after the shooting,
when her mother, Carla Hochhalter, died by suicide. Anne Marie
Hochhalter said her mother suffered from depression and did not believe
the shootings were directly to blame for her mother's death.
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Anne Marie Hochhalter, center, attends a vigil, July 22, 2012, held
for victims of the movie theatre mass shooting that occurred July
20, 2012, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez, File)
After her mother's passing, she became the “acquired daughter” of
another family that lost a child in the Columbine shooting, Lauren
Townsend. Townsend’s stepmother, Sue Townsend, reached out to help
Hochhalter as a way to cope with her own grief, but eventually
Hochhalter was coming over for family dinners and joining them on
vacations.
“She brought a light to our lives that will shine for a long time,”
Townsend said.
Hochhalter attended a vigil marking the 25th anniversary of the
shooting last year, after skipping a similar event five years
earlier because of post-traumatic stress disorder, she said in a
social media post.
This time she said she was flooded with happy memories from her
childhood and said she wanted those killed remembered for how they
lived, not how they died.
“I’ve truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999,”
she wrote.
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