Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was partially paralyzed in the Columbine High School Shooting But found the strength to forgive and heal your soul after having linked to another family devastated by the tragedy, died. She was 43 years old.
Hochhalter was found at home on Sunday in the suburbs of Denver on Sunday. Her family suspects that she died from natural causes resulting from her injuries during the 1999 shooting in which 12 students and a teacher were killed.
The investigation into how she died was transferred to the office that led the autopsies of people killed in Columbine, said the Coroner office for Adams and Broomfield.
Hochhalter in 2016 wrote a letter to one of the mothers of armed men saying: “bitterness is like swallowing a poisoned pill” and offering forgiveness. Attend a vigil on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy last year – after jumping a similar event five years earlier – she said that she had been flooded with happy memories of her childhood and wanted those who remember The way they lived, not how they died.
Hochhalter has fought against intense pain in his ball injuries in the past 25 years. However, her brother said that she was tireless in her desire to help others – people with disabilities to save dogs and family members.
“It was useful for a large number of people. She was really a good human being and a sister, ”said her brother, Nathan Hochhalter on Tuesday.
His own tragedy was aggravated six months after the shooting, when her mother, Carla Hochhalter, went to a pledged lender and asked to look at a pistol before using it on herself.
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Following the death of her mother, Anne Marie Hochhalter was adopted by another family who lost a girl in Columbine.
Sue Townsend, whose daughter-in-law, Lauren Townsend, was killed, has gripped her hand to help Hochhalter as a way to relieve her own pain. At the beginning, Townsend took Hochhalter to appointments to the doctor and physiotherapy, but their link quickly deepened when they had lunch and were shopping together and finally began to share dinners and Family vacation.
Townsend and her husband, Rick, called Hochhalter their “acquired daughter”.
During a trip to Hawaii Ensemble, Hochhalter, who used a wheelchair, was able to float in a painless lagoon, she said.
“This relationship would never have taken place without Columbine. So I tried to focus on the gift that Columbine gave us to Anne Marie instead of what he removed, “said Townsend.
In 2016, the mother of one of the armed men of Columbine, Sue Klebold, published a dissertation exploring the causes of her son’s violence and the means of preventing future attacks thanks to awareness of mental health. Hochhalter said at the time that she was grateful that Klebold gave the book to help people with mental illness. Hochhalter said his mother suffered from depression and did not think that the shots were blamed for his death.
She said that she was sure that Klebold had agonized on what she could have done differently as she had thought of the ways she could have prevented the death of the mother she loved.
“A good friend said to me one day:” bitterness is like swallowing a poisoned pill and expecting the other person to die. It only makes you harm. I have forgiven you and I wish you the best, “said Hochhalter in a message she published on Facebook. She also included a photo of a card that Sue and Tom Klebold were sent to her while she was recovering from the hospital after the shooting.
Hochhalter attended the 25th anniversary vigil in April with his brother, who was trapped in a classroom during the shooting. She had not attended the 20th anniversary event due to a post-traumatic stress disorder, she said in a social media post last year.
“I have really been able to cure my soul since this horrible day in 1999,” she wrote.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
