DENVER — Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was partially paralyzed within the Columbine Excessive Faculty taking pictures however discovered energy to forgive and to heal her soul after bonding with one other household devastated by the tragedy, has died. She was 43.
Hochhalter was present in her residence in suburban Denver on Sunday. Her household suspects she died of pure causes stemming from her accidents within the 1999 taking pictures during which 12 college students and a trainer had been killed.
The investigation into how she died has been transferred to the workplace that carried out the autopsies of these killed at Columbine, the coroner’s workplace for Adams and Broomfield counties stated.
Hochhalter in 2016 wrote a letter to one of many gunmen’s mom saying, “Bitterness is like swallowing a poison pill,” and providing her forgiveness. Attending a vigil on the tragedy’s twenty fifth anniversary final yr — after skipping an analogous occasion 5 years earlier — she stated she was flooded with comfortable reminiscences from her childhood and wished these killed remembered for a way they lived, not how they died.
Hochhalter struggled with intense ache from her gunshot wounds over the previous 25 years. But her brother stated she was tireless in her drive to assist others — from folks with disabilities to rescue canine and members of her household.
“She was helpful to a great many people. She was really a good human being and sister,” her brother, Nathan Hochhalter, stated Tuesday.
Her personal tragedy was compounded six months after the taking pictures, when her mom, Carla Hochhalter, went right into a pawnshop, and requested to take a look at a gun earlier than utilizing it on herself.
Within the wake of her mom’s dying, Anne Marie Hochhalter was embraced by one other household who misplaced a daughter at Columbine.
Sue Townsend, whose stepdaughter, Lauren Townsend, was killed, reached out to assist Hochhalter as a way of easing ease her personal ache. At first, Townsend took Hochhalter to physician’s appointments and bodily remedy, however their bond quickly deepened as they received lunch and went buying collectively and ultimately started sharing household dinners and holidays.
Townsend and her husband, Rick, referred to as Hochhalter their “acquired daughter.”
On a visit to Hawaii collectively, Hochhalter, who used a wheelchair, was in a position to float in a lagoon pain-free, she stated.
“This relationship would never had happened if it hadn’t been for Columbine. So I tried to focus on the gift that Columbine gave us in Anne Marie instead of what it took away,” Townsend stated.
In 2016, the mom of one of many Columbine gunmen, Sue Klebold, launched a memoir exploring the causes of her son’s violence and methods to forestall future assaults by means of psychological well being consciousness. Hochhalter stated on the time she was grateful that Klebold was donating the e-book proceeds to assist these with psychological sickness. Hochhalter stated her mom suffered from despair and didn’t consider the shootings had been on to blame for her dying.
She stated she was certain Klebold had agonized over what she might have performed otherwise simply as she had considered methods she might have prevented the dying of the mom she beloved.
“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 stated in a message she posted on Fb. She additionally included a photograph of a card Sue and Tom Klebold despatched to her as she recovered within the hospital after the taking pictures.
Hochhalter attended the twenty fifth anniversary vigil in April along with her brother, who was trapped in a classroom through the taking pictures. She had not attended the twentieth anniversary occasion due to post-traumatic stress dysfunction, she stated in a social media submit final yr.
“I’ve truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999,” she wrote.