The recent death of Anne Marie Hochhalter, a victim of the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., was ruled a homicide because her health conditions were linked to the attack.
Hochhalter, 43, died last month from sepsis — a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection and damages organs — and complications from her paralysis, which was a “significant contributing factor” in her death,” the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office concluded in an autopsy report.
She was found dead in her apartment on Feb. 16.
Twelve students and one teacher were shot and killed at the school on April 20, 1999. The two gunmen, also students, took their own lives at the scene. Hochhalter was shot in her chest and spinal cord and left paralyzed.
Nathan Hochhalter, her brother, said a pressure sore, a common problem for people living with paralysis, caused her sepsis. He said the family knew her life was likely to be shorter because of her paralysis, but the death was still unexpected.
“We didn’t think it would be this bad this soon,” he told the Associated Press.
Years after the shooting, Hochhalter forgave one of the assailants’ mother.
“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,” she wrote to Sue Klebold, the mom of Dylan Klebold, in 2016.
In 2024, she attended a vigil for the anniversary of the shooting, something she hadn’t been able to do prior because of post-traumatic stress.
“I’ve truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999,” she posted on social media.
