Columbine shooting survivor dies of injuries related to the massacre - In the decades after the shooting victim spoke out in support of victims of other mass shootings.

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COLORADO, USA — Anne Marie Hochhalter, a survivor of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, has died.

Frank DeAngelis, who was principal at Columbine on the day of the shooting, said Hochhalter died of natural causes Sunday afternoon at her home. She was 43.
"Still in shock," DeAngelis said. "She was such an inspiration to so many."

From Tom Mauser’s Facebook page:

“I have very sad news to report. Anne Marie Hochhalter passed away yesterday. Anne Marie was one of the students severely injured in the Columbine massacre. She was paralyzed from a spinal cord injury and suffered from intense nerve pain. Recently she had been through numerous frustrating surgeries, including for a pressure sore on her hip that was infected. She will be greatly missed for her perseverance.”

Twelve students and one teacher were killed in the April 20, 1999, shooting, and more than 20 were wounded. Hochhalter was shot twice and was paralyzed from the waist down.
Months after the shooting, her mother, who struggled with depression, took her own life.
In the decades after the shooting, Hochhalter spoke out in support of victims of other mass shootings. In 2012, she attended a vigil to remember those killed in the Aurora theater shooting and reached out to the survivors. In 2018, she spoke at a Standley Lake High School assembly about school safety and the need for change.


Hochhalter reacts during a vigil marking 25 years since the shooting, April 19, 2024, in Denver.

 

[TheBallPit]

How could she have died from "natural causes" when apparently her Columbine injuries were the primary catalyst? People don't typically die of natural causes when they're 43 unless there's a really serious underlying reason.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

How could she have died from "natural causes" when apparently her Columbine injuries were the primary catalyst? People don't typically die of natural causes when they're 43 unless there's a really serious underlying reason.

Another article says she was "found dead." That plus the stuff in here about how she had "really frustrating" surgery complications makes me wonder if it was an OD.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

I wonder if all the Columbine fangirls and fantroons are pleased that Eric and Dylan's rank on the mass shooting board has increased?

 

[#FreeRoss]

I wonder if all the Columbine fangirls and fantroons are pleased that Eric and Dylan's rank on the mass shooting board has increased?

You just gave me a brilliant idea. I need to date a Columbine fangirl; then I will no longer be a virgin with rage.

 

[JosephStalin]

She was killed during the shooting, just took a long time to actually pass away. Have enough experience with spinal surgeries to have some insight into this poor lady's suffering. Now she is in a better place, and her killers just went one level lower in Hell.

 

[Fly in the Ointment]

Months after the shooting, her mother, who struggled with depression, took her own life.

Her daughter almost fucking died and ended up crippled for life, and she was only concerned with stopping her own bad feefees. Way to be a source of hope during your child's darkest hour, mom!

 

[JosephStalin]

Her daughter almost fucking died and ended up crippled for life, and she was only concerned with stopping her own bad feefees. Way to be a source of hope during your child's darkest hour, mom!

We don't know everything the woman was contending with. This was very likely the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

[Fly in the Ointment]

We don't know everything the woman was contending with. This was very likely the straw that broke the camel's back.

At least wait until she's able to live on her own (as best as she could, anyway) and isn't as much of a responsibility anymore. There are some suicides I can absolutely sympathize with, even if I think it was the wrong choice. This one just seems completely selfish through-and-through.

 

[The Gene Genie]

How could she have died from "natural causes" when apparently her Columbine injuries were the primary catalyst? People don't typically die of natural causes when they're 43 unless there's a really serious underlying reason.

Another article says she was "found dead." That plus the stuff in here about how she had "really frustrating" surgery complications makes me wonder if it was an OD.

It's one of those "read-between-the-lines" things, like when you see someone you went to high school with died and no one's really saying how he died and when you look at the obituary the family is suggesting, in lieu of flowers, donations to some suicide prevention or drug addiction charity. She either ODed or killed herself.

 

[Celestial Peace]

Eric and Dylan's rank on the mass shooting board has increased?

How come? It would only update it to 14 victims. There were mass shootings with far more casualties than Columbine.

 

[Smashed & Slamed]

You just gave me a brilliant idea. I need to date a Columbine fangirl; then I will no longer be a virgin with rage.

Getting pegged doesn't count.

 

[#FreeRoss]

How come? It would only update it to 14 victims. There were mass shootings with far more casualties than Columbine.

Columbine had the distinction of being one of the first major school shootings, so it was a shock to people at the time. Combine that with the marketing and the "lore," such as the trench coats, the fan forums, the basement tapes, etc., and it became a pop culture phenomenon. I think if two nerds shot 14 people today, it would obviously be a news story, but it would not have had the massive cultural impact that Columbine did.

 

[dry roasted]

Could've been a suicide/OD but I don't think it's unlikely at all that it's directly related to her injury. Paraplegics have ongoing health complications from being stuck sitting around, like blood clots and pressure sores, and they usually have problems with their lower organs like their bladder that make them prone to infections. She could've had bowel issues and had complications from a colostomy. Or in addition to her spinal injury, a bullet could've caused some permanent damage to an organ that while she was younger was able to compensate but as she aged and it became less efficient it became an issue.

That's crazy about her mom. I remember reading about that before and assumed her kid had died--I think some news articles were vague and just said her kid was a "victim" of the shooting. Poor girl had a really tough life, she must've spent a lot of time imagining how different everything would've been if she hadn't simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

A school shooting is just like any cultural event. How big it gets depends on who does it, where, and when. Columbine kicked off the modern trend, and the only way to equal it were do it at a college (VTech) or an elementary school (Sandy Hook). That's why that for all the Democrat and gun grabber attempts to meme the Parkland shooting into being zoomer Columbine, it never hit those heights and had to have huge PR to even get on the level of VTech and Sandy Hook.

And given all the retarded shootings recently that rip off the Christchurch shooting with memelord bullshit and attempts at livestreaming, or all the troon shooters, I don't think anyone could ever top Columbine culturally unless they had a truly novel "image" and had an insane death toll.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Columbine had the distinction of being one of the first major school shootings, so it was a shock to people at the time. Combine that with the marketing and the "lore," such as the trench coats, the fan forums, the basement tapes, etc., and it became a pop culture phenomenon. I think if two nerds shot 14 people today, it would obviously be a news story, but it would not have had the massive cultural impact that Columbine did.

It wasn't the first (and there were several high profile ones prior to it in the two-three years prior). It was the culmination of a very dark period of school shootings, made more infamous for being covered live AND with cell phones being available so kids called during the shooting seeking help from the police, who sat on their butts and gave Dylan and Eric time to kill themselves. And the aftermath affected kids throughout the country even as the school got outed as a helltopia and the blame game started as those who let the massacre happened and those who failed to stop it were met with some of the worst Christian and anti-gun and pro gun control grifters who sought to copy the tragedy.

It wasn't until Virginia Tech that we hit another shooting on par with Columbine.

 

[#FreeRoss]

It wasn't the first (and there were several high profile ones prior to it in the two-three years prior). It was the culmination of a very dark period of school shootings,

I'm curious which one you're talking about. I don't remember any big ones in America, but I could be wrong. I know there was the infamous Aussie shooting that got guns banned. and I'm sure there were earlier shootings; that's why I called Columbine one of the first big shootings rather than just the first, but I'm too lazy to look up what school shootings preceded Columbine.

made more infamous for being covered live AND with cell phones being available so kids called during the shooting seeking help from the police, who sat on their butts and gave Dylan and Eric time to kill themselves.

It seems like things never changed; if you remember the Uvalde shooting, this could have been avoided if the teachers listened to their classmates warnings about Dylan and Eric or if the school hired security guards, but OMG, THEN IT LOOKS LIKE A HECKIN PRISON.

 

[MirrorNoir]

I'm curious which one you're talking about. I don't remember any big ones in America, but I could be wrong. I know there was the infamous Aussie shooting that got guns banned. and I'm sure there were earlier shootings; that's why I called Columbine one of the first big shootings rather than just the first, but I'm too lazy to look up what school shootings preceded Columbine.

It seems like things never changed; if you remember the Uvalde shooting, this could have been avoided if the teachers listened to their classmates warnings about Dylan and Eric or if the school hired security guards, but OMG, THEN IT LOOKS LIKE A HECKIN PRISON.

The big two was Kip Kinkek and Arkansas shooting by 12/13 year olds.

Going to assume you are either a foreign fag or new fag who was born after 2000 to be so ignorant of these things.

 

[TheHarbinger]

I'm curious which one you're talking about. I don't remember any big ones in America, but I could be wrong.

The clock tower shooting in Texas in 1966 had 16 people die. It's referenced in tons of movies and television shows. And is still talked about frequently in the news. But its shooter was not made into a national hero by the media like the faggots in the 'trench coat mafia'. He was treated as a mentally ill maniac and the mainstream news didn't have enough time to campaign for him as some tragic victim of gun culture. Also his last victim died twenty years after the attack from medical complications as well.

The Columbine shooting was the first during mass media during the years where the media fully transitioned into being tabloid news. And the killers had recorded media that would find its way online giving them an eternal presence in digital media as well. This would lead to copycats leaving manifestos online and on tapes to send to the media, because they knew that just like with the Columbine shooters, the mainstream media would publish their thoughts and manifestos to the entire world. When the Virginia Tech shooter sent his manifesto to NBC they not only played it but sold advertising during its first airing and promoted it as a world exclusive like it was the Super Bowl or 'must see TV'. For some filthy chink to rant about his deranged mental condition and fantasize about murdering random college girls for looking down on him for being a loser.

 

[Helvetia]

We don't know everything the woman was contending with. This was very likely the straw that broke the camel's back.

I remember from Jeff Kass' book that she had been struggling with depression for a very long time, and had attempted suicide multiple times in the past.

Mrs. Hochhalter had suffered from clinical depression since her mother and brother-in-law died in 1996. She was on her way beating the depression when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine on April 20th. Mrs. Hochhalter had been hospitalized since September.

Anne Marie Hochhalter was one of the ones who wrote a letter to Sue Klebold; she was a wonderful woman and may her memory be a blessing. I hope she can finally rest.