Suicide of Columbine victim's mother

P

Prichard

New member
By Colleen Slevin
The Associated Press

D E N V E R, Oct. 22 — The mother of a student wounded in the Columbine High School massacre walked into a suburban pawn shop today, asked to see a handgun, loaded it and killed herself with a shot to the head. Anne Marie Hochalter


Carla June Hochhalter’s suicide occurred about six months after her 17-year-old daughter, Anne Marie, was critically wounded in the April 20 tragedy and left partially paralyzed.
It was not immediately known what other factors might have contributed to Hochhalter’s suicide.
Hochhalter, 48, entered the Alpha Pawn Shop in Englewood this morning and asked to see a handgun.
When a clerk turned around to fill out paperwork, Hochhalter loaded the weapon with bullets that she brought, then fired one round that hit the wall and a second round into her head, Englewood police spokeswoman Leticia Castillo said.
The suicide was the latest shock for students and families in the Columbine area. Jefferson County School District officials planned to have grief counselors available this weekend to help deal with any trauma.
A student was arrested this week for allegedly threatening “to finish the job” begun by two student gunmen at Columbine.
In addition, CBS-TV was criticized by some in the community for broadcasting a snippet of the security camera videotape that was taken in the school cafeteria as the massacre unfolded.
Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, scattered gunfire and bombs at the school near Englewood, killing 12 students and a teacher and wounding about 26 others. Then they committed suicide.
Anne Marie Hochhalter suffered injuries to her spinal cord, back and chest when the gunmen fired at her in the parking lot. She moved her legs for the first time last week. Now a senior, she is taking a physics class at Columbine while a tutor teaches the rest of her courses at home.
 
It is odd that her daughter just moved her legs, a sign of tremendous hope, and then the mom caps herself in the head.

On top of that, but after an incident like Columbine, with the youth trying to make a statement that they need help, there are still youth there that apparently are still disturbed enough by their surroundings to make statements that they want to "finish the job". This all makes me wonder what the hell is going on in Littleton, Colorado? Sounds like a town out of a Stephen King novel. Are those people all whacked in the head or what? Any nuclear dumps nearby? Maybe something in the water?
 
That sucks. Regardless of why dear ole' mom did herself in, she probably caused more trauma for her daughter than the original injury. It really sucks.

Let the healing begin....

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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
A weak weak woman.
The whole town feels pain - and now even more so because of her. She had a girl that needed her.
Why must they continue to stretch out this tradgedy?

Of course they will probably seek to ban Pawn Shops now...

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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." - Sigmund Freud
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
 
Right on Red, these people sound completly wacked out, but does seem that none of them need any firarms training, looks like they know exactly what they are doing. Maybe metal detectors, body cavity, and x-ray searches should be made to anyone entering a gun store or pawn shop. Of course this machinery would be purchased by the store owner(s).

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The beauty of the second Amendment is that it is not needed until they try to take it. T JEFFERSON
 
Sad story, but kinda weird how she carried .38 ammo into the store. I wonder if she went in there expecting a gun to be chambered in .38? I would think 9mm would be a better choice.. Anyhow sad story still, feel so bad for the daughter.
 
Just heard a radio blurb of a police PR officer. Stated basically that:
1)The are not sure of how many rounds of ammo Hochalter was carrying.

2)Whether or not she asked to see that particular gun.

3)That the gun held 6 shots, and was a .38 revolver.

Why this is so important as to be released to the press I really don't know. But, at least she did not shoot herself with a .50 BMG.
 
The other good thing about this is that she didn't shoot the proprieter of the shop as well.

In all seriousness though, this was an act of cowardice in my mind. If she had wanted to hurt her daughter any further she couldn't have found a way. That young lady is going to be in a world of hurt for the next few years especially now.

As to how she knew the caliber of the gun? She had been in the hsop before looking... that's the most logical explanation. Of course she didn't tell the proprieter why she wanted the gun. My question is why did she do it in the shop? why not wait until you are alone, in your car. Sad thing is she probably thought she was doing her daughter a favor by not doing it at home.

WHy don't these people ever talk to someone first?
 
I am going to say that in all likelihood we cannot know what was in her mind. Different people react differently and really there is nothing to connect her act to the daughter or the Littleton shooting. The proximate cause could have been something altogether different.

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Better days to be,

Ed
 
I think that as supposedly responsible gun owners in this forum we should be seen to carry the flag for the decent law abiding handgun owner. I am ashamed to read some of the responses above, is this how we gun owners respond to the mental trauma of a mother with a paralysed daughter. I realise that personal attacks are not permitted in this forum, and I would not consciously seek to take such actions anyway, but when I see the moderator joining in this kind of behaviour it saddens me beyond my ability to put it into words.

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Mike H
 
Mike H,

???? What do you mean? I see a mother that thought more of escaping whatever her situation than of her family. Yes that is sad but my sympathy is for the family and friends not the mother that deserted them. Sorry if you find this point of view offensive but it is the way I feel. It would make no difference to me if instead of being dramatic and shooting herself in this manner she had simply sat in a closed garage with the car running until she died. The manner in no way has anything to do with my beliefe that she took the easy way out and hurt her family.




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John - NRA - Lifer
 
Suicide is the ultimate selfish act.

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John/az

"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
 
I have no idea how many of you ever seriously contemplated suicide. It can be called a selfish act only in retrospect. We cannot see this through her eyes. Obviously it made sense to her at the time. I cannot justify or condemn this act. Obviously suicide is an act of desperation that is irrational. So how can we rationally evaluate it?

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Better days to be,

Ed
 
Mike H...

The post by the moderator:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Dennis
Moderator
posted October 23, 1999 12:39 AM

Oh, God. Where does it all end? It is sad beyond words.[/quote]


Kindly explain to me how he is " joining in this kind of behaviour... "
I am interested how you can cubby hole his feelings or opinion and further elucidate about this matter any further than that which is contained in his post.


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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
On a semi-related subject, eric klebold's (capitals deliberately dropped) parents are suing the school for not preventing the shootings. Seems they are being sued by another victim's family and so they "only" want to recover from the school what they stand to lose in court. I guess parental responsibility is an outmoded concept in that part of Colorado.
 
I don't want to turn this into a mud slinging match because this plainly isn't the time or the place, but DC, I guess the comment that I found distastetful from the mods was "a weak weak woman", some would argue that taking your life requires courage not weakness, regarding the death by cop issue as a cowards way out for those who cannot pull the trigger themselves.

I don't want to deepen this because I correspond with many of you on matters purely to do with our mutual love of firearms, and do not wish to prejudice that. But the attitude I take is this, say someone who is undecided on the whole gun control issue found this site and wandered in looking for information, they read this thread, which way do you think it will push them, pro or anti, the latter I suspect. Another victim of the Columbine nightmare and here we are cracking jokes about her using .50 BMG's and all the inhabitants of Littleton being psychos, when you're walking on eggshells don't jump up and down.

I guess ultimately we'll beg to differ on this one.

Regards as ever,

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Mike H
 
Mike...

Well, we will never know her motives and if they are ever found out I doubt the news will print it as it will be old news.
However, her method of public suicide and the involvment of innocent parties who will surely be traumatized for a long long time is suspect and not indicative of a rationale mind.
Further, and from the perspective of a mother, to leave your disabled, recently injured and needy child is beyond comprehension and absolutely unnacceptable.

This woman may have been a nice and good person, but clearly her action was irrational and not indicative of strength. George did not pass judgement on her life, he commented on the action.

I understand your concern, however, there are many more topics routinely discussed on TFL that would "turn off" a fence-sitter.

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
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