The Columbine High School massacre has officially claimed another life – nearly 26 years after the US mass shooting.
The death last month of Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was left partially paralysed by two gunshot wounds in the attack, has been ruled a homicide by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
On 16 February this year, the 43-year-old woman died in her Denver home of sepsis – a reaction to infection.
And complications from the paralysis were a “significant contributing factor” in her death, forensic pathologist Dr Dawn B Holmes wrote in a 13-page post-mortem report.
Dr Holmes ruled that “the manner of death is best classified as homicide”.
Columbine death toll rises to 14
It takes the death toll from the 20 April 1999 school shooting in Littleton, Colorado, to 14, including 13 students and one teacher.
The total does not include the gunmen, Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, who killed themselves before police could arrest them.
At the time of the attack, Ms Hochhalter was a 17-year-old student who was eating lunch with friends when she was shot in the chest and back.
She suffered wounds that left her paralysed from the waist down.
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The survivor spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair with ongoing health issues.
Ms Hochhalter struggled with intense pain, but fought hard to overcome the complications of her injuries and remain positive, according to family and friends.
In 2016, she decided to forgive the mother of gunman Dylan Klebold.
She wrote in a letter to Sue Klebold: “‘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.”
When she died, her family and friends suspected her death was due to natural causes related to her injuries in the shooting.
Due to the role her paralysis was suspected of playing in her death, the investigation was transferred to the office that also reviewed the deaths in the school shooting.
The others killed at Columbine were teacher William “Dave” Sanders, 47, and students Cassie Bernall, 17, Steve Curnow, 14, Corey DePooter, 17, Kelly Fleming, 16, Matt Kechter, 16, Daniel Mauser, 15, Daniel Rohrbough, 15, Rachel Scott, 17, Isaiah Shoels, 18, John Tomlin, 16, and Kyle Velasquez, 16.
