According to the coroner who conducted Anne Marie Hochhalter's autopsy, the injuries she suffered in the 1999 massacre played a key role in her demise, so her death was classified as a homicide.
FacebookAnne Marie Hochhalter was just 43 years old at the time of her death.
Almost 26 years after the Columbine massacre, a new victim has been added to the death toll, bringing the total to 14.
On Feb. 16, 2025, 43-year-old Anne Marie Hochhalter died of sepsis, a condition that occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection. However, Hochhalter was also a student at Columbine when the infamous shooting happened — and the massacre left her partly paralyzed.
Complications of her paraplegia were a “significant contributing factor” in her death, according to an autopsy report from the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office in Colorado. In the 13-page report, forensic pathologist Dr. Dawn B. Holmes concluded, “The manner of death is best classified as homicide.”
And with that, the two long-dead teenagers responsible for the Columbine shooting — Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris — have claimed another victim.
Anne Marie Hochhalter’s Life After Columbine
Public DomainSecurity footage of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine massacre.
On April 20, 1999, Klebold and Harris took the lives of 12 of their fellow students and one teacher at Columbine High School. The student gunmen then took their own lives before police entered the building.
As NBC News reports, Anne Marie Hochhalter was 17 at the time of the massacre, a junior who was eating lunch with her friends when she was shot in the chest and back. The wounds she suffered left her paralyzed from the waist down and suffering from chronic pain for the rest of her life.
Personal Photo/WTOL 11Hochhalter (center) was paralyzed from the waist down and suffered from chronic pain after Columbine.
But Columbine wasn’t the only tragedy Hochhalter faced that year. Just six months after the school shooting, her mother Carla June Hochhalter, who had already been struggling with depression before the Columbine attack, walked into a pawnshop and took her own life with a loaded shotgun she’d been examining. Her daughter never fully recovered from the loss.
Anne Marie Hochhalter did, however, try to approach her remaining years with a positive attitude, according to her friends and family. After her mother’s death, she was supported by the family of another Columbine student who died in the attack, Lauren Townsend. Lauren’s stepmother Sue Townsend reached out to Hochhalter to deal with her own grief, but her family soon found that Hochhalter had become an “acquired daughter.”
“She brought a light to our lives that will shine for a long time,” Sue Townsend said, according to The Associated Press.
In 2016, Hochhalter also chose to reach out to the mother of one of the gunmen, extending forgiveness. In a letter to Sue Klebold, she wrote: “Just as I wouldn’t want to be judged by the sins of my family members, I hold you in that same regard. It’s been a rough road for me, with many medical issues because of my spinal cord injury and intense nerve pain, but I choose not to be bitter towards you. 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’s brother Nathan Hochhalter told The Associated Press that he knew his sister’s life would likely be shorter than normal because of her traumatic injuries, but her death still came as a shock.
“We didn’t think it would be this bad this soon,” he said.
Still, according to The New York Times, Nathan Hochhalter doesn’t think that it makes sense for her to be counted among the Columbine victims who died back in 1999. “She got an extra 26 years,” he said. “She was very independent, but it was not an easy 26 years.”
It was a pressure sore, he said, a common problem for people living with paralysis, that eventually led to his sister’s fatal sepsis. Now, her death is bringing the sad story of the Columbine massacre to light once again — but it is also causing those close to Hochhalter to reflect on her legacy.
Family And Friends Remember Anne Marie Hochhalter As Positive And Caring
Facebook A photo that Anne Marie Hochhalter shared on her Facebook in September 2024.
Despite her own tragic circumstances, Anne Marie Hochhalter moved forward with her life, trying to inspire more positivity among people she met.
Speaking with The Denver Post, Sue Townsend described Hochhalter as “fiercely independent… She was a fighter. She’d get knocked down — she struggled a lot with health issues that stemmed from the shooting — but I’d watch her pull herself back up. She was her best advocate and an advocate for others who weren’t as strong in the disability community.”
Like many others, Hochhalter was a victim of circumstances beyond her control, but she chose to make the best out of a painful and heartbreaking situation. She was known by many as a caring and understanding person with a deep love for animals — she fostered and owned several dogs over the years — and though she struggled with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she never let her struggles bring her down.
She still had her moments of vulnerability, though, and she also made a point to speak up about the long-lasting effects of gun violence. She often skipped Columbine memorial services, citing her PTSD as the reason for her absence. However, just last year in 2024, Hochhalter attended an event marking the massacre’s 25th anniversary — a testament to the willpower she had to overcome great tragedy. She wrote on Facebook, “I’ve truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999.”
In the wake of her death, it is best to remember Hochhalter as someone who exhibited incredible strength despite tragic circumstances.
After reading about Anne Marie Hochhalter, read about Columbine victim Rachel Scott — and how her death made her a national martyr. Then, learn how the death of Cassie Bernall helped fuel a Columbine myth.
