Service planned for mother of Newtown school shooter
By JASON SCHREIBER
Sunday News Correspondent
KINGSTON - A memorial service is being planned for June 1 at the First Congregational Church in Kingston to remember the mother of Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza.
Family and friends have been invited to the 1 p.m. service for Nancy (Champion) Lanza, the 52-year-old mother who had lived in Kingston for many years before moving to Connecticut.
{ SNIP }
A private service attended by Lanza's family was held Dec. 20 at an undisclosed location.
At the time, her family indicated that a public service would be planned for the spring.
Service planned for mother of Newtown school shooter
By JASON SCHREIBER
Sunday News Correspondent
KINGSTON - A memorial service is being planned for June 1 at the First Congregational Church in Kingston to remember the mother of Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza.
Family and friends have been invited to the 1 p.m. service for Nancy (Champion) Lanza, the 52-year-old mother who had lived in Kingston for many years before moving to Connecticut.
{ SNIP }
A private service attended by Lanza's family was held Dec. 20 at an undisclosed location.
At the time, her family indicated that a public service would be planned for the spring.
I wonder if enough time has passed to avoid public scrutiny? I doubt it. Then again what comes out next month might make it even worse. I am not saying I am blaming her but there are a lot of people that really do.
It is really a shame how much grief family members of murderers take. I have been watching this show Rectify and it really demonstrates this. She might have made some, in hindsight, poor parenting decisions but I have to say I have made a few here and there. I just want the best for my kids and hope thye are okay. I think she did too.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2
Nothing will come out in June, by the looks of it ...
It's "September or later" now, lol ...
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Sandy Hook investigative report delayed
Dirk Perrefort, Published 10:13 pm, Wednesday, May 29, 2013
NEWTOWN -- The investigation report on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre won't be available in June as expected, state officials confirmed Wednesday.
Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky said Wednesday the report may not be available until September or later, but declined to provide details on what elements still need to be completed.
"I can't be specific on that but the State Police are working hard on the case," he said. "It's more important for us to get it done right than fast."
Irving Pinsky, a lawyer who represents several families affected by the shootings, said he is concerned about the delay and about what information state officials may be trying to hold back from the public.
"It's as though they are feeding the conspiracy theorists more fodder," he said. "It's really sad that we can't get the information on this case that we have the right to."
He added that delays in releasing the report could complicate efforts of some families to file legal proceedings because of fast-approaching legal deadlines.
"It really depends on what information they are holding back," Pinsky said.
Sandy Hook families plead to keep crime photos private
Ken Dixon, Updated 6:16 pm, Friday, May 31, 2013
Scarlett Lewis, left, mother of Sandy Hook School shooting victim Jesse Lewis, Robbie and Alissa Parker, parents of victim Emilie Parker, left center, Krista Rekos, right center, mother of victim Jessica Rekos, and Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of victim Ana Marquez-Greene, right, listen during a news conference at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., Friday, May 31, 2013. Family members of the school shooting victims are making a last-minute appearance at the state Capitol to urge Connecticut legislators to pass a bill that would block the public release of crime scene photos and other records from the massacre. Photo: Jessica Hill, AP Photo/Jessica Hill
HARTFORD -- In a last-ditch attempt to persuade lawmakers to keep gruesome crime scene photos and recordings out of the public domain, surviving family members of the 26 murdered students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School came to the Capitol on Friday.
They met with House and Senate leaders and rank-and-file members, then held a news conference to plead that they don't want the crime-scene photos released to further the agendas of fringe bloggers and anti-gun activists such as filmmaker Michael Moore.
Jennifer Hensel, whose first-grade daughter Avielle was murdered, said she still has a duty to protect her.
"Even if I could set aside the personal harm, I cannot stand the thought of seeing a graphic depiction of my child's death promoted to serve anyone's political purposes," she said. "I do not want my child to be collateral damage in a political death match."
But the privacy bill being negotiated behind the scenes by state prosecutors, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney has stalled in the waning days of the General Assembly session.
May 30, 2013 | Updated May 31, 2013 at 7:25 AM EDT
Vestal, NY (WBNG Binghamton) -- Mary Sherlach dedicated her life to educating and helping children, and she gave her life for them when Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary and killed her and 25 others.
That sacrifice is how she will always be remembered with her picture hanging in the Vestal Hall of Fame.
For the Sherlach family and families of Sandy Hook victims, Dec. 14, 2012, is one of the worst days of their lives.
"Driving up there, I knew that if anything was happening in the school, Mary would be in the middle of it, and she was," Mary's husband, Bill Sherlach said.
"You didn't really want to believe it, but it's still very difficult for me to believe it. You never ever, ever think its going to happen to someone you knew, let alone your own sister," Sherlach's sister, Sue Connors, said.
Sherlach graduated from Vestal High School in 1974.
Mary was one of the six educators killed in the mass shooting in Connecticut after confronting shooter Adam Lanza in the hallway.
Many believe in delaying the rampage, she saved many lives.
Sherlach's heroic actions are why she was inducted into the Vestal Hall of Fame Thursday night.
Her husband accepted the tremendous award on her behalf.
Opinion: No Justification For Newtown Report Secrecy
By Norm Pattis
The Connecticut Law Tribune
May 31, 2013
Oh, how sensitive they all were. How considerate, how kind, how diplomatic. Governor Dannel Malloy, Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, state lawmakers, all sitting secretly clucking their tongues in a sickly sweet chorus of concern. "We shall keep secret things too painful to be spoken of," they decided. Why, their very decision is so sensitive it cannot even be debated in an open forum.
I suppose we all ought to be thankful this unctuous gaggle of civil servants is protecting us from knowing the truth. But just who elected them to serve as existential censors?
Nothing justifies the insulting and private legislative proceedings designed to keep secret significant parts of the investigation of the Newtown shootings.
Kevlar backpacks to protect kids from bullets seem impractical, at best: editorial
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
on May 31, 2013 at 7:36 PM, updated May 31, 2013 at 7:37 PM
A Kevlar clipboard made by Impact Armor Technologies is marked by the impressions of pistol rounds that failed to penetrate. Backpack boards work similarly. ~ John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer
It's one thing to teach kids to defend themselves from a playground bully. It's quite another to gird them for an attack by a gun-wielding maniac.
And yet that's what some parents are doing, thanks to Impact Armor Technologies of Cleveland. The Plain Dealer's Alison Grant reports the firm has created a Kevlar liner that converts a child's backpack into a bullet-deflecting shield.
Just slide the liner behind your daughter's Tinker Bell homework folder and it will stop a bullet fired from a .44-caliber Magnum. It's part of the firm's selection of bulletproof school-safety items, which also includes a whiteboard, a desk blotter and a clipboard.
It's an unnerving product line that might make sense in a "Hunger Games" scenario, but it has little practical use in a school.
Society's focus should be on curbing gun violence by seeking more sensible gun laws and removing the stigma from mental illness so that people like Adam Lanza, who fired on the Connecticut schoolchildren, are more likely to be intercepted before they snap.
The annual late-summer trek for back-to-school supplies should mean stocking children's backpacks with pencils and erasers, dividers and staplers -- the tools of learning. Adding a pound-and-a-half of bulletproof Kevlar to the mix, at a cost of about $100, isn't likely to make them safer.
After all, parents aren't sending them off to war in the morning. They're sending them off to school.
State Police Lt. Paul Vance addresses a horde of news people a day after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. (Getty Images / December 15, 2012)
5:29 p.m. EDT, May 30, 2013
Newtown massacre: Still no report
Who made the state police king? Why do they continue to drag their feet in releasing a final report on the investigation into the devastating Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School? Who gave that agency the authority to decide what the public should know and when they should know it?
Last March, peeved because high-ranking state police officers attending law enforcement conferences were leaking details from the massacre investigation that had not been made public, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy demanded an interim report on the status of the probe. The investigators complied, while stating that a final report on the heinous crime would not be finished until mid-June at the earliest.
Now we are told by the state police that a final investigative report on Sandy Hook won't be ready until the end of September, more than nine months after the crime was committed.
"Nobody ever said that we had to have it done by a certain time," said the usually professional department spokesman, Lt. J. Paul Vance.
Sandy Hook dad offered plea deal on bad-check, driving charges
Published: May 8, 2013 at 10:17 PM
MILFORD, Conn., May 8 (UPI) -- A judge in Connecticut Wednesday offered the father of a child slain in the Newtown massacre a plea deal to resolve his bad-checks and motor vehicle case.
The judge gave Neil Heslin of Shelton, who has become an advocate for gun control since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, until July 9 to accept it, the Danbury News-Times reported.
Neil Heslin, right, father of a slain Sandy Hook first grader, appears with lawyer Bruce Weiant to face a variety of motor vehicle and criminal charges at Superior Court in Milford, Conn. on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. / Photo: Brian A. Pounds
Neil Heslin, right, father of a slain Sandy Hook first grader, appears with lawyer Bruce Weiant to face a variety of motor vehicle and criminal charges at Superior Court in Milford, Conn. on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. / Photo: Brian A. Pounds
Judge Frank Iannotti said the 50-year-old, self-employed contractor would have to serve a minimum of 30 days in jail if he pleads to two counts of operating under suspension.
Iannotti said Heslin would receive a conditional discharge on the bad-checks charges and avoid jail time if he meets yet-to-be-determined conditions, the newspaper said.
He would also serve two years probation and pay a $1,000 fine plus court costs.
Heslin has made good on the bad checks he wrote to three victims last year, the newspaper said.
Heslin didn't speak during his brief court appearance and his attorneys had no comment to reporters afterward, the News-Times said.
Heslin is accused of writing about $3,600 in bad checks and driving while under suspension in 2011. He had lost his license for a previous drunken driving incident, the newspaper said.
With all due respect, I neither bad-mouthed anyone nor gossiped about anyone. I simply reported what was reported by the MSM.
Other than that, I can only say that we do it here ALL the time .. and in great volumes ... -- examples? -- Casey's parents, Jodi's parents, George Zimmerman's parents and brother etc...
They had nothing to do with whatever happened to Caylee, Travis, Trayvon etc... -- but nevertheless we keep on talking / sarcasticly joking about them / taunting them / looking for any dirt we can find about them...
And in most cases it's no problem ... widely accepted and taken for granted ...
However ... You don't see me doing that ... I simply reported what I read in MSM and not some taunt or a made-up gossip.
Sorry, but if you committed a crime (regarless how serious it might have been) ... and you are quite a well known person, who is often seen on TV, heard in MSM etc ... there is a good chance someone will mention about you if you "made the news" (be it positive news or negative news).
This is from Emilie Parker's dad (Robbie) on the FB Emilie Parker Memorial Fund group
If you wish to honor and respect the dignity of those we lost on December 14th please sign this petition urging the Connecticut Legislature to pass HB 6424 to keep Sandy Hook crime information private.
With all due respect, I neither bad-mouthed anyone nor gossiped about anyone. I simply reported what was reported by the MSM.
Other than that, I can only say that we do it here ALL the time .. and in great volumes ... -- examples? -- Casey's parents, Jodi's parents, George Zimmerman's parents and brother etc...
They had nothing to do with whatever happened to Caylee, Travis, Trayvon etc... -- but nevertheless we keep on talking / sarcasticly joking about them / taunting them / looking for any dirt we can find about them...
And in most cases it's no problem ... widely accepted and taken for granted ...
However ... You don't see me doing that ... I simply reported what I read in MSM and not some taunt or a made-up gossip.
Sorry, but if you committed a crime (regarless how serious it might have been) ... and you are quite a well known person, who is often seen on TV, heard in MSM etc ... there is a good chance someone will mention about you if you "made the news" (be it positive news or negative news).
A bad check in 2011 has no bearing on whether or not his son is dead or died as a result of a mass shooting in December 2012, right?
So why? Is it just you see "Connecticut" "shooter" and "court" and you just post it up?
Was Adam Lanza so incensed that this man wrote a hot check he planned this mass murder?
You know exactly what I'm saying. That article is doing nothing to give new information relative to the case, nor does it give any insight into the mind of the murderer or his victims.
And your little "no offense" comment you always put when someone makes a comment about your articles? Right back atcha...
lol ... well if someone posted something negative about "my" article, I am entitled to a response, wouldn't you think?
or you'd rather me not respond back? ( maybe let me know then and I'll keep it in mind for the next time )
but in any case.. my little "no offense" comment (be it little or big etc) .. is JUST that, it's just what it is .. cuz I mean absolutely NO offense, but simply replying back.....
Of course I know what you mean ... and you are entitled to voice it (if feel needed).
But you know what i mean also i hope,
Anthony's parents, Zimmerman parents and brother, Arias' mom etc.. - they had NOTHING to do with those murders or deaths .. but people post about them .. and often call them "every last names in the book", never mind simply posting legitimate article by MSM.
Maybe not about Zimmerman (not here anyhow, or not currently, cuz they shut Zimmerman threads here right down) ... Anyhow... Have a good morning, michmi
With all due respect, I neither bad-mouthed anyone nor gossiped about anyone. I simply reported what was reported by the MSM.
Other than that, I can only say that we do it here ALL the time .. and in great volumes ... -- examples? -- Casey's parents, Jodi's parents, George Zimmerman's parents and brother etc...
They had nothing to do with whatever happened to Caylee, Travis, Trayvon etc... -- but nevertheless we keep on talking / sarcasticly joking about them / taunting them / looking for any dirt we can find about them...
And in most cases it's no problem ... widely accepted and taken for granted ...
However ... You don't see me doing that ... I simply reported what I read in MSM and not some taunt or a made-up gossip.
Sorry, but if you committed a crime (regarless how serious it might have been) ... and you are quite a well known person, who is often seen on TV, heard in MSM etc ... there is a good chance someone will mention about you if you "made the news" (be it positive news or negative news).
Thanks, just catching up on your posts. I have to agree.
MSM links are just that. Reporting for all to read.
I prefer transparency to secrets.
I don't want to see this case set a precedent regarding public information.
Think about it for a moment.
We are here to seek truth and justice for victims.
Imagine the impact this would have on all the cases seeking justice, clarity, and truth.
If everything was closed and secret, I doubt this site would exist.
I live about 1/2 hour from Newtown, and my town buried a victim.
I do not wish to see gory pictures etc........ Records need to remain public. IMO.
However, we cannot start to make new rules as we go along.
Newtown was very tragic indeed, but let's also remember hundreds and thousands of victims everywhere that do not share this publicity.
Memorial held for Nancy Lanza, mother of Newtown killer Adam Lanza
AP, June 02, 20135:50AM
Family and friends arrive for a memorial service for Nancy Lanza in Kingston, New Hampshire. Picture: AP/Jim Cole
MORE than 100 family and friends have gathered at a church to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.
The service was held at the First Congregational Church in Kingston, where Nancy Lanza once lived. Police Chief Donald Briggs had said only friends and family were invited.
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Mourners lined up in 92-degree heat to enter the church and a few of them cried upon exiting. A police officer played the bagpipes outside.
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A private funeral attended by about 25 people was held for her in Kingston on December 20, less than a week after her son's rampage.
KINGSTON, N.H. More than 100 family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.
The mourners and a few musicians filed into the white clapboarded First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam's rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in.
More than a dozen uniformed police officers from several agencies blocked off the street and guarded the church door, ensuring only friends and family were allowed into the service. Nancy Lanza grew up in New Hampshire and lived there before moving to Newtown in 1998.
Lanza's brother, James Champion, is a Kingston police officer and still lives in the town.
A lone police bagpiper played as the processional arrived and lined up outside the church to enter together. Media outlets were kept 60 yards back across the street and behind yellow tape, and mourners declined to talk to reporters.
A few people wiped their eyes as they left the church.
President Obama hosts event aimed at reducing mental health stigma
'Struggling with a mental illness or caring for someone who does can be isolating,' Obama said at the opening session of a White House conference on mental health. 'It begins to feel as if, not only are you alone, but that you shouldnt burden others with the challenge.'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, June 3, 2013, 10:46 AM
President Obama escorts Janelle Montano, a mental health survivor, into the East Room of the White House on Monday, before speaking at the White House mental health conference. / Evan Vucci/AP
President Barack Obama on Monday called for a more robust national discussion on mental illness, saying the time had come to bring the issue out of the shadows.
Speaking at the opening session of a White House conference on mental health, the president said his goal was to let people affected by these issues know they should not suffer in silence.
Struggling with a mental illness or caring for someone who does can be isolating, Obama said. It begins to feel as if, not only are you alone, but that you shouldnt burden others with the challenge.
The conference is part of Obamas response to last years shooting massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. While the president emphasized that most people with mental health problems are not violent, he said untreated mental illness can lead to larger tragedies.
Nancy Lanza recalled with kind words, not as killer's mom
MariAn Gail Brown, Updated 12:56 pm, Sunday, June 2, 2013
A photo of Nancy Champion Lanza in the 1978 Sanborn Regional High School yearbook in Kingston, New Hampshire. Her nickname in high school was "Beanie." Photo: Contributed Photo
KINGSTON, N.H. -- For the first time in a long time, Nancy Champion Lanza got to be her own person -- funny, savvy, urbane and effervescent, like a glass of champagne -- with her legacy separated from the son who killed her as friends and family gathered Saturday for a memorial service a stone's throw from the New Hampshire farm where she grew up.
Inside the First Congregational Church of Kingston, more than 150 relatives, friends and former classmates of Lanza paid homage to the first victim in Adam Lanza's deadly shooting spree that ended with a massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., before the gunman turned his weapon on himself.
Not once was Nancy Champion Lanza's younger son mentioned by name. And no one described his mother as a victim. Rather, mourners told stories: funny ones about the vivacious honey-haired blonde who grew up on a farm with dozens of kittens, chickens, sheep and cows.
A photo of Nancy Champion Lanza in the 1978 yearbook from Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston, New Hampshire. Her nickname in high school was "Beanie." Among her favorite authors was JRR Tolkein, and she loved his make believe world of Hobbits. Photo: Contributed Photo
A yearbook photo of the class of 1978 at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston, New Hampshire. Nancy Champion Lanza in her bequeath as a member of the class of 78, wrote that she was leaving "to join the Hobbits in Rivendell." Photo: Contributed Photo
Nancy Champion Lanza, in her bequeath as a member of the class of 1978 at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston, New Hampshire, wrote that she was leaving "to join the Hobbits in Rivendell." Among her favorite authors was JRR Tolkein, and she loved his make believe world of Hobbits. Lanza's quote is highlighted in this photo. Photo: Contributed Photo
A memorial service for Nancy Champion Lanza was held at the First Congregational Church of Kingston, in Kingston, New Hampshire on Saturday, June 1, 2013. Photo: MariAn Gail Brown
A bright, articulate Nancy Champion Lanza had her whole life ahead of her when she posed for her 1978 class picture at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston, New Hampshire. Her nickname in high school was "Beanie." Among her favorite authors was JRR Tolkein, and she loved his make believe world of Hobbits. In fact she wanted to live in their world. In her bequeath as a member of the class of 78, she wrote that she was leaving "to join the Hobbits in Rivendell." Photo: Contributed Photo
Even Lanza's first employer -- a parent who hired her to babysit his kids -- felt compelled to attend the service, even though he hadn't seen her in a while. "She was such a warm-hearted, capable person," he said. "She'd go out of her way for anyone. She made you feel important, like nothing was any trouble for her. Nothing threw her. She knew how to laugh things off."
Lanza's best friend recalled how she would think nothing of driving three hours each way to spend an hour with her and to bring her a present, and how they exchanged birthday cards and corresponded all the time. You also knew that if you made plans with her, and something was happening with her children, she would cancel, the friend recalled. "Her children came first."
In addition to Lanza's sister, a best friend who had known Lanza since elementary school and Lanza's son Ryan gave eulogies that brought tears and laughter to mourners.
Ryan Lanza, placing his hands on the lectern at the front of the church, looked into the crowd and began by saying that it dawns on you at a certain point, you realize you will probably bury your parents.
Then he paused. His eyes clouded for a moment. And he recalled all of the theatrical performances he appeared in, and how his mother always attended and cheered him on -- even the lame productions, the Boston Red Sox games where his mom had season tickets, and trekking into Washington, D.C. annually for Thanksgiving, to Boston and into New York City to "soak up" the arts and museum culture. How she sometimes drove to Hoboken, N.J., just to have lunch with him even though the back-and-forth drive was longer than the time they spent together.
"Everything I know about baseball ... everything I know about cooking I know from her," Ryan Lanza said.
"She taught me so much ... And if there is anything I could change, I wouldn't change anything."
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