Newtown: An American Tragedy

by Matthew Lysiak

  According to the divorce settlement approved by Judge Stanley Novak, Nancy would have the final say concerning any aspect of Adam’s upbringing. Peter agreed to pay the entire cost of his sons’ college and graduate school educations, and also agreed to purchase a car for Adam. Nancy was to cover the car insurance and cost of maintenance. The now divorced couple also agreed to divide their season Red Sox tickets; Nancy would get two tickets for five games in odd years and four games in even years. Peter moved to the affluent Stamford suburb of Westover and the family home at 36 Yogananda Street went to Nancy, who was to live there with Adam, as Ryan had gone off to college.

  Then in 2010, Peter remarried. His second wife was Shelley Cudiner, a reference librarian and business liaison at the University of Connecticut’s Jeremy Richard Library. Nancy occasionally dated, but remained largely unattached. She was an independent woman who throughout her life had become accustomed to taking care of herself and depending on no one else. “Who has time for a serious relationship?” she’d said to a friend recently. “Besides, I have to be there for Adam. You always have to be there for your kids.”

  Meanwhile, Adam’s time was becoming increasingly consumed by his computer, where his mother noticed him researching weapons, wars, and the military. “He’s fixated on becoming a marine,” Nancy told a friend, knowing that it could never happen.

  She had tried a new specialist in Danbury in hopes of helping Adam, but again was let down. Still, Nancy kept holding out hope that a turnaround for her youngest son was just around the corner. “He’s too brilliant not to eventually succeed,” she told relatives.

  CHAPTER 5

  ENTER KAYNBRED

  The abrupt end of Adam Lanza’s high school career correlated with a new online persona, an alias he created named “Kaynbred” that began to reveal his growing fixation with violence.

  Beginning in 2009, at the age of seventeen, Adam created this new fictitious user name and began frequenting Internet chat rooms that focused on violent video games, weapons, and, most disturbing of all, mass killers. Alone and in the darkness, with the illuminated screen his only light, Adam had found a level of comfort in his world of computers and video games that he could rarely attain in the outside world. Behind “Kaynbred,” Adam was able to show a bravado and confidence that was unfamiliar to classmates and family who only knew him as an awkward and meek teenager.

  The first signs of this abnormal obsession became evident at age fifteen, when Adam delved into World of Warcraft, a game in which players live in an alternate universe of dragons and monsters and must heroically conquer darkness and competitors to move ahead. By September 2009, Adam had become a regular fixture in the online gaming community for Combat Arms, a multiplayer first-person shooting game where the player is in control of a gun. The object of the game, like most first-person shooter games, is to kill the most enemy players. In Adam’s chosen “mission,” gamers had to achieve a set number of kills. The team that reached the most kills in the quickest amount of time was the winner, even if that meant turning the gun on yourself and committing suicide.

  He was quickly accepted into the group of other online players as part of a “cluster,” who discussed strategies and gaming obstacles mixed in with small talk and occasional jokes. His online interactions went smoothly. He fit in and appeared well liked by the other players, showing none of the discomfort or struggle he would exhibit in face-to-face encounters.

  Along with being a rare positive social experience for Adam, the game also provided an outlet for him to live out his growing military obsessions. In Combat Arms, Adam was allowed to create his own soldier, deciding everything from the clothes he wore and the weapons he used to the backdrop for the battles he fought.

  In his alternative online universe, the skinny and frail teenager chose to create an imposing bulky muscle-bound soldier dressed in desert camouflage and also a light vest, goggles, and a black beret. He chose equally imposing weapons for his missions: the M16A3, a military variant of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle, and the G23 pistol, which strongly resembles a Glock 10-millimeter handgun. Adam’s battlefield of choice was called the “Death Room,” a seemingly abandoned secret facility with a multitude of tightly spaced areas.

  Adam quickly immersed himself in this virtual world, logging thousands of kills over hundreds of hours of playing time. His Combat Arms online profile showed he played 4,901 matches or games, clocking more than 500 hours in front of the screen and tallying 83,496 kills, including 22,725 “head shots.”

  While many opponents in Adam’s online cluster bragged about cheating by using codes that gave them an advantage over other players, Adam was “clean,” according to a watchdog group that monitored cheaters. He did not need to dupe the system to win.

  That year Adam also joined an online community to indulge in another one of his passions: weapons. On August 25, 2009, Adam joined the gun-enthusiasts message board at thehighroad.com, a Website that bills itself as a group where “responsible gun ownership is discussed, threads include firearms specifications, tools and technology with Activism and rally points.”

  While Adam kept his posts to a minimum, focusing mostly on legalities and questions about how to convert semiautomatic guns into automatic weapons, the seventeen-year-old’s brazen online persona displayed a vast knowledge of firearms. He easily kept pace with the group of primarily older adults.

  From his first entry, it was already clear that he was well versed in weaponry when he opened up a discussion comparing two types of rifles:

  “The CZ Vz. 58 is a rifle which is similar to the AK-47 only through their shared 7.62x39mm caliber and aesthetics. It functions entirely differently and has no interchangeable parts with the AK-47, including the magazine.”

  Adam then listed the Connecticut gun laws:

  “My state (Connecticut) has its own state-level assault weapons ban. In it is the following: Sec. 53-202a. Assault weapons: Definition. (a) . . . inclusive, “assault weapon” means: (1) . . . any of the following specified semiautomatic firearms: . . . Avtomat Kalashnikov AK-47 type . . .

  “According to what I have read, to be an ‘AK-47 type,’ the firearm must be aesthetically similar to an AK-47, operate similarly, and have interchangeable parts. From a perfunctory search of Google, I have seen multiple people claim that because the CZ Vz. 58 does not meet these three requirements, it is not an ‘AK-47 type’ and it is thus legal for sale in Connecticut. Does anyone have any information on this?”

  Two responses were posted on the board: “It’s not an AK type at all. Enjoy your Vz58:),” one responded.

  “It’s not an AK-47 type. Just make sure you get one with a fixed stock so that it conforms to the other stupid part of the CT AWB,” responded another.

  Adam posted appreciatively early the next morning at 1:42 A.M.: “I suppose that if a PTR-91 (almost an exact clone of an HK-91) is allowed, then a Vz. 58 would be. Thank you.:)”

  In another thread, started on August 27, 2009, Adam posted another question about the legality of modifying a firearm so that it can shoot more bullets more quickly:

  “In Connecticut, fully automatic firearms are legal to own but selective fire is prohibited. I vaguely recall reading ~1 year ago about a company which alters them to fire exclusively automatically (or something in that vein), but I do not know how that process works. For example, with whom would I correspond to modify a Title II M2 Carbine that is currently in another state to fire fully automatically before it is sent to Connecticut?”

  Several members on the message board responded with suggestions.

  Later that day, Adam responded to a post from a member looking for suggestions on what kind of weapon to purchase for himself for his birthday:

  “Have you looked at the Kel-Tec SU-16? It can be found for under $650 and utilizes STANAG magazines.”

  Besides showing off his encyclopedic knowledge of weaponry, his posts also revealed his discomfort with face-to-face interactions. On October 12, 2009, he began
a discussion titled “The legality of the CZ vz. 61 Skorpion in CT?” and asked: “A pistol referred to as the ‘Scarab Skorpion’ is banned. Does anyone know if that by extension bans the unrelated CZ vz. 61?”

  After one person suggested that Adam contact the Connecticut State Police, he responded by writing that he preferred not to deal with anyone in person. “I always prefer asking through proxy when I can avoid speaking to someone directly. I was just wondering if anyone knew because I have a fetish for .32 ACP,” he replied the next day.

  In one post, on October 13, 2009, Adam even showed a sense of humor when posting on another weapons discussion board, Glock Talk: “Am I just an inattentive philistine or has additional RAM in a computer which was not already deprived of it never helped any of you?”

  As Adam’s mastery of violent video games and high-powered weapons developed, another fixation began to reveal itself. Between August 2009 and February 2010, Adam spent hours poring over entries about mass killers on Wikipedia. Still under the alias “Kaynbred,” Adam went into the communal encyclopedia, obsessively correcting small details of the killers’ lives.

  One entry Adam worked on was the Collier Township shooting where, on August 4, 2009, George Sodini walked into a health club in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and killed three and injured nine before taking his own life. In another posting Adam revised the description of a firearm used in the September 13, 2006, shooting at Dawson College in Montreal. In that incident, gunman Kimveer Gill began shooting outside the main entrance of the school, killing one and injuring nineteen others before shooting himself in the head. Adam posted about the weapon used in the deadly attack: “A ‘9mm’ was listed as ‘.9mm’. People say that 9mm is anemic, but this is ridiculous.”

  Adam also edited details of the Westroads Mall shooting where, on December 5, 2007, gunman Robert Hawkins walked into the Von Maur department store in Omaha, Nebraska, and shot twelve people, killing four, before turning the gun on himself. Adam then diverted his attention to the entry about the “Luby massacre” in Killeen, Texas. On October 16, 1991, George Hennard crashed his pickup truck through the front window of a Luby’s cafeteria, shot fifty people, killing twenty-three, then hid in a bathroom and fatally shot himself before police arrived.

  Adam also made minor edits on the Wikipedia post for Larry Gene Ashbrook, who opened fire on a teen prayer rally at the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, killing seven teenagers and injuring seven others on September 15, 1999. Ashbrook also committed suicide. The list went on. In an article on mass killer Kip Kinkel, Adam corrected details about the weapons used in the slaying. Kinkel was a teenager when he murdered his parents in their Springfield, Oregon, home on May 20, 1998. The next day he headed to Thurston High School and killed two students and wounded twenty-five others before being apprehended by police.

  The original post listed the weapons as a “9 mm Glock pistol, a Sturm, Ruger .22 semi-automatic rifle, and a Ruger .22 pistol.” Adam corrected the post to read: “9 mm Glock pistol, sawn-off .22LR, Ruger 10/22 rifle, .22LR, Ruger MK II.”

  Other mass killers Adam studied included:

  • Ibrahim Shkupolli, who committed the Sello mall shooting in Finland on New Year’s Eve 2009. Shkupolli killed his ex-girlfriend and four workers at a shopping center before turning the gun on himself.

  • Robert Ryan, who on August 19, 1987, killed sixteen people, including his mother, and wounded fifteen others before fatally shooting himself in the so-called Hungerford massacre.

  • Richard Farley, who on February 16, 1988, killed seven and wounded four others at his former place of employment in Sunnyvale, California, before being apprehended by law enforcement.

  Two other message boards Adam joined but never posted on were “Northeasternshooters forum,” another board for gun enthusiasts, and “Veggie Boards,” a message board for vegetarians. In February 2010 the posts abruptly stopped.

  Adam received his driver’s license in 2010 but he rarely took out the car. Occasionally he headed to the gun range or drove the four miles to the nearby video game store, but these excursions decreased in frequency over time. He also enrolled in Norwalk Community College in the fall of 2010 but soon dropped out. With his academic career over, there was even less real need to leave his house. He began increasing the amount of time he spent playing video games.

  By 2011, Adam had stopped playing Combat Arms and moved on to Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, both violent, first-person shooting games where, like Combat Arms, players compete to rack up the most number of “kills.” In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the atrocities of combat are re-created by putting the players in the middle of a civilian slaughter. With his hand on the controller, Adam became an undercover CIA agent who joined a group of Russian terrorists at an airport to massacre unarmed civilians. To keep his cover and fulfill the mission’s objective, he had to shoot and kill women and children. The injured would crawl away leaving a smeary trail of blood, while those spared from the spray made the futile attempt to help others only to be shot dead.

  Adam became an expert, able to navigate through the different war zones, killing everything in his path with relative ease. Moving from scene to scene, the skill of quickly reloading before his magazine emptied was vital to acquiring the most kills in the shortest amount of time. Through repetitive play of Call of Duty, Adam learned how to load the second cartridge in a single fluid motion before the first was emptied by ejecting the magazine with the hand holding the weapon while drawing a new magazine from its place using his fourth and fifth fingers, and inserting a fresh magazine with the thumb and index finger. That skill, called the “tactical reload,” had previously been available only to law enforcement or for military training.

  Call of Duty allowed him to try different techniques with a wide variety of weapons. He could choose pistols, automatic weapons, and even flamethrowers to execute his mission. After much trial and error, he settled on the AN-94 as his favorite, a fully automatic Russian assault rifle that could cause maximum damage, especially in short bursts.

  By 2012, Adam had slipped into further solitude. “It was nearly complete isolation and it was self-imposed,” one relative recalled. “Adam was by himself all the time and there was nothing Nancy or anyone else could do to get him out. She tried, but he just wouldn’t have it. The more she tried, the more she believed she pushed him further and further away.”

  Another friend referred to Adam as a “shut-in.” His mental health issues, combined with his military ambitions, his gaming habit, and a dramatic decline in any form of social interaction had caused the young man to withdraw further and further from reality. Even the shooting range was barely appealing.

  CHAPTER 6

  WARNING SIGNS

  Nancy, too, began to change. She had always been an attractive, upbeat blonde known for her unique brand of humor and sarcasm. But friends noticed that she was spending more and more time away from home and started talking about “getting away.” In the fall, in anticipation of the move, she parted with one of her most prized possessions—her beloved Red Sox season tickets.

  Neighbors began to notice a shift toward seclusion in the Lanza family. Their sprawling yellow Colonial family home, hidden away in a wooded area at the end of Yogananda Street, had been so full of life during its first few years but had since became a “black spot” in the neighborhood. The family had earned a reputation as very quiet, private, and largely unknown.

  “I knew every single one of my neighbors but them,” recalled one neighbor who lived three houses down. “Hardly anyone spoke to them. It’s as if they stopped being part of the community altogether and just fell off the face of the earth.”

  Although Nancy had dedicated so much of her life and energy to helping her son, she sensed that her ability to keep a handle on the situation was slipping from her grasp. Her child was well past a point of crisis and, whatever was going on inside his head at this point, was beyond her ability to comprehend.

  �
��Parental bonds are formed so early in life . . . they are either there or they aren’t,” she had emailed a friend more than a decade earlier, during an easier time when she still felt optimistic about her ability to shape Adam’s future. “It is a direct product of how much the parent put into that relationship.”

  Now, her attitude had shifted. With Adam, perhaps it was already too late, she confided in a friend. Nancy was becoming accustomed to leaving her son alone for days, sometimes weeks at a time. Beginning in January 2012, she traveled to London, New Orleans, and New York City, in addition to frequent trips to Boston.

  On October 6, 2012, Nancy emailed a relative about her extensive travels and plans to eventually downsize her home. She was waiting for the market to improve before listing the Yogananda Street residence with a Realtor.

  “I hear you there . . . no sense selling at a loss!” she wrote. “Best to keep stability in the kids’ lives. Moves are so tough at that age. I am still in the same place but getting to the point where I may want a smaller house. I travel a lot (a little bit of everywhere . . . Boston, New York, Maine, Toronto, London, San Francisco, Nantucket, Charlotte, Baltimore . . . that covers this year) spend time with friends, work with a couple of charities. Low key life and very happy.”

  Nancy spent Thanksgiving 2012 in northern New England with family, leaving Adam home alone with a prepared meal in the fridge. She had come to realize that she could not let her own life come to a grinding halt because of her son. His social interactions had dwindled to rare trips to the shooting range—getting him to a holiday feast with relatives was out of the question.

  She told friends she planned on being out of town for Christmas, too, but didn’t say where. These long stretches away from home didn’t seem to worry her though. She somehow thought her absence might make Adam more independent. When a close friend asked if she was concerned about her son spending so much time alone, Nancy said she wasn’t worried. Adam needed more solitary time than most people.