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Columbine killers' death times estimated
By Charley AbleDenver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
GOLDEN — The condition of the bodies of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made it difficult to determine the exact time of their deaths, Jefferson County's coroner said Thursday. Dr. Nancy Bodelson, speaking to the Governor's Columbine Review Commission, said experts rely on a range of times to determine the time of death in most cases. Witnesses at the school provided enough information to narrow the estimated time that Harris' and Klebold's 13 victims died. But determining the times the two young gunmen died is complicated by a lack of witnesses to their deaths and the more than 24 hours that elapsed before their bodies were removed from the school library and medical examiners began their work, Bodelson said. Harris and Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the April 20, 1999, murderous assault at the school. An investigative report issued by Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone in May 2000 said Harris and Klebold were dead within 50 minutes of the 11:19 a.m. start of the rampage. Based on that timing, the two gunmen would have been dead before SWAT officers were in place at the school. Some lawsuits filed against the sheriff by families of the victims claim the sheriff and his officers delayed their entry into the school, giving Harris and Klebold time to kill and injure more victims. Asked if "it was just a range of times that was then the basis for this estimate of the time of death" of Harris and Klebold, Bodelson responded: "Right, that's true in almost any death unless it is in a hospital with the doctor standing right there." The commission did not ask whether Bodelson further refined the estimates by using physical evidence found at the scene. Bodelson refused comment when asked about that by a reporter afterward. The sheriff's report cited an unexploded bomb fashioned as a Molotov cocktail, a bottle filled with gasoline with a rag for a fuse, in its determination of the time of the killers' deaths. The report said the killers lighted the fuse, but the Molotov cocktail failed to explode. The bottle's burning contents set off alarms in the area at 12:08 p.m. That time is cited in the report as the time Harris and Klebold died. Bodelson ruled both deaths suicides. August 25, 2000
GOLDEN — The condition of the bodies of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made it difficult to determine the exact time of their deaths, Jefferson County's coroner said Thursday.
Dr. Nancy Bodelson, speaking to the Governor's Columbine Review Commission, said experts rely on a range of times to determine the time of death in most cases.
Witnesses at the school provided enough information to narrow the estimated time that Harris' and Klebold's 13 victims died.
But determining the times the two young gunmen died is complicated by a lack of witnesses to their deaths and the more than 24 hours that elapsed before their bodies were removed from the school library and medical examiners began their work, Bodelson said.
Harris and Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the April 20, 1999, murderous assault at the school.
An investigative report issued by Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone in May 2000 said Harris and Klebold were dead within 50 minutes of the 11:19 a.m. start of the rampage. Based on that timing, the two gunmen would have been dead before SWAT officers were in place at the school.
Some lawsuits filed against the sheriff by families of the victims claim the sheriff and his officers delayed their entry into the school, giving Harris and Klebold time to kill and injure more victims.
Asked if "it was just a range of times that was then the basis for this estimate of the time of death" of Harris and Klebold, Bodelson responded: "Right, that's true in almost any death unless it is in a hospital with the doctor standing right there."
The commission did not ask whether Bodelson further refined the estimates by using physical evidence found at the scene. Bodelson refused comment when asked about that by a reporter afterward.
The sheriff's report cited an unexploded bomb fashioned as a Molotov cocktail, a bottle filled with gasoline with a rag for a fuse, in its determination of the time of the killers' deaths.
The report said the killers lighted the fuse, but the Molotov cocktail failed to explode. The bottle's burning contents set off alarms in the area at 12:08 p.m. That time is cited in the report as the time Harris and Klebold died.
Bodelson ruled both deaths suicides.
August 25, 2000
