January 13, 2025 • 44 mins
Imagine discovering the fate of your loved one through a haunting newspaper photograph. We share the heartbreaking stories of families like Brian Roback, whose world was shattered by such an image, and Misty Bernard, who faced the agony of searching for answers about her daughter Cassie amidst the chaos. These personal narratives of confusion and sorrow reveal the profound impact on a community grappling with unimaginable loss. As we navigate through this emotional landscape, we reflect on the chaos and uncertainty that enveloped the families immediately after the tragedy.
Uncover the complexities of the Columbine investigation with Supervisory Special Agent Fusilier, who brought his dual expertise in law enforcement and psychology to bear on a case fraught with challenges. As detectives faced an overwhelming crime scene and initial fears of a larger conspiracy, we highlight the relentless pursuit of truth and justice. Key witnesses like Robin Anderson played pivotal roles in piecing together the story, as authorities meticulously collected evidence and confronted lingering threats of violence. Join us as we explore the emotional toll on investigators and the unwavering determination to prevent such tragedies in the future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis Part 5 of Unraveling the
Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
The lack of bodies contributedto the problem because they were
still inside the perimeter andnone of the names had been
released.
Inside the perimeter and noneof the names had been released,
(00:25):
the school was effectively gone.
Nobody but the police could getnear it.
It wasn't even visible from theline of police tape where
everyone gathered.
Students had a pretty good ideaof who had been killed.
All the murders had beenwitnessed and were were spread
quickly.
But so many stories had turnedout to be wrong so there was a
(00:49):
lot of doubt.
Everyone seemed to have atleast a few people unaccounted
for, and one of the studentssaid how can we cry when we
don't know who we're crying for?
And yet she had cried.
She had cried most of the night, she said, and by morning she
(01:09):
had run out of tears.
No one from the servicedepartment called Brian Robo.
No officer appeared on thedoorstep to inform him that his
son had been killed.
And so the phone woke, um brian,and it was a friend calling to
(01:33):
warn him before he pick up the,the newspaper the rock mountain
uh, rocky mountain news becausethere was a picture.
So of course brian grabbed thenewspaper.
He flipped past the hugeheartbreak headline, the dozens
of stories, the diagrams, thepictures of clenched survivors,
(01:53):
none of whom were his boy, andhe stopped at page 13.
It was an overhead shot from anews shopper, but the photo
filled half the page, so thesubjects were large and
unmistakable.
Half a dozen students huddledbehind a car in the parking lot
with a policeman squeezed inbeside them and squatting behind
(02:19):
the wheel for cover, and hisrifle mounted across the trunk,
eyes to the gun sight, finger onthe trigger.
And there was a boy that layunprotected on the sidewalk
nearby.
He was out in the open,collapsed on his side, one knee
(02:39):
curled up toward his chest, botharms splayed motionless.
The caption read his chest,both arms splayed motionless.
The caption read An enormouspool of blood nearly the size of
his body, stained the concretea foot away and trickled down
the crevice between two sidewalksquares.
The victim was unidentified,his face blurry and almost
(03:01):
completely obscured by the angle.
But Brian Roback knew.
He never turned to the nextpage and Danny, his son, was all
Brian had.
He and Sue had divorced whentheir son was four.
Sue had remarried but Brian hadnot.
(03:26):
He had his custom audio business.
It was successful and he lovedit.
But the best part was thatDanny did too.
He had been tattling around theworkshop since he could walk by
seven.
He was building wiringharnesses and running speaker
wire.
In junior high he startedworking for real weekdays after
(03:51):
school.
Brian and Sue had a friendlydivorce and lived only a few
blocks apart, but Danny couldnever get enough time with his
father.
The shop was such a cool hangoutfor a high school boy A big,
greasy garage filled with powertools and $100,000 vintage cars
up on blocks.
Danny helped fit them withopera caliber sound systems
(04:14):
worth more than his wealthierfriend's cars.
Depending on the product, theplace might reek of burned
rubber or prickly epoxy fumes.
When Brian manned the bustle,the sweet smell of fresh-cut
cherry wood wafted into thestreet.
Danny was a natural.
He loved cars and he lovedsound.
(04:35):
He liked to mess around withcomputer programs and was
promising to take the businessin a new direction, and he knew
how to behave.
Brian catered to some of theoldest and richest families in
Colorado.
Danny had grown up in theirhouses.
He knew the drill.
He was a charmer and Brianreveled in showing him off.
(04:58):
A few months ago Danny had cometo a decision.
College was not for him.
He would go straight into thebusiness from Columbine, make a
career out of it.
Brian was ecstatic.
In three years he would makehis son a partner.
In four weeks Danny was goingto spend his first summer
working at the shop full-time.
(05:20):
Wednesday morning, as soon as hesaw the picture, brian got in
his car.
He drove to Columbine.
He stormed up to the perimeterand demanded his boy's body.
The cops there said no.
Not only were they not turningDanny over, they had not brought
him inside.
Danny was still out there lyingon the sidewalk.
(05:44):
He had weathered the elementsall night.
Too many bombs.
The authorities said the bodycould be booby-trapped.
Brian knew he wasn't getting astraight answer.
Bomb squads had been clearingthe school since Tuesday
afternoon.
Brian's son just wasn't apriority.
(06:04):
Brian couldn't believe theywere treating a victim's body so
cavalierly.
And then it began to snow.
Donnie lay out on that sidewalkfor 28 hours.
Misty Bernard started Wednesdayat 3 am.
She had slept very little,drifting in and out Cassie.
(06:28):
She was having nightmares aboutCassie, trapped in the building
, huddled in the dark in somecloset or lying in the cold tile
floor.
Her daughter needed her.
She's over the fence a hundredyards away.
Misty thought they will not letus to get her and she's so
close.
(06:48):
She gave up and took a shower.
Brad did too.
They dressed and crossed thebackyard.
To the perimeter A cop wasstanding guard.
Brad told him that Cassie wasin there.
He implored the cop give it tothem straight.
He said we just want to know ifthere is anyone still alive in
(07:10):
there.
And the cop paused and hefinally said no, no one left
alive.
They thanked him.
Misty said that theyappreciated his honesty.
But Misty wasn't giving up.
The cop could be wrong orCassie might be lying in a
hospital, unidentified.
(07:31):
Misty kept trying the perimeterall morning, but she was
rebuffed each time.
Then the parents were alertedto return to Leawood.
Brad and Misty headed rightover and they waited for hours.
District Attorney Dave Thomasarrived around 1.30.
He still had the list of thedisease.
(07:53):
It had not changed, nor had itbeen confirmed.
The coroner required another 24hours, so he decided to risk it
.
He informed the families one byone.
He said I don't know how totell you this, and this is to
one of the parents by Colonelwhen he say this to him.
(08:15):
He said you don't have to, it'swritten on your face.
Misty took it hard but shedidn't take it definitely
Definitively.
Sorry, misty took it hard butshe didn't take it definitively.
The DA said that Cassie wasdead, but he also said it was
(08:37):
unofficial.
Hope gradually dissolved intoanger.
If Cassie were dead, mistywanted her body out of that
library and attended to.
Linda.
Sanders' family awaited thenews at her home by Wednesday
afternoon.
The house was packed withfriends and relatives.
Everyone knew what was coming.
News crews set up a roll ofcameras to capture the moment of
agony and a victim's advocatetold Melody, you need to be
(08:59):
ready, be prepared to supportyour sister.
A patrol car pulled up justbefore 3 pm.
The deputy rang the bell andMelody let him in.
Linda was still not ready tohear it and he said we have
(09:20):
tentatively identified yourhusband as a victim at Columbine
.
Linda screamed and then shethrew up.
Special Agent Frank DeAngelisdidn't know if he was safe yet.
He woke up at his brother'shouse on Wednesday because he
had been advised against stayingat his own home.
His car was sealed off insidethe perimeter so an assistant
(09:47):
principal was on his way to pickFrank up before dawn.
So he was heading for meetingsto figure out what to do.
And what on earth were theygoing to do and what could he
say?
They were coming to hear him at10 am.
Kids, parents, teachers, anyoneaching had been told to gather
at Light of the World, a largeCatholic church, one of the few
venues large enough.
(10:08):
They would look to him foranswers.
He had none.
Frank had lain awake much ofthe night grappling with it.
God give me some guidance.
He prayed.
Morning came and he was nocloser.
He was consumed with guilt.
He said quote my job is toprovide an environment that's
safe.
I let so many people down endquote Like 800 in every pew,
(10:34):
with hundreds more studentssitting at the walls.
Local officials took the podiumand turned, trying to console
the kids who were unconsolable.
The students applauded eachspeaker politely.
Nobody was getting through.
Mr D was settled for politeapplause.
He was hoping he wouldn't getlynched.
Did he deserve to be?
(10:54):
He had no speech, prepared, nonotes.
He just planned to tell themwhat he felt.
His name was announced, he roseto approach the microphone and
the crowd leaped up from thepews.
They were shouting, cheering,whistling, applauding Kids who
have not registered a smile or afun, for hours were beating
(11:15):
their palms together or pumpingtheir fists, fighting back tears
or letting them stream downtheir chins.
Mr D buckled at the waist.
He clutched his stomach andstaggered around, turning his
back to the audience, sobbinguncontrollably.
His torso was parallel to thefloor, shaking so hard.
(11:36):
It was visible from the lastrow.
He stood there for a fullminute while the crowd refused
to subside.
He couldn't face them, hecouldn't invite himself.
It was so strange, he saidlater, I just couldn't control
it.
My body just went intoconvulsions.
The reason I turned my back isI was feeling guilt.
(11:59):
I was feeling shameful.
He made it to the podium andbegan with an apology and he
said quote, I'm so sorry forwhat had happened and for what
you are feeling.
End, quote.
He reassured them and promisedto stand by them and then he
said quote, I will be there foryou whenever you need it.
But he refused to sugarcoat itwhat they were in for.
(12:24):
He said I would like to take awand and wipe away what you're
feeling, but I can't do that.
I would like to tell you thosescars will heal, but they will
not.
His students were grateful fortheir candor.
So many kids in Clement Parkthat morning would describe how
(12:44):
tired they already were ofhearing so many people tell them
that everything will be allright.
They knew the truth, they justwanted to hear it.
Mr D ended his speech bytelling them he loved them, each
and every one of them.
They needed to hear that too.
Kids were having trouble withthe parents, especially their
(13:05):
moms, and one boy said thatquote it's kind of hard for me
to sit at home, like when my momcomes home.
I try to stare out of the house.
Lots of other boys nodded moreand more, told their same
stories because their motherswere so scared and the fear had
not abated when they found theirkids.
Now they just wanted to hugthem, hug them forever.
(13:30):
Emotionally, their mothers werewildly out of sync.
At first the kids needed thehugs badly.
Now they needed them to stop.
Most of the student bodywandered the park, desperate to
unload their stories.
They needed adults to hear themand their parents would not do.
They found their audience thepress.
(13:51):
Students were wary at first,but let the guards down quickly.
Reporters seemed sounderstanding.
Clement Park felt like anenormous confessional Wednesday.
The kids would regret it.
In the midst of it, a shriekpierced the media.
Camp Mourners froze, unsure ofwhat to do.
(14:14):
More screams, different voices,same direction.
Hundreds ran toward them.
Students, journalists, everyonewithin hearing range.
They found a dozen girlsgathered around a single car
that remained among thesatellite trucks in a small lot
on the edge of the park.
It was Rachel Scott's car, thefirst girl shot dead.
(14:36):
Rachel didn't have an assignedspot so she had parked half a
mile from the school.
On Tuesday no one had come toclaim the car.
Now it was covered front toback with flowers and candles.
Messages to Rachel and Heavenhad been soaked across the
windows.
Her girlfriends held hands andsemicircled around the back of
(14:58):
the car, sobbing uncontrollably.
One girl began to sing andothers followed.
The Harris's and Klebold's bothhired attorneys.
They had good reason.
The presumption of guiltquickly landed on their
shoulders.
Investigators didn't expect tocharge them, but the public did.
(15:18):
National polls taken shortlyafter the attack would identify
all sorts of culpritscontributing to the tragedy
Violent movies, video games,goth culture, lacks, gun laws,
bullies, satan.
Eric did not make the list,dylan didn't.
Either they were just kids.
(15:40):
Something or someone must haveled them astray.
Were just kids?
Something or someone must haveled them astray.
Wayne and Kathy and Tom and Suewere the chief suspects.
They dwarfed all other causesblamed by 85% of the population
in a Gallup poll.
They have the additionaladvantage of being alive to be
pursued.
Their attorneys warned them tokeep quiet.
(16:02):
Neither family spoke to thepress.
Both released statements onWednesday.
That says, quote we cannotbegin to convey our overwhelming
sense of sorrow for everyoneaffected by this strategy.
The Clebos said Our thoughts,prayers and heartfelt apologies
go out to the victims, theirfamilies, friends and the entire
(16:23):
community.
Like the rest of the country,we are struggling to understand
why this happened and ask thatyou please respect our privacy
during this painful grievingperiod.
In quote.
The Harris's were more brief.
They said the following quotewe want to express our heartfelt
sympathy to the families of allthe victims and to all the
(16:46):
community for this senselesstragedy.
Please say prayers for everyonetouched by these terrible
events.
End quote.
Dylan's brother stayed home fromwork for several days.
Byron was nearly three yearsolder than Dylan but because of
Dylan's early enrollment, justtwo years out of school, he was
doing go-for-work at an autodealership washing cars,
(17:09):
shoveling snow, moving inventoryaround the lot.
It was an entry-level job.
His employers understood theneed for time away and the
spokesman said it's shocking foreveryone.
We're family here and we lookout for each other.
Our hearts go out to Byron,this kid's great Supervisory
(17:34):
Special Agent Fusilier's concernWednesday morning was the
conspiracy.
Everyone assumed the Columbinemassacre was a conspiracy,
including the cops.
It was just too big, too boldand too complex for a couple of
kids to half-imagine, much lesspull off.
This looked like the work ofeight or ten people.
(17:58):
This looked like the work ofeight or ten people.
Every attack of this magnitudespawns conspiracy theories, but
this time they appear sound.
The legacy of those theoriesand Jeffco's response to them
would haunt the Columbinerecovery in peculiar ways.
Wednesday morning Fusilierentered the ghastly crime scene.
Wednesday morning Fusilierentered the ghastly crime scene.
The hallways were scatteredwith shell casings, spent pipe
(18:21):
bombs and unexploded ornaments.
Bullet holes and broken glasswere everywhere.
The library was soaked in blood.
Most of the bodies lay undertables.
Fusilier had seen carnage, butstill it was awful.
The sight that really stunnedhim was outside on the sidewalk
(18:42):
and the lawn.
Danny Robo and Rachel Scottwere still out there.
No one had even covered themand years later he shuddered at
the memory.
Agent Fusilio arrived atColumbine as an FBI agent, but
he would play a more significantrole as a clinical psychologist
(19:03):
.
Fusilio would play the leadingrole in understanding the
Columbine killers.
But it was luck that drove himto the case.
If his son, Brian, had not beenattending that high school,
fusilier would not have evenbeen assigned to the
investigation.
In fact it's unlikely that theFBI would have played a major
(19:27):
role.
But because Fusilier arrived onthe scene, established a
rapport with the commanders andoffered federal support, fbi
agents would play a major roleon the team.
Columbine was the crime of thecentury in Colorado and the
state assembled the largest teamin its history to solve it.
Nearly a hundred detectivesgathered in DEFCO.
(19:48):
More than a dozen agenciesloaned out their best minds.
The FBI contributed more than adozen special agents a
remarkable number for a localinvestigation Agent.
Fusilier, one of the seniorpsychologists in the entire
bureau, headed up the FBI team.
Everyone else reported to JeffGalscate Batten, who was a
(20:14):
brilliant detective whose workon unraveling complex
white-collar crimes would serveher well.
She reported to Division ChiefJohn Kixbush, a rising star who
had just been promoted to seniorcommand.
Kixbush and Fusilier eachplayed an active daily role and
consulted regularly about theoverall progress of the case.
(20:41):
The team identified 11 likelyconspirators.
Brooks Brown had the mostsuspicious story.
Chris Morris had admitted tohearing about bombs.
Two others matched thedescriptions for third and
fourth shooters.
Those four perched atop thelist, with D Dylan's prom date,
roman Anderson, close behind.
(21:02):
Detectives plan to questionevery student and teacher in
Columbine, every friend,relative and associate of the
killers, past or present.
They have 5,000 interviewsahead of them in the next six
months.
5,000 interviews ahead of themin the next six months.
They would snap thousands ofphotographs and compile more
than 30,000 pages of evidence.
(21:23):
The level of detail wasexacting.
Every shell casing, bulletfragment and shotgun pellet was
inventoried.
55 pages and 998 evidence IDnumbers to distinguish every
shard.
The JFO command team hastilyreserved a spot for Fusilier in
(21:45):
the Columbine band group.
The killers had made a mess ofthe place without setting foot
inside it.
Abandoned books, backpacks,sheet music, drum and
instruments were strewn amongthe shrapnel.
The door was missing, blownaway by the SWAT team searching
for gunmen.
Much of the school lookedconsiderably worse.
(22:07):
Pipe bombs and Molotovcocktails had burned through
stretches of carpeting and setoff the sprinkler system.
The cafeteria was flooded, thelibrary unspeakable.
Veteran cops have staggered outin tears.
There were SWAT team people whowere in Vietnam who were
weeping over what they saw.
(22:28):
The detective team was movingin.
Every scrap of wreckage wasevidence.
They had 250,000 square feet ofcrime scene just on the inside.
Footprints, fingerprints, strayhairs, ungotten residue could
be anywhere.
Crucial DNA evidence might befloating through the cafeteria
(22:51):
and life.
Explosives might still bepresent too.
Detectives have stripped downEric and Dylan's bedrooms, left
the furniture, hauled out muchof the rest.
The Clevel House yielded someyearbooks, a small stack of
writings, but Dylan had wipedhis hard drive clean.
Eric's house provided amotherlode, journals, more
(23:15):
computer rants, an audio tape,videotaped budgets and diagrams
and timelines.
Eric had documented everythinghe would wanted us to know.
Adding to the sense of urgencyand conspiracy was a cryptic
message suggesting more possibleviolence to come.
Fusilier said, quote.
(23:37):
We went scrambling for daystrying to track that down.
End quote.
They searched the school forexplosives.
Again they raised the pressureon the probable conspirators.
The detectives conducted 500interviews in the first 72 hours
.
It was a great boost, but itgot chaotic.
(23:59):
Vatan was worried aboutwitnesses who were growing more
compromised by the hour fromwhat they read and saw on TV.
Investigators prioritizedStudents who had seen the
shooters came first.
Other detectives headed to thesuspect's childhood hometowns.
We'll be right back.
(24:25):
The bodies were finally returnedto the victims' families on
Thursday.
Most of the parents weredesperate to learn how their
child had died.
There were plenty of witnesses,but a few were tempted to
inflate their accounts and themore dramatic versions of their
story tended to travel.
The school set up a secondofficial gathering for students
(24:46):
on Thursday afternoon.
The megachurches were among theonly structures in the area big
enough to accommodate a crowdthat large, so the gathering was
held at West Bowes CommunityChurch.
Crowd that large, so thegathering was held at West Bowes
Community Church.
This session was to be informal, just a designated place for
students who wanted to find eachother in one place.
Mr D wasn't planning to speakuntil a counselor interrupted
(25:09):
his meeting with faculty downthe hall and they said Frank,
they need you, you need to goout there.
The students were awaiting hisappearance and when he walked in
they started chanting theschool's rallying cry, which he
had last heard at the assemblybefore the prom we are Columbine
(25:31):
, we are Columbine.
Each time they yelled moreloudly, confidently,
aggressively.
Mr D had not realized until heheard them what he had been
longing to draw strength fromthem too.
He thought he was there just toprovide it.
This time he decided to addressthe tears and he said Guys,
(25:54):
trust me, now is not the time toshow your manliness.
Emotion is emotion, and keepingit inside doesn't mean you're
strong.
That was the last time Mr Dworried about crying in public.
The big question facing theschool was how to finish out the
year.
These kids needed to get backtogether fast, but the cops were
(26:18):
not going to open that buildingfor months.
The administration decided torestart classes a week later at
nearby Chatfield High School,columbine's traditional rival.
Columbine would take over theschool in the mornings and
Chatfield would resume use inthe afternoons.
Classes would be shortened forboth groups until the end of the
(26:41):
school year.
Some people suggested that thebuilding be demolished.
Some parents insisted thattheir kids would never set foot
in that murder scene again, butothers pointed out that the
psychological blow of losingtheir high school entirely would
be much worse.
Reverend Bill O Mullen beganpreparing two funerals, john
(27:07):
Tomlin and Lauren Townsend, whohad been faithful members of the
Full Hills Bible Church Biblechurch.
When it was time for thefunerals, right, the kids kept
(27:28):
pouring into the churches.
What began Tuesday night as ameans to escape from their
parents and find each otherquickly became a habit.
Night after night they returnedto their churches in vast
numbers, kids who had not seenan altar in years.
For some it was a consciouschoice to look to God in
desperation, but most said itwas just a place to go.
(27:50):
The churches organized informalservices at night.
In the daytime they just openedtheir doors and gave the kids
the run of the place.
A handful saw a recruitingopportunity.
Anyone who drove to ClementPark and stayed a few hours
would find several flyers thatstack under the wiper blades.
We're here to listen and assistyou.
(28:11):
If you need prayer counseling,meals prepared free, hot
chocolate, coffee cookies can bewarm at Calvary Chapel.
Eventually, investigators wouldescort dozens of witnesses back
through the school to helprecreate the attack.
Mr D was first.
A few days after the massacre,detectives walked him down the
(28:34):
main hallway Dr Fusilier waswith him and they passed the
remnants of the trophy case andthe Angelis described it
exploding behind him.
They proceeded down thecorridor and he indicated where
he had intercepted the girls'gym class.
He recreated everything theshouts, the screams, the acrid
smell of the smoke.
(28:55):
None of that faced FrankDeAngelis.
He was cried out by this timeas stoic as the boys.
He was hoping to open up.
They turned the corner and Franksaw bloody smears on the carpet
.
He knew Dave Sanders had gonedown there.
He had not anticipated thestains and he said you could see
(29:17):
the knuckle prints.
He actually was on all foursand they were his knuckle prints
.
He was struggling.
It tore me up.
A trail of blood traced Dave'spath around the corner and down
the hall.
Detectives led Frank DeAngelisto science room number three.
(29:38):
Nothing had been disturbed andFrank recalled quote.
They took me into where Davedied and there were sweatshirts
there full of blood.
That got to me In the scienceroom.
Frank broke down again and heturned to Fusilier.
He said I was glad he was here.
Most FBI guys wouldn't havedone anything.
(30:00):
And Dwayne gave.
He said Dwayne, give me a hug.
Aside from witnesses, the besthope for cracking the case
seemed to lie in the physicalevidence.
The gun, first and foremost,dylan, was a minor.
(30:20):
Eric had just turned 18.
They had probably gotten helpsecuring the weapons.
Whoever turned up at the frontend of those acquisitions would
likely be conspirator number one.
Investigators worked paralleltracks, hunting them down.
Atf agents took the technicalangle.
(30:41):
They came up with a solidlifespan on the semi-automatics.
Eric's carbine rifle was lessthan a year old.
Rifle was less than a year old.
It had been sold originally inSelma, alabama, and it had made
its way to a gun shop inLongmont, colorado, less than an
hour from Denver.
They traced Dillon's Tech 9through four different owners
(31:02):
between 1997 and 1998, but thenthe records disappeared.
The third owner said he hadsold it to the Tanner Gun Show
but had not been required tokeep sales records at the time.
The shotguns were a biggerproblem.
They were three decades oldbefore serial numbers were
(31:22):
required.
They were impossible to trace.
The bomb squad disassembled andstudied the big bombs.
The centerpiece of Eric'sperformance was a complete mess.
They didn't understandexplosive reactions, according
to the deputy fire marshal.
He said they didn't understandelectrical circuitry.
Officials refused to be morespecific, arguing that they
(31:45):
didn't want to give copycats anyhints.
The deputy marshal summarizedthe primary mistake as defective
fusing.
Detectives were having more luckworking.
The suspects Chris Morris hadimplicated Phil Duran the first
day.
If they could believe Morris,that could explain several guns,
possibly all four.
(32:06):
Duran was playing innocent butthey knew they could crack him.
And then they heard from RobinAnderson.
Unloading her secret to Kellyon Tuesday night had not
appeased Robin's conscience.
Wednesday morning she calledZach again.
This time she told him.
And she told him another smalllie.
She said that he was the onlyone who knew.
(32:28):
And then she told her mom.
Robin's mom brought her down tothe school.
Jeffco had set up its Columbinetask force inside the crime
scene, headquartered in the bandroom.
Detectives interviewed Robinwith her mom by her side.
Two detectives traded offquestioning, one from the DA's
(32:48):
office, one from a nearbysuburbs police force.
They videotaped the session andthey were harsh.
The first time they asked aboutthe guns, robin visibly
recoiled, according to thedetective's synopsis of the
videotape, and she looked to hermom for support.
Did she buy the guns?
They asked no, she did not.
(33:09):
She went to the show with them,but they thought they bought the
weapons.
Why did they want them?
She said Dylan lived out in thecountry so she assumed they
wanted to hunt.
No, they never talked abouthunting people, not even as a
joke.
Detective asked her about theprom, the trench coat, mafia,
(33:33):
the killer's personalities, andthen returned to the guns.
It was a private dealer, shesaid the boys paid cash.
They didn't try to bargain,they just paid the asking price,
somewhere around $250 to $300 apiece.
No one signed anything and shenever showed an ID.
The shotguns had very longbarrels but the dealer said they
(33:57):
could cut them down.
The detectives began to pressher harder.
Dylan and Eric didn't reallyseem like hunters, did they?
And she said that Dylan livedin the mountains.
There were deer all over theplace and her dad owned a gun.
He never used it, but he hadone.
(34:17):
Lots of people had guncollections.
Eric and Dylan were into thatkind of stuff.
Why wouldn't they want one?
She would actually ask the boysif they were going to do
something stupid with the guns,she said, and they assured her
they would never hurt anyone.
Then they asked did Eric andDylan tell you to keep the guns
(34:38):
secret?
And she said yes.
And they asked her that didn'traise your suspicions.
And she said they were underage, it was illegal.
They had to hide it from theirparents.
Then they asked her where didthey hide them?
Her answer was she didn't knowabout Eric, but Dylan dropped
(35:01):
him off first and Eric put hisguns in the truck of his Honda,
so she assumed he stashed themin the house.
Later Dylan tried to hide hisin his bottom dresser drawer but
it was too big.
He stuck it in the closet buthe told her later that he cut
the barrel down and made it fitin the drawer.
(35:22):
They asked that Dylan arousesuspicions and she said no
because the gun dealer hadalready suggested it.
Robin said she never saw theguns again.
The detectives moved on and theyasked about a wide range of
subjects.
Eventually they got to theexplosives.
(35:44):
Have she has seen any?
Had she helped make any?
Had any of Eric and Dylan'sfriends assisted them?
And she said no, no, and maybeZach Heckler.
Zach, why Zach?
And she said well, because Zachhad told her he knew more of
what was going on.
(36:05):
She told him about the callwith Zach, about his admission
that he knew about the pipebombs.
And the detectives say howstrange.
Erin and Dylan went bowlingwith her every week.
Dylan called her every othernight.
They confided in her about theguns and yet they never said a
(36:26):
word about the pipe bombs andher answer was they must not
have wanted me to know.
So the detectives were likecome on, you're lying over and
over.
They mocked her about thedisparity.
The boys told.
The boys told sack about thepipe bombs but they never told
her and she said no, no, never.
(36:48):
That's what they were like whenthey wanted you to know
something, you knew.
When they wanted you in thedark, you stayed there.
They could get very secludedabout it, very isolated.
They kept on her.
The guns were an isolatedincident, she said.
(37:09):
And Zack, he didn't know mucheither.
He knew they were making bombsbut he had no idea what they
were up to.
And this interrogation went onfor four hours.
But Robin held her ground.
Bomb squads had been through theschool several times and found
(37:30):
nearly a hundred bombs ofdifferent sizes and composition.
Most exploded.
Some not Most were pipe bombsor crickets.
But one in the cafeteria stoodout.
It was a big white propane tankstanding upright, nearly two
feet tall.
It was wedged against aone-gallon gasoline can.
(37:51):
The most ominous part was thealarm clock.
There were remnants of anorange duffel bag, mostly burned
away.
The car bombs were alsodiscovered with more faulty
wiring.
The diversionary bomb in thefield was disturbing for another
reason it had blown shortlyafter being moved, suggesting
(38:12):
booby traps.
The diversionary bomb in thefield was disturbing for another
reason it had blown shortlyafter being moved, suggesting
booby traps, trip wires could beanywhere.
The FBI provided a group ofcrime scene specialists to
assist in the massive effort ofdocumenting the evidence.
At 8.15 on Thursday morning theteam slugged through the
cafeteria debris.
Hundreds of backpacks, lunchtrays and half-eaten meals had
(38:36):
been abandoned, many of themknocked over, cinched by fire or
scattered by explosions, andeverything had been soaked by
the sprinkler system which hadrun for hours.
Muted pagers, buried inside thebackpacks, beeped methodically
alerting the kids to phone home.
(38:57):
And as they walked an agentspotted a blue duffel bag, 10
feet from burnout orange bagwith the big mom.
It was bulging and sized to fitthe same contraption.
They walked over One of theagents' pressure pressed down so
they helped over a couple oftechnicians.
(39:19):
The officer was Mike Guerra,the same man who had
investigated Eric Harris a yearearlier.
He sliced open the bag.
They could see the end of apropane tank and an alarm clock
that matched the other.
There were still active bombsin here.
How many more?
They closed off the areaimmediately.
Had the propane bombs detonated, they would have incinerated
(39:43):
most of all of the inhabitantsof the commons.
They would have killed 500people in the first few seconds,
four times the toll in OklahomaCity, more than 10 worst
domestic terrorist attacks in UShistory combined.
For investigators, the big bombschanged everything the scale,
(40:05):
the method and the motive of theattack.
Above all, it had beenindiscriminate.
Everyone was supposed to die.
Columbine was fundamentallydifferent from other school
shootings.
It had not really been intendedas a shooting at all.
Primarily, it had been abombing that failed.
(40:30):
That same day, officialsannounced the discovery of the
big bombs and their destructivepowers.
It instigated a new mediashockwave but curiously,
journalists failed to grasp theimplications.
Detectives let go of thetargeting theory immediately.
(40:50):
Detectives let go of thetargeting theory immediately.
It had been sketchy to beginwith and now it was completely
disproved.
The media never shook it off.
They saw what happened inColumbine as a shooting and the
killers as outcasts, targetingjocks.
They filtered every newdevelopment through that lens.
(41:11):
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Next week we're going to learnmore about who Dylan Claiborne
and Eric Harris were.
Have a great week.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis Part 5 of Unraveling the
Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
The lack of bodies contributedto the problem because they were
still inside the perimeter andnone of the names had been
released.
Inside the perimeter and noneof the names had been released,
(00:25):
the school was effectively gone.
Nobody but the police could getnear it.
It wasn't even visible from theline of police tape where
everyone gathered.
Students had a pretty good ideaof who had been killed.
All the murders had beenwitnessed and were were spread
quickly.
But so many stories had turnedout to be wrong so there was a
(00:49):
lot of doubt.
Everyone seemed to have atleast a few people unaccounted
for, and one of the studentssaid how can we cry when we
don't know who we're crying for?
And yet she had cried.
She had cried most of the night, she said, and by morning she
(01:09):
had run out of tears.
No one from the servicedepartment called Brian Robo.
No officer appeared on thedoorstep to inform him that his
son had been killed.
And so the phone woke, um brian,and it was a friend calling to
(01:33):
warn him before he pick up the,the newspaper the rock mountain
uh, rocky mountain news becausethere was a picture.
So of course brian grabbed thenewspaper.
He flipped past the hugeheartbreak headline, the dozens
of stories, the diagrams, thepictures of clenched survivors,
(01:53):
none of whom were his boy, andhe stopped at page 13.
It was an overhead shot from anews shopper, but the photo
filled half the page, so thesubjects were large and
unmistakable.
Half a dozen students huddledbehind a car in the parking lot
with a policeman squeezed inbeside them and squatting behind
(02:19):
the wheel for cover, and hisrifle mounted across the trunk,
eyes to the gun sight, finger onthe trigger.
And there was a boy that layunprotected on the sidewalk
nearby.
He was out in the open,collapsed on his side, one knee
(02:39):
curled up toward his chest, botharms splayed motionless.
The caption read his chest,both arms splayed motionless.
The caption read An enormouspool of blood nearly the size of
his body, stained the concretea foot away and trickled down
the crevice between two sidewalksquares.
The victim was unidentified,his face blurry and almost
(03:01):
completely obscured by the angle.
But Brian Roback knew.
He never turned to the nextpage and Danny, his son, was all
Brian had.
He and Sue had divorced whentheir son was four.
Sue had remarried but Brian hadnot.
(03:26):
He had his custom audio business.
It was successful and he lovedit.
But the best part was thatDanny did too.
He had been tattling around theworkshop since he could walk by
seven.
He was building wiringharnesses and running speaker
wire.
In junior high he startedworking for real weekdays after
(03:51):
school.
Brian and Sue had a friendlydivorce and lived only a few
blocks apart, but Danny couldnever get enough time with his
father.
The shop was such a cool hangoutfor a high school boy A big,
greasy garage filled with powertools and $100,000 vintage cars
up on blocks.
Danny helped fit them withopera caliber sound systems
(04:14):
worth more than his wealthierfriend's cars.
Depending on the product, theplace might reek of burned
rubber or prickly epoxy fumes.
When Brian manned the bustle,the sweet smell of fresh-cut
cherry wood wafted into thestreet.
Danny was a natural.
He loved cars and he lovedsound.
(04:35):
He liked to mess around withcomputer programs and was
promising to take the businessin a new direction, and he knew
how to behave.
Brian catered to some of theoldest and richest families in
Colorado.
Danny had grown up in theirhouses.
He knew the drill.
He was a charmer and Brianreveled in showing him off.
(04:58):
A few months ago Danny had cometo a decision.
College was not for him.
He would go straight into thebusiness from Columbine, make a
career out of it.
Brian was ecstatic.
In three years he would makehis son a partner.
In four weeks Danny was goingto spend his first summer
working at the shop full-time.
(05:20):
Wednesday morning, as soon as hesaw the picture, brian got in
his car.
He drove to Columbine.
He stormed up to the perimeterand demanded his boy's body.
The cops there said no.
Not only were they not turningDanny over, they had not brought
him inside.
Danny was still out there lyingon the sidewalk.
(05:44):
He had weathered the elementsall night.
Too many bombs.
The authorities said the bodycould be booby-trapped.
Brian knew he wasn't getting astraight answer.
Bomb squads had been clearingthe school since Tuesday
afternoon.
Brian's son just wasn't apriority.
(06:04):
Brian couldn't believe theywere treating a victim's body so
cavalierly.
And then it began to snow.
Donnie lay out on that sidewalkfor 28 hours.
Misty Bernard started Wednesdayat 3 am.
She had slept very little,drifting in and out Cassie.
(06:28):
She was having nightmares aboutCassie, trapped in the building
, huddled in the dark in somecloset or lying in the cold tile
floor.
Her daughter needed her.
She's over the fence a hundredyards away.
Misty thought they will not letus to get her and she's so
close.
(06:48):
She gave up and took a shower.
Brad did too.
They dressed and crossed thebackyard.
To the perimeter A cop wasstanding guard.
Brad told him that Cassie wasin there.
He implored the cop give it tothem straight.
He said we just want to know ifthere is anyone still alive in
(07:10):
there.
And the cop paused and hefinally said no, no one left
alive.
They thanked him.
Misty said that theyappreciated his honesty.
But Misty wasn't giving up.
The cop could be wrong orCassie might be lying in a
hospital, unidentified.
(07:31):
Misty kept trying the perimeterall morning, but she was
rebuffed each time.
Then the parents were alertedto return to Leawood.
Brad and Misty headed rightover and they waited for hours.
District Attorney Dave Thomasarrived around 1.30.
He still had the list of thedisease.
(07:53):
It had not changed, nor had itbeen confirmed.
The coroner required another 24hours, so he decided to risk it
.
He informed the families one byone.
He said I don't know how totell you this, and this is to
one of the parents by Colonelwhen he say this to him.
(08:15):
He said you don't have to, it'swritten on your face.
Misty took it hard but shedidn't take it definitely
Definitively.
Sorry, misty took it hard butshe didn't take it definitively.
The DA said that Cassie wasdead, but he also said it was
(08:37):
unofficial.
Hope gradually dissolved intoanger.
If Cassie were dead, mistywanted her body out of that
library and attended to.
Linda.
Sanders' family awaited thenews at her home by Wednesday
afternoon.
The house was packed withfriends and relatives.
Everyone knew what was coming.
News crews set up a roll ofcameras to capture the moment of
agony and a victim's advocatetold Melody, you need to be
(08:59):
ready, be prepared to supportyour sister.
A patrol car pulled up justbefore 3 pm.
The deputy rang the bell andMelody let him in.
Linda was still not ready tohear it and he said we have
(09:20):
tentatively identified yourhusband as a victim at Columbine
.
Linda screamed and then shethrew up.
Special Agent Frank DeAngelisdidn't know if he was safe yet.
He woke up at his brother'shouse on Wednesday because he
had been advised against stayingat his own home.
His car was sealed off insidethe perimeter so an assistant
(09:47):
principal was on his way to pickFrank up before dawn.
So he was heading for meetingsto figure out what to do.
And what on earth were theygoing to do and what could he
say?
They were coming to hear him at10 am.
Kids, parents, teachers, anyoneaching had been told to gather
at Light of the World, a largeCatholic church, one of the few
venues large enough.
(10:08):
They would look to him foranswers.
He had none.
Frank had lain awake much ofthe night grappling with it.
God give me some guidance.
He prayed.
Morning came and he was nocloser.
He was consumed with guilt.
He said quote my job is toprovide an environment that's
safe.
I let so many people down endquote Like 800 in every pew,
(10:34):
with hundreds more studentssitting at the walls.
Local officials took the podiumand turned, trying to console
the kids who were unconsolable.
The students applauded eachspeaker politely.
Nobody was getting through.
Mr D was settled for politeapplause.
He was hoping he wouldn't getlynched.
Did he deserve to be?
(10:54):
He had no speech, prepared, nonotes.
He just planned to tell themwhat he felt.
His name was announced, he roseto approach the microphone and
the crowd leaped up from thepews.
They were shouting, cheering,whistling, applauding Kids who
have not registered a smile or afun, for hours were beating
(11:15):
their palms together or pumpingtheir fists, fighting back tears
or letting them stream downtheir chins.
Mr D buckled at the waist.
He clutched his stomach andstaggered around, turning his
back to the audience, sobbinguncontrollably.
His torso was parallel to thefloor, shaking so hard.
(11:36):
It was visible from the lastrow.
He stood there for a fullminute while the crowd refused
to subside.
He couldn't face them, hecouldn't invite himself.
It was so strange, he saidlater, I just couldn't control
it.
My body just went intoconvulsions.
The reason I turned my back isI was feeling guilt.
(11:59):
I was feeling shameful.
He made it to the podium andbegan with an apology and he
said quote, I'm so sorry forwhat had happened and for what
you are feeling.
End, quote.
He reassured them and promisedto stand by them and then he
said quote, I will be there foryou whenever you need it.
But he refused to sugarcoat itwhat they were in for.
(12:24):
He said I would like to take awand and wipe away what you're
feeling, but I can't do that.
I would like to tell you thosescars will heal, but they will
not.
His students were grateful fortheir candor.
So many kids in Clement Parkthat morning would describe how
(12:44):
tired they already were ofhearing so many people tell them
that everything will be allright.
They knew the truth, they justwanted to hear it.
Mr D ended his speech bytelling them he loved them, each
and every one of them.
They needed to hear that too.
Kids were having trouble withthe parents, especially their
(13:05):
moms, and one boy said thatquote it's kind of hard for me
to sit at home, like when my momcomes home.
I try to stare out of the house.
Lots of other boys nodded moreand more, told their same
stories because their motherswere so scared and the fear had
not abated when they found theirkids.
Now they just wanted to hugthem, hug them forever.
(13:30):
Emotionally, their mothers werewildly out of sync.
At first the kids needed thehugs badly.
Now they needed them to stop.
Most of the student bodywandered the park, desperate to
unload their stories.
They needed adults to hear themand their parents would not do.
They found their audience thepress.
(13:51):
Students were wary at first,but let the guards down quickly.
Reporters seemed sounderstanding.
Clement Park felt like anenormous confessional Wednesday.
The kids would regret it.
In the midst of it, a shriekpierced the media.
Camp Mourners froze, unsure ofwhat to do.
(14:14):
More screams, different voices,same direction.
Hundreds ran toward them.
Students, journalists, everyonewithin hearing range.
They found a dozen girlsgathered around a single car
that remained among thesatellite trucks in a small lot
on the edge of the park.
It was Rachel Scott's car, thefirst girl shot dead.
(14:36):
Rachel didn't have an assignedspot so she had parked half a
mile from the school.
On Tuesday no one had come toclaim the car.
Now it was covered front toback with flowers and candles.
Messages to Rachel and Heavenhad been soaked across the
windows.
Her girlfriends held hands andsemicircled around the back of
(14:58):
the car, sobbing uncontrollably.
One girl began to sing andothers followed.
The Harris's and Klebold's bothhired attorneys.
They had good reason.
The presumption of guiltquickly landed on their
shoulders.
Investigators didn't expect tocharge them, but the public did.
(15:18):
National polls taken shortlyafter the attack would identify
all sorts of culpritscontributing to the tragedy
Violent movies, video games,goth culture, lacks, gun laws,
bullies, satan.
Eric did not make the list,dylan didn't.
Either they were just kids.
(15:40):
Something or someone must haveled them astray.
Were just kids?
Something or someone must haveled them astray.
Wayne and Kathy and Tom and Suewere the chief suspects.
They dwarfed all other causesblamed by 85% of the population
in a Gallup poll.
They have the additionaladvantage of being alive to be
pursued.
Their attorneys warned them tokeep quiet.
(16:02):
Neither family spoke to thepress.
Both released statements onWednesday.
That says, quote we cannotbegin to convey our overwhelming
sense of sorrow for everyoneaffected by this strategy.
The Clebos said Our thoughts,prayers and heartfelt apologies
go out to the victims, theirfamilies, friends and the entire
(16:23):
community.
Like the rest of the country,we are struggling to understand
why this happened and ask thatyou please respect our privacy
during this painful grievingperiod.
In quote.
The Harris's were more brief.
They said the following quotewe want to express our heartfelt
sympathy to the families of allthe victims and to all the
(16:46):
community for this senselesstragedy.
Please say prayers for everyonetouched by these terrible
events.
End quote.
Dylan's brother stayed home fromwork for several days.
Byron was nearly three yearsolder than Dylan but because of
Dylan's early enrollment, justtwo years out of school, he was
doing go-for-work at an autodealership washing cars,
(17:09):
shoveling snow, moving inventoryaround the lot.
It was an entry-level job.
His employers understood theneed for time away and the
spokesman said it's shocking foreveryone.
We're family here and we lookout for each other.
Our hearts go out to Byron,this kid's great Supervisory
(17:34):
Special Agent Fusilier's concernWednesday morning was the
conspiracy.
Everyone assumed the Columbinemassacre was a conspiracy,
including the cops.
It was just too big, too boldand too complex for a couple of
kids to half-imagine, much lesspull off.
This looked like the work ofeight or ten people.
(17:58):
This looked like the work ofeight or ten people.
Every attack of this magnitudespawns conspiracy theories, but
this time they appear sound.
The legacy of those theoriesand Jeffco's response to them
would haunt the Columbinerecovery in peculiar ways.
Wednesday morning Fusilierentered the ghastly crime scene.
Wednesday morning Fusilierentered the ghastly crime scene.
The hallways were scatteredwith shell casings, spent pipe
(18:21):
bombs and unexploded ornaments.
Bullet holes and broken glasswere everywhere.
The library was soaked in blood.
Most of the bodies lay undertables.
Fusilier had seen carnage, butstill it was awful.
The sight that really stunnedhim was outside on the sidewalk
(18:42):
and the lawn.
Danny Robo and Rachel Scottwere still out there.
No one had even covered themand years later he shuddered at
the memory.
Agent Fusilio arrived atColumbine as an FBI agent, but
he would play a more significantrole as a clinical psychologist
(19:03):
.
Fusilio would play the leadingrole in understanding the
Columbine killers.
But it was luck that drove himto the case.
If his son, Brian, had not beenattending that high school,
fusilier would not have evenbeen assigned to the
investigation.
In fact it's unlikely that theFBI would have played a major
(19:27):
role.
But because Fusilier arrived onthe scene, established a
rapport with the commanders andoffered federal support, fbi
agents would play a major roleon the team.
Columbine was the crime of thecentury in Colorado and the
state assembled the largest teamin its history to solve it.
Nearly a hundred detectivesgathered in DEFCO.
(19:48):
More than a dozen agenciesloaned out their best minds.
The FBI contributed more than adozen special agents a
remarkable number for a localinvestigation Agent.
Fusilier, one of the seniorpsychologists in the entire
bureau, headed up the FBI team.
Everyone else reported to JeffGalscate Batten, who was a
(20:14):
brilliant detective whose workon unraveling complex
white-collar crimes would serveher well.
She reported to Division ChiefJohn Kixbush, a rising star who
had just been promoted to seniorcommand.
Kixbush and Fusilier eachplayed an active daily role and
consulted regularly about theoverall progress of the case.
(20:41):
The team identified 11 likelyconspirators.
Brooks Brown had the mostsuspicious story.
Chris Morris had admitted tohearing about bombs.
Two others matched thedescriptions for third and
fourth shooters.
Those four perched atop thelist, with D Dylan's prom date,
roman Anderson, close behind.
(21:02):
Detectives plan to questionevery student and teacher in
Columbine, every friend,relative and associate of the
killers, past or present.
They have 5,000 interviewsahead of them in the next six
months.
5,000 interviews ahead of themin the next six months.
They would snap thousands ofphotographs and compile more
than 30,000 pages of evidence.
(21:23):
The level of detail wasexacting.
Every shell casing, bulletfragment and shotgun pellet was
inventoried.
55 pages and 998 evidence IDnumbers to distinguish every
shard.
The JFO command team hastilyreserved a spot for Fusilier in
(21:45):
the Columbine band group.
The killers had made a mess ofthe place without setting foot
inside it.
Abandoned books, backpacks,sheet music, drum and
instruments were strewn amongthe shrapnel.
The door was missing, blownaway by the SWAT team searching
for gunmen.
Much of the school lookedconsiderably worse.
(22:07):
Pipe bombs and Molotovcocktails had burned through
stretches of carpeting and setoff the sprinkler system.
The cafeteria was flooded, thelibrary unspeakable.
Veteran cops have staggered outin tears.
There were SWAT team people whowere in Vietnam who were
weeping over what they saw.
(22:28):
The detective team was movingin.
Every scrap of wreckage wasevidence.
They had 250,000 square feet ofcrime scene just on the inside.
Footprints, fingerprints, strayhairs, ungotten residue could
be anywhere.
Crucial DNA evidence might befloating through the cafeteria
(22:51):
and life.
Explosives might still bepresent too.
Detectives have stripped downEric and Dylan's bedrooms, left
the furniture, hauled out muchof the rest.
The Clevel House yielded someyearbooks, a small stack of
writings, but Dylan had wipedhis hard drive clean.
Eric's house provided amotherlode, journals, more
(23:15):
computer rants, an audio tape,videotaped budgets and diagrams
and timelines.
Eric had documented everythinghe would wanted us to know.
Adding to the sense of urgencyand conspiracy was a cryptic
message suggesting more possibleviolence to come.
Fusilier said, quote.
(23:37):
We went scrambling for daystrying to track that down.
End quote.
They searched the school forexplosives.
Again they raised the pressureon the probable conspirators.
The detectives conducted 500interviews in the first 72 hours
.
It was a great boost, but itgot chaotic.
(23:59):
Vatan was worried aboutwitnesses who were growing more
compromised by the hour fromwhat they read and saw on TV.
Investigators prioritizedStudents who had seen the
shooters came first.
Other detectives headed to thesuspect's childhood hometowns.
We'll be right back.
(24:25):
The bodies were finally returnedto the victims' families on
Thursday.
Most of the parents weredesperate to learn how their
child had died.
There were plenty of witnesses,but a few were tempted to
inflate their accounts and themore dramatic versions of their
story tended to travel.
The school set up a secondofficial gathering for students
(24:46):
on Thursday afternoon.
The megachurches were among theonly structures in the area big
enough to accommodate a crowdthat large, so the gathering was
held at West Bowes CommunityChurch.
Crowd that large, so thegathering was held at West Bowes
Community Church.
This session was to be informal, just a designated place for
students who wanted to find eachother in one place.
Mr D wasn't planning to speakuntil a counselor interrupted
(25:09):
his meeting with faculty downthe hall and they said Frank,
they need you, you need to goout there.
The students were awaiting hisappearance and when he walked in
they started chanting theschool's rallying cry, which he
had last heard at the assemblybefore the prom we are Columbine
(25:31):
, we are Columbine.
Each time they yelled moreloudly, confidently,
aggressively.
Mr D had not realized until heheard them what he had been
longing to draw strength fromthem too.
He thought he was there just toprovide it.
This time he decided to addressthe tears and he said Guys,
(25:54):
trust me, now is not the time toshow your manliness.
Emotion is emotion, and keepingit inside doesn't mean you're
strong.
That was the last time Mr Dworried about crying in public.
The big question facing theschool was how to finish out the
year.
These kids needed to get backtogether fast, but the cops were
(26:18):
not going to open that buildingfor months.
The administration decided torestart classes a week later at
nearby Chatfield High School,columbine's traditional rival.
Columbine would take over theschool in the mornings and
Chatfield would resume use inthe afternoons.
Classes would be shortened forboth groups until the end of the
(26:41):
school year.
Some people suggested that thebuilding be demolished.
Some parents insisted thattheir kids would never set foot
in that murder scene again, butothers pointed out that the
psychological blow of losingtheir high school entirely would
be much worse.
Reverend Bill O Mullen beganpreparing two funerals, john
(27:07):
Tomlin and Lauren Townsend, whohad been faithful members of the
Full Hills Bible Church Biblechurch.
When it was time for thefunerals, right, the kids kept
(27:28):
pouring into the churches.
What began Tuesday night as ameans to escape from their
parents and find each otherquickly became a habit.
Night after night they returnedto their churches in vast
numbers, kids who had not seenan altar in years.
For some it was a consciouschoice to look to God in
desperation, but most said itwas just a place to go.
(27:50):
The churches organized informalservices at night.
In the daytime they just openedtheir doors and gave the kids
the run of the place.
A handful saw a recruitingopportunity.
Anyone who drove to ClementPark and stayed a few hours
would find several flyers thatstack under the wiper blades.
We're here to listen and assistyou.
(28:11):
If you need prayer counseling,meals prepared free, hot
chocolate, coffee cookies can bewarm at Calvary Chapel.
Eventually, investigators wouldescort dozens of witnesses back
through the school to helprecreate the attack.
Mr D was first.
A few days after the massacre,detectives walked him down the
(28:34):
main hallway Dr Fusilier waswith him and they passed the
remnants of the trophy case andthe Angelis described it
exploding behind him.
They proceeded down thecorridor and he indicated where
he had intercepted the girls'gym class.
He recreated everything theshouts, the screams, the acrid
smell of the smoke.
(28:55):
None of that faced FrankDeAngelis.
He was cried out by this timeas stoic as the boys.
He was hoping to open up.
They turned the corner and Franksaw bloody smears on the carpet
.
He knew Dave Sanders had gonedown there.
He had not anticipated thestains and he said you could see
(29:17):
the knuckle prints.
He actually was on all foursand they were his knuckle prints
.
He was struggling.
It tore me up.
A trail of blood traced Dave'spath around the corner and down
the hall.
Detectives led Frank DeAngelisto science room number three.
(29:38):
Nothing had been disturbed andFrank recalled quote.
They took me into where Davedied and there were sweatshirts
there full of blood.
That got to me In the scienceroom.
Frank broke down again and heturned to Fusilier.
He said I was glad he was here.
Most FBI guys wouldn't havedone anything.
(30:00):
And Dwayne gave.
He said Dwayne, give me a hug.
Aside from witnesses, the besthope for cracking the case
seemed to lie in the physicalevidence.
The gun, first and foremost,dylan, was a minor.
(30:20):
Eric had just turned 18.
They had probably gotten helpsecuring the weapons.
Whoever turned up at the frontend of those acquisitions would
likely be conspirator number one.
Investigators worked paralleltracks, hunting them down.
Atf agents took the technicalangle.
(30:41):
They came up with a solidlifespan on the semi-automatics.
Eric's carbine rifle was lessthan a year old.
Rifle was less than a year old.
It had been sold originally inSelma, alabama, and it had made
its way to a gun shop inLongmont, colorado, less than an
hour from Denver.
They traced Dillon's Tech 9through four different owners
(31:02):
between 1997 and 1998, but thenthe records disappeared.
The third owner said he hadsold it to the Tanner Gun Show
but had not been required tokeep sales records at the time.
The shotguns were a biggerproblem.
They were three decades oldbefore serial numbers were
(31:22):
required.
They were impossible to trace.
The bomb squad disassembled andstudied the big bombs.
The centerpiece of Eric'sperformance was a complete mess.
They didn't understandexplosive reactions, according
to the deputy fire marshal.
He said they didn't understandelectrical circuitry.
Officials refused to be morespecific, arguing that they
(31:45):
didn't want to give copycats anyhints.
The deputy marshal summarizedthe primary mistake as defective
fusing.
Detectives were having more luckworking.
The suspects Chris Morris hadimplicated Phil Duran the first
day.
If they could believe Morris,that could explain several guns,
possibly all four.
(32:06):
Duran was playing innocent butthey knew they could crack him.
And then they heard from RobinAnderson.
Unloading her secret to Kellyon Tuesday night had not
appeased Robin's conscience.
Wednesday morning she calledZach again.
This time she told him.
And she told him another smalllie.
She said that he was the onlyone who knew.
(32:28):
And then she told her mom.
Robin's mom brought her down tothe school.
Jeffco had set up its Columbinetask force inside the crime
scene, headquartered in the bandroom.
Detectives interviewed Robinwith her mom by her side.
Two detectives traded offquestioning, one from the DA's
(32:48):
office, one from a nearbysuburbs police force.
They videotaped the session andthey were harsh.
The first time they asked aboutthe guns, robin visibly
recoiled, according to thedetective's synopsis of the
videotape, and she looked to hermom for support.
Did she buy the guns?
They asked no, she did not.
(33:09):
She went to the show with them,but they thought they bought the
weapons.
Why did they want them?
She said Dylan lived out in thecountry so she assumed they
wanted to hunt.
No, they never talked abouthunting people, not even as a
joke.
Detective asked her about theprom, the trench coat, mafia,
(33:33):
the killer's personalities, andthen returned to the guns.
It was a private dealer, shesaid the boys paid cash.
They didn't try to bargain,they just paid the asking price,
somewhere around $250 to $300 apiece.
No one signed anything and shenever showed an ID.
The shotguns had very longbarrels but the dealer said they
(33:57):
could cut them down.
The detectives began to pressher harder.
Dylan and Eric didn't reallyseem like hunters, did they?
And she said that Dylan livedin the mountains.
There were deer all over theplace and her dad owned a gun.
He never used it, but he hadone.
(34:17):
Lots of people had guncollections.
Eric and Dylan were into thatkind of stuff.
Why wouldn't they want one?
She would actually ask the boysif they were going to do
something stupid with the guns,she said, and they assured her
they would never hurt anyone.
Then they asked did Eric andDylan tell you to keep the guns
(34:38):
secret?
And she said yes.
And they asked her that didn'traise your suspicions.
And she said they were underage, it was illegal.
They had to hide it from theirparents.
Then they asked her where didthey hide them?
Her answer was she didn't knowabout Eric, but Dylan dropped
(35:01):
him off first and Eric put hisguns in the truck of his Honda,
so she assumed he stashed themin the house.
Later Dylan tried to hide hisin his bottom dresser drawer but
it was too big.
He stuck it in the closet buthe told her later that he cut
the barrel down and made it fitin the drawer.
(35:22):
They asked that Dylan arousesuspicions and she said no
because the gun dealer hadalready suggested it.
Robin said she never saw theguns again.
The detectives moved on and theyasked about a wide range of
subjects.
Eventually they got to theexplosives.
(35:44):
Have she has seen any?
Had she helped make any?
Had any of Eric and Dylan'sfriends assisted them?
And she said no, no, and maybeZach Heckler.
Zach, why Zach?
And she said well, because Zachhad told her he knew more of
what was going on.
(36:05):
She told him about the callwith Zach, about his admission
that he knew about the pipebombs.
And the detectives say howstrange.
Erin and Dylan went bowlingwith her every week.
Dylan called her every othernight.
They confided in her about theguns and yet they never said a
(36:26):
word about the pipe bombs andher answer was they must not
have wanted me to know.
So the detectives were likecome on, you're lying over and
over.
They mocked her about thedisparity.
The boys told.
The boys told sack about thepipe bombs but they never told
her and she said no, no, never.
(36:48):
That's what they were like whenthey wanted you to know
something, you knew.
When they wanted you in thedark, you stayed there.
They could get very secludedabout it, very isolated.
They kept on her.
The guns were an isolatedincident, she said.
(37:09):
And Zack, he didn't know mucheither.
He knew they were making bombsbut he had no idea what they
were up to.
And this interrogation went onfor four hours.
But Robin held her ground.
Bomb squads had been through theschool several times and found
(37:30):
nearly a hundred bombs ofdifferent sizes and composition.
Most exploded.
Some not Most were pipe bombsor crickets.
But one in the cafeteria stoodout.
It was a big white propane tankstanding upright, nearly two
feet tall.
It was wedged against aone-gallon gasoline can.
(37:51):
The most ominous part was thealarm clock.
There were remnants of anorange duffel bag, mostly burned
away.
The car bombs were alsodiscovered with more faulty
wiring.
The diversionary bomb in thefield was disturbing for another
reason it had blown shortlyafter being moved, suggesting
(38:12):
booby traps.
The diversionary bomb in thefield was disturbing for another
reason it had blown shortlyafter being moved, suggesting
booby traps, trip wires could beanywhere.
The FBI provided a group ofcrime scene specialists to
assist in the massive effort ofdocumenting the evidence.
At 8.15 on Thursday morning theteam slugged through the
cafeteria debris.
Hundreds of backpacks, lunchtrays and half-eaten meals had
(38:36):
been abandoned, many of themknocked over, cinched by fire or
scattered by explosions, andeverything had been soaked by
the sprinkler system which hadrun for hours.
Muted pagers, buried inside thebackpacks, beeped methodically
alerting the kids to phone home.
(38:57):
And as they walked an agentspotted a blue duffel bag, 10
feet from burnout orange bagwith the big mom.
It was bulging and sized to fitthe same contraption.
They walked over One of theagents' pressure pressed down so
they helped over a couple oftechnicians.
(39:19):
The officer was Mike Guerra,the same man who had
investigated Eric Harris a yearearlier.
He sliced open the bag.
They could see the end of apropane tank and an alarm clock
that matched the other.
There were still active bombsin here.
How many more?
They closed off the areaimmediately.
Had the propane bombs detonated, they would have incinerated
(39:43):
most of all of the inhabitantsof the commons.
They would have killed 500people in the first few seconds,
four times the toll in OklahomaCity, more than 10 worst
domestic terrorist attacks in UShistory combined.
For investigators, the big bombschanged everything the scale,
(40:05):
the method and the motive of theattack.
Above all, it had beenindiscriminate.
Everyone was supposed to die.
Columbine was fundamentallydifferent from other school
shootings.
It had not really been intendedas a shooting at all.
Primarily, it had been abombing that failed.
(40:30):
That same day, officialsannounced the discovery of the
big bombs and their destructivepowers.
It instigated a new mediashockwave but curiously,
journalists failed to grasp theimplications.
Detectives let go of thetargeting theory immediately.
(40:50):
Detectives let go of thetargeting theory immediately.
It had been sketchy to beginwith and now it was completely
disproved.
The media never shook it off.
They saw what happened inColumbine as a shooting and the
killers as outcasts, targetingjocks.
They filtered every newdevelopment through that lens.
(41:11):
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Next week we're going to learnmore about who Dylan Claiborne
and Eric Harris were.
Have a great week.
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