Key witnesses, investigators, and related persons who died after the shooting
This page documents a timeline of the deaths of key witnesses, family members, investigators, and other people relevant to the case whose deaths seem a bit too convenient.
April 29, 1999
Robert Patterson, a 19-year-old man who had spent time in jail hangs himself at his home in Wheat Ridge, CO. His mom told investigators she thought he did it because he didn't want to go to jail again. (10k, p.21470)
Unk, May 1999
Weeks after the massacre, Antuane Johnson, a close friend of the Shoels family, was shot to death in a parking lot. No charges were filed and the case was left unsolved. It's been said that Johnson was helping the Shoels family investigate the massacre and he simply "knew too much."
July 4, 1999
Colorado Secretary of State Vicki Buckley collapses and dies at age 51. She was close with the Shoels family and was helping them find the truth about the Columbine massacre.
July 4, 1999
A Jefferson County Sheriff shot and killed a man in Clement Park right next to Columbine High School. Officials never released the man's identity.
July 10, 1999
Key witness Corey Hager dies in a car crash at age 15. His sister told investigators he was at home having lunch, but Hager was seen with deceased victim Steven Curnow in the cafeteria before the shooting broke out. Hager was never interviewed.
May 6, 1999
Sean Brenner, a student attending a nearby school, commits suicide. A week after the Columbine shooting, he allegedly told a friend he felt guilty because he heard a rumor about the attack and never said anything. (10k, p.24945)
May 8, 1999
Actress Dana Plato allegedly dies of a prescription overdose in Oklahoma. Some say it was murder. Plato had been living with Rachel Scott's family for a while and had only been gone for a few weeks when she died.
July 10, 1999
Corey Hager, a Columbine witness who was seen with Steven Curnow in the cafeteria before the attack, dies in a car accident in his home town in North Dakota. When investigators called to interview him, his sister told police he wasn't at school during lunch and that he had recently died.
October 22, 1999
Wounded student Ann Marie Hochhalter's mother, Carla June Hochhalter, allegedly walks into an Englewood pawn shop with ammunition, asks to see a gun, loads the gun, manages to shoot herself in the head, and then shoots the wall before she dies. We are told the shop was full of people, yet nobody saw the incident. Reports for this incident have been unobtainable. Her "suicide note" has never been released and she is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
February 14, 2000
At or around midnight, Columbine students and sweethearts Nicholas Kunselman,16, and Stephanie Hart, 17, are shot to death at a Subway sandwich shop located 2 blocks South of Columbine High School. Nick was working a closing shift and Stephanie came to give him a ride home. Nick had only been working at the shop for a month at the time of his death.
Another employee drove by the shop around 1:30 a.m. and noticed the lights on inside and discovered their bodies. The windows were first reported to have been shot out, but video evidence from news clips shows no signs of bullet holes. The media reported this incident as a robbery, but no money was taken from the register and the security cameras just happened to be turned off.
Deceased victim Rachel Scott had previously worked at that Subway location and part of the Scott family (Beth Nimmo) shared a backyard with Stephanie Hart and her mother, Kelly Grizzell. Stephanie once baked a purple iced cake in the shape of a bucket hat for Rachel.
An 18-year-old girl by the name of Courtney Scott, Stephanie’s cousin, is reported to have discovered the bodies. Courtney comes to the makeshift memorial in the parking lot. It’s unclear if Stephanie is related to Rachel Scott’s family or if she just happens to have the same last name.
May 4, 2000
Columbine's basketball star Greg Barnes commits suicide in his home by hanging himself with the song "Adam's Song" playing on repeat. Barnes was one of the students who helped keep Dave Sanders alive in the science room. Nobody knew he was depressed.
Unk, 2001
According to the documentary Columbine - What Went Wrong produced by Phyllis Schlafly, former Columbine student Ben Kuhn hangs himself. Kuhn was a sophomore in 2001, but he isn't in the Social Security Death Index and has a record of living in Colorado and owning property as of 2024.
January 27, 2002
James Springer, Robert Zajac, and Erin Gollas are shot dead in an AMF bowling alley in Littleton. Allegedly, someone was seen leaving the area wearing a black trench coat.
December 2, 2002
Key witness Theresa Miller (Theresa Laura) dies from cancer at 44 years old. Miller was in the room with Dave Sanders throughout the incident. She also extinguished a fire in the science office next door after the shooters taped a Molotov cocktail to the window that detonated and broke the glass inward.
January 27, 2003
Jonathan Ladd, a witness who told the news about a bomb threat called into the school that morning, dies in a mid-air plane crash in Denver. The scene was immediately controlled by SWAT and nobody was allowed to go near the wreckage.
August 28, 2005
Outside witness and freshman Tiffany Lien, was shot to death along with her friend by her husband.
On the day of the attack, Lien was eating her lunch with a friend outside the school cafeteria on April 20, 1999, when they heard shots and saw two people get shot. They ran into a bathroom and heard a shooter screaming, "I hate you.” They eventually managed to escape to safety.
September 10, 2006
TIME Magazine reporter Tim Roche dies of multiple strokes at age 38. Roche was the only reporter allowed to view the Basement Tapes.
September 13, 2007
Trench Coat Mafia founder Joe Stair hangs himself with an extension cord in his grandfather's garage where he worked. His funeral was held the same day as the dedication for the newly built memorial.
September 25, 2007
Charles Luke Milam, Columbine class of 1999, dies in combat in Afghanistan. On the day of the shooting, Milam left the school to eat lunch at home around 11:00 a.m. and was blocked from returning to the school at about noon.
June 17, 2007
Littleton SWAT commander Sargent Bill Black dies of cancer at age 58. He responded to the shooting on 4/20/99 around noon. Black is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
November 16, 2008
Former Jefferson County Sheriff, Russ Cook, is found dead inside his home from unknown causes at age 59. The media reports that he had battled an alcohol addiction and implies that may have caused his death. Cook was elected after John Stone in November 2002 and resigned in July 2003. He was replaced by Ted Mink.
"I still don't know what the truth is with Columbine" said Cook, before his election victory in 2002.
Someone close in the community said Russ Cook was writing a tell-all book about Columbine when he died and implied that he suspects foul play in his death.
"He scared the bejeezus out of the powers that be in Jefferson County during the short period he was in office. For one thing, he talked to reporters without clearing it first with his handlers, a major departure from the hunkered-down stonewalling of the previous administration. And he was vowing to get to the bottom of the Columbine mess. ...he was pressured and felt betrayed by people he'd thought would help him through the dark hours. He talked about running for county commissioner and was writing a book about Jefferson County politics.
He was burdened with court appearances, and ....bad reactions to prescription medication. There was a lot more going on, I'm sure, than I was allowed to know. Other friends of his report similar experiences. Russ was turning into a recluse, they say..."
--Alan Prendergast
June 7, 2009
Former Jefferson County dispatcher Cindy Cline dies of an unknown short-term illness.
Cline was the shift supervisor at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office 911 call center during the Columbine shootings. She helped the center field hundreds of calls on April 20, 1999.
Unk, 2010
TCMer David Caravan dies of undisclosed causes, some say it was suicide.
June 15, 2013
Key witness, Matt DePew, is electrocuted while working on an electrical pole. DePew was hiding in the cafeteria with many other students and made several statements that contradict the official story. For example, he said a suspect said something like, “one’s coming in!” He also gave an interview on a radio show where he said his father, Wayne DePew, one of the first officers to respond, had pursued the shooters through the school and “did what he had to do,” implying that his father killed the shooters. DePew is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
September 8, 2006
Timothy Roche, a reporter for TIME Magazine, dies after suffering multiple strokes at age 38. He was the only journalist given access to watch the “Basement Tapes.” He wrote a big story on the tapes, which included a slew of quotes. When the story was published, Jefferson County claimed he agreed not to publish a story about the tapes and he was only shown the tapes for “background information.” Roche is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
November 11, 2010
Former Trench Coat Mafia associate, David Caravan, dies at age 29 of unknown causes. Caravan is described by Columbine’s financial secretary, Ramona Madden, as being "strange and intimidating."
May 18, 2019
Key witness and library survivor, Stephen Austin Eubanks, dies in his home of a drug overdose. Eubanks was an advocate for recovery and used his life story to inspire many people to get clean and sober. However, he apparently was still struggling. He became addicted to opiates after witnessing his best friend, Cory DePooter, get killed right next to him. Eubanks is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
May 1, 2001
Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan dies at 78 years of age. He served as Sheriff from 1984-2002 and was highly respected until he was arrested for trading meth for sex in 2011. Sullivan was also assigned to investigate Ron Aigner’s allegations that the Columbine shooters were raped during their January 1998 arrest. Sullivan is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.
July 22, 2006
Miceal McEwen, a former co-worker of the shooters at Blackjack Pizza, commits suicide at age 23. He is said to have had foreknowledge of the shooting and a series of “tragic events” eventually drove him to suicide.
December 26, 2006
Key witness Brandi Jo Malonson goes missing after leaving her parents’ house to meet with friends.
Malonson was a cafeteria witness who saw two suspects in trench coats enter the cafeteria and start shooting. She was friends with deceased victim Isaiah Shoels and Subway murder victims Nicholas Kunselman and Stephanie Hart-Grizzell.
"Brandi stated she saw a guy wearing a long black trench coat and a black ski mask inside the cafeteria. He was with another guy who was wearing a long black trench coat. The first guy had a gun inside his coat." (11k, p.3635)
According to investigators, the suspects didn’t shoot inside of the cafeteria at that time, and only one shooter was still wearing a trench coat.
Malonson is still missing to this day and her sister Monica (class of 1999) also died young.