On the Sunday between Dylan's funeral and Cassie's, 70,000 mourners gathered in a parking lot to listen to Franklin Graham, among others, proclaim the gospel. Marxhausen, now nearly 70, is a burly, plain-spoken man who arrived in Littleton in 1990, and built St. Philip Lutheran Church into a thriving, mainline congregation with more than 1,000 members. Sue Klebold broke down in tears as she remembered the funeral of her son Dylan. Dylan was a malleable person, and whenever we talked about something he would come around to my point of view, and so in my mind it was an effective conversation, she said. Friends and family pass by Columbine High School student Isaiah Shoels' open casket before his funeral in Denver, Thursday, April 29, 1999. Try again later. Later that afternoon the mother discovered that her son was dead, and remembered 'groaning' with emotional pain out loud while watching the news. How do you preside over the funeral of a 17-year-old boy who went to school one Tuesday morning and, with his good buddy Eric Harris, massacred 13 people just for fun? [Dylan] never talked that way to me. But I never thought it would hurt that much.. But it made the killers anti-heroes. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. You can become a member, create a memorial, submit data, add flowers, add photos and search our database at no charge. So much of what was reported about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold right after their April 20, 1999 attack on Columbine High School was wrong. For more information, please see our You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search. In the days since the attack, police, parents, students and others here and across the country have wondered what motivated the pair, what toxic mix of influences and experiences left them so enraged and hopeless. For yearsafterward, forensics experts have toiled in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania, hoping to salvage and identify the remains of those killed. Please, Login or Sign-up to post your comments. She hasnt practiced since she left her childhood home. Sorry! I was very unstructured about it, she said of religion. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. ", But at West Bowles, the Cassie legend was not thenand is not nowa matter of debate. Funeral homes and cemeteries, funeral directors, products, flowers etc.. Sysoon is a free resource for finding the final resting places of famous folks, friends and family members. She discusses her own humanity as well by outlining her blindness to her sons depression and unhappiness, and to his plan to kill. You absorb everyone elses pain, and after a while that catches up to you, big time. Still, he concedes, he left when his church needed him most. A family lawyer came. A buddy finally persuaded Kirsten to go to the VA hospital, where he was diagnosed as being 80 percent disabled with PTSD. Burying the pepetrators of mass killings can be complicated, for good reason. According to Klebold, he reveals this frustration on The Basement Tapes. Then, she said, Eric Harris stops and says, I didnt know you were Jewish, after which Dylan Klebold seems to turn fearful that Harris might target him. She told me she remembered Foster suffering a backlash after saying Kaddish for her son, but Foster doesnt remember that. But authorities also fear that graves could become a place of worship for those who supported the individuals actions. Image by Courtesy of the Klebold Family. Yet the Rev. This was emphasized both by the congregations former spiritual leader, Rabbi Judith Beiner, now of Overland Park, Kan., and its current president, Daniel Rothschild, in comments to the Intermountain Jewish News. Pregnant Princess Beatrice dresses her bump in a 340 Self Portrait frock as she joins husband Edo and aunt Sophie Wessex at Wimbledon in first official outing since announcing she's expecting, Off to the races! Dylan Bennet Klebold was born on September 11, 1981, in Lakewood, Colorado, to Thomas and Sue Klebold. "People were missing the big point," says Kirsten. The search has turned up remnants of at least 13 of the men responsible, according to the New York Times. "That's where I think I started getting in trouble with my church," says Marxhausen. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. She also fell into the preachers arms and cried,she had lost her baby and all that ran through her head is that she hadnt been a good mother. The expression on Dylan's face was unfamiliar, which Byron later confessed made it easier for him. Dylan lay in the casket surrounded with Beanie Babies. And so when a desperate Tom Klebold phoned, the pastora liberal-minded Lutheranagreed to arrange a private service. ___"They thought they had been good parents," Don Marxhausen added. We will remember him forever. Memorials are rich with content, including dates, photos and bios. The quiet group huddled around an open California grave Tuesday, flanked by armed FBI agents. 'If I saw Dylan face to face and I could ask him anything, I would ask him to forgive me for not being the mom that he deserved,' said Sue. Each funeral was special in its own way, just like the person who was buried. The funeral home and chapel where Dylan Klebolds private viewing took place in Denver,Colorado. God was everywhere after Columbine. On Saturday, the Denver Rocky Mountain News carried an interview with her hairdresser, Dee Grantz, who said that Susan had spoken to her about her shock at her sons deed. Dylan Klebold and Ryan Harris killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. 205 Can I pick and choose? The body of Leon Czolgosz, who shot and killedPresident William McKinley, was doused in sulfuric acid until it disintegrated. This decision has haunted him ever since. This account has been disabled. Failed to report flower. Image by Courtesy of the Klebold Family, By Britta Lokting But journals found by police told a differentstory, and Sue was devastated and shocked after discovering the mental anguish her son was in - with passages describing the mental 'agony' he was in and detailing his forms of self-harm. She isnt aware of any synagogue in Littleton, and a Google search doesnt turn up results. Dylan recited the Four Questions at a Passover seder recently held at his family home, yet he was buried in a Lutheran service on Saturday. Information about the funeral process. The basics of personal finance, like How to save for a house. Figure out your next step toward financial freedom. With millions of names, it's an invaluable tool for genealogists and history buffs. which Sues friend talks about having worked with Dylans mother for a couple of years prior to helping her arrange her son Dylans cremation. When he came back in September, "it was clear this wasn't my church anymore," he says. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. Christ always goes where its darkest. He had survived a helicopter crash in Vietnam; two months later he had watched as fellow crew members aboard the USS Enterprise burned alive. Long-time friends arrived; one couple was from my church. Since the tragedy at Columbine High, Susan Klebold has given several indications, indirectly to local media, that she considers herself a Jew. Failed to delete memorial. There was a problem getting your location. They didnt do this, their son did. Brian Rohrbough, whose son, Danny, was among the first to die that day, continues to believe that propagating the Cassie legend despite contradictory evidence exploits the grief of all the families in Littleton. She attended a Reform Jewish synagogue and went to church with her grandmother. Theirs is one burial, it seems, that truly no one wants to see. In a room where Dylans body was in a coffin, I met his mother, Sue. Her attorney attended his synagogue. The answer is blowin in the wind, Synagogue, Lutheran church heal wounds of history, Crowds throng funeral of Israeli-American man killed in West Bank, 80 years later, Thessalonikis documentary film festival to pay tribute to deported Jews, Why we at Shaar Zahav support reparations for slavery, A queer Purim musical that jabs at antisemitism through song, Wikipedia tackles alleged conspiracy to distort Holocaust history. His mother on the other hand wondered how he could be anti-Semitic, as he was half Jewish and she being full. "I was becoming somewhat toxic with my visibility and extrovertedness.". My disbelief turned into sadness as I learned that John Tomlin, a boy from my church, Foothills Bible Church, died in the library that day. Don Marxhausen believed that. But the public's only glimpse into their psyches has been through the blurry lens of their schoolmates whose perceptions of the two varied widely. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Columbine high school shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold appear in this video capture of a surveillance tape released by the Jefferson County. In 2003, Kirsten relinquished his pulpit, though he remains the senior pastor at West Bowles. As Sue and her family talked and told stories of their son and brother, I was given the opportunity to hear of the caring, loving side of Dylan that most people will never hear about.. But Tom [her now ex-husband] and I knew exactly what had happened in our home all those years we parented Dylan, and we were equally sure the answer wasnt there, she wrote in the book. The Social Security Death Index includes over 200 million citizen death records. Would I do a funeral for his son? The story of Cassie's martyrdom instantly became legend at West Bowles. On April 20, 1999, I watched the television in disbelief as the tragic events unfolded at Columbine High School. After Dylan's funeral, he described the killer's parents as "the loneliest people on the planet" to The Denver Post. His hands were folded on his chest, and stuffed animals surrounded him. So to have the entire credibility of it washed away, that hurt.". GREAT NEWS! Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. "Franklin Graham was beating me up through my TV," he says. These ideas of morality and religion simmer underneath Klebolds recounting of her sons life in the years before the shootings. Columbine High School. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Klebold said she didnt find it odd that her son wore a floor-length leather jacket, as she herself had tried to be different by wearing cowboy boots and moccasins when she attended private school from first to 12th grade. The mythology was that they were Nazis and Goths, and it was wrong, and people still believe this is fact, even though there is no evidence to show this was true, she said. Of course I wish these horrible things never happened, but certainly I'm grateful I've reached a place where life is okay and there's plenty to be thankful for. Families fear the burial place will be defaced by people upset over the actions of the killer. cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. ", The two couples, declining to speak publicly, have issued statements expressing sorrow for the school attack and asking to be left alone by reporters. Cassie Bernall, a Columbine junior, had been shot in cold blood as she crouched under a library table, and word was that in her final seconds she answered her murderer's question and affirmed her belief in God. Thanks for your help! Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. Toms sister and brother-in-law were the only other family members. "Cassie Bernall deserved to have a book written about her, but if there was reason to believe that it wasn't truthful, then it's a disservice to her memory and to the community. There were fewer mourners than there might have been, Reutersreported many who knew the dead refused to attend. He is half Jewish as I am all Jewish. So it went for a half an hour or more. After the Columbine tragedy, she had a fleeting thought that if her son had had a formal religious upbringing, he might not have killed a dozen people and himself. She's spent years excavating every detail of her family life, trying to understand what she could have done to prevent her son's violence. Kirsten was there for all of it. In his sermon, Marxhausen spoke of Gods love. The Washington Post Company. . cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. My heart broke for Sue because I knew she was a good person and a good mother, and that her life would never again be the same. 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