Adam Lanza: Report Probes Dark Interior Life of The Sandy Hook Shooter

Five months before Adam Lanza committed a massacre of school children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he wrote to a cyber-acquaintance that his interest in mass murder has been “perfunctory for such a long time,” according to an investigative report released Friday.

“The enthusiasm [I had] back when Virginia Tech happened feels like it’s been gone for a hundred billion years. I don’t care about anything. I’m just done with it all,” Lanza wrote on July, 23, 2012.

An investigative report released Friday by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate details some of the treatment that was offered to Adam Lanza years before he committed the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and it says he was in email contact with a group of mass murder enthusiasts prior to the attack.

Lanza went to Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 armed with an AR-15 rifle and other firearms. He killed 20 children and six educators. Before going to the school he shot his mother Nancy Lanza in the head. He committed suicide before police could reach him.

The report says that multiple medical professionals at the Yale Child Study Center told Lanza and his parents years before the Sandy Hook shooting that he could be treated for psychological issues, but that recommendations went largely unheeded by Lanza’s mother.

Lanza had a clear history of mental health problems that included a preoccupation with violence, at least as early as fifth grade.

At 114 pages, the report is the most detailed publicly available document that chronicles Lanza’s life starting from early childhood and ending with an inconceivable level of bloodshed at Sandy Hook Elementary.

The report was painstakingly put together by state officials as well as psychiatric and other experts to help shed light on what led to the Sandy Hook shooting and includes details as minute and specific as the inventory of books found in Lanza’s room.

“A Recipe for Mass Murder”

The report authors concede they can’t definitively answer the question that has been on many people’s minds since Dec. 14, 2012: Why?

“There is no way to adequately explain why AL [Adam Lanza] was obsessed with mass shootings and how or why he came to act on this obsession. In the end, only he, and he alone, bears responsibility for this monstrous act,” the report went on to say.

Despite that perhaps unsatisfying conclusion, the report strings together a series of circumstances that shed new light on Adam Lanza, his perforated mental health care and his relationship with family members.

Lanza had a clear history of mental health problems that included a preoccupation with violence, at least as early as fifth grade, when he authored “The Big Book of Granny,” a book he published in fifth grade that dealt with the murder of children, cannibalization and taxidermy.

The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit determined that Lanza’s obsession and attention to detail with mass killings was “unprecedented” after a forensic review of his computer usage.

Lanza’s early obsession with violence that was apparent as early as fifth grade was only exacerbated by access to a cyber world that glorified mass murders, the authors wrote. This was not good, especially in the absence of meaningful social interaction with others. Lanza also had access to firearms.

“Replacing these influences was a narrow group of peers who exerted no positive, regulating force on AL,” the report said. “Unlike normalizing influences and positive community peer groups, his cyber group would have had little willingness or ability to stop his dangerous trajectory or to offer cautioning feedback to him about his impulses.”

Lanza’s early obsession with violence that was apparent as early as fifth grade was only exacerbated by access to a cyber world that glorified mass murders.


Three days before the shooting Lanza wrote an email about mass shooters and said that he didn’t understand why the Aurora movie theatre shooting was considered a big deal. He wrote that using pistols felt “just (sic) right” as opposed to other methods such as vehicular, remote explosives or knives.

The authors are quick to note that those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other psychiatric problems that Lanza had rarely engage in outward violence, especially to Lanza’s level. Those with the disorders are far more likely to internalize issues.

“Individuals with those mental health or developmental disorders are more likely to internalize (that is, to feel distressed emotionally or to be confused, socially inappropriate or inept, and sometimes to harm themselves inadvertently or intentionally.) than to externalize (that is, to act out aggressively …”

Lanza became increasingly despondent and anxious five months before the shooting as his mother Nancy Lanza prepared a move away from Newtown. Physically, his reality was confined to his home and things as simple as a repairman disrupting that norm would greatly irritate him. His communication with friends and family members was limited to his mother and even then communication was only done through email.

Authors of the report note that Lanza was not obviously psychotic in the time period leading up to the shooting, but that he did grow increasingly isolated.

“Lanza increasingly lived in an alternate universe in which ruminations about mass shootings were his central preoccupation.”


He had fully stopped communicating with his father in 2010 and stopped speaking with his one and only friend over the summer of 2012 after a dispute over a movie.

“AL [Adam Lanza] increasingly lived in an alternate universe in which ruminations about mass shootings were his central preoccupation,” the authors of the report wrote.

Lanza’s constructed reality, called a “prosthetic environment” by the Yale Child Study Center was about to wink out of existence with the planned move away from Newtown; his mother mentioned to at least one friend she was considering moving to Washington state or North Carolina.

“The looming prospect of moving from Newtown may have increased AL’s anxiety, as he may have worried about where he would go or live, and the loss of the sanctuary he had developed in his home. This was quite possibly an important factor leading to the shootings.”

However, the report asserts that Lanza didn’t just “snap” and that his massacre was planned out; he visited the school’s website on numerous occasions and viewed the student handbook and security procedures at the school.

Authors of the report noted that mass shooters are likely to target places or people familiar to them and that they tend to pick easier targets because they don’t want to be thwarted.

Missed opportunities for treatment:

At least one medical group realized the gravity of Lanza’s multiple mental issues.

The Yale Child Study Center recommended extensive educational supports, consultation and rigorous therapeutic support, but the recommendations went largely unheeded.

Lanza visited the center in 2006; he was a 9th-grader at the time. His father sought help through his company’s Employee Assistance Program. Lanza was also seeing a community psychiatrist at the same time, something a Yale psychiatrist and an advanced practice registered nurse were not aware of the concurrent treatment at first.

He told a psychiatrist he did not want to have more friends and that he didn’t understand what a friend was. He didn’t like to touch doorknobs and would not allow his mother to lean on things because he thought it was improper.

The psychiatrist urged anti-anxiety medication, but Lanza refused. He wrote that Lanza’s constructed social and education world was concerning.

He was living in a box, she said, and that box was only going to get smaller over time if he didn’t get treatment.


He went on to note that creating a “prosthetic environment” for Lanza posed significant risk and that those around Lanza should work to help him overcome social difficulties instead of forming a bubble. He noted the family needed “tons of parental guidance …”

Nancy Lanza said she felt horrible during the Yale interview process and that her son was frustrated, angry and anxious and that she felt that he was being tortured.

An APRN told Adam Lanza that he had a psychological disorder that could be helped with medicine. He was living in a box, she said, and that box was only going to get smaller over time if he didn’t get treatment.

Adam Lanza eventually did take a small dose of an anti-depressant-anti-anxiety medication in February 2007. His father was strongly in support of it. The APRN noted in later police interviews that Nancy Lanza was “non-compliant” and that she reported Adam had a reaction to the medicine including decreased appetite, nausea, dizziness and disorientation. She also reported he had trouble raising his arm.

The APRN said it wasn’t possible that the medicine would prevent Adam from raising his arm, but that other symptoms could be managed with time and proper dosing. Nancy Lanza said her son would be discontinuing the medicine.

Eventually Lanza attended high school, but the report noted Lanza’s needs were classified on curricular issues instead of social and emotional ones. The Yale psychiatrist had previously warned against this.

The authors of the report suggested that there were multiple service providers for Lanza and his family, but there was no clear coordination. Yale Child Study records and notes from a community psychiatrist weren’t present in Lanza’s school record.

They went on to note that the uncoordinated care of Lanza across multiple medical providers, parents and the school system wasn’t all that unusual. The authors recommended that the system as a whole has to work better together.

Although Nancy Lanza often placated to Adam’s desires, the authors wrote it was important to note that she was grappling with her own emotions regarding the complexities of raising a child with significant needs.

Adam wrote in an email to his mother that she will gain nothing from regretting life decisions and that she should think about what she wanted to do today. The conversation apparently emerged from Nancy Lanza’s having said she regretted not going to college and other life choices.

He also wrote that he tried to do things for her, such as buying and installing more memory for her computer.

She wrote back and said she felt overwhelmed by circumstances, but was grateful that her ex-husband helped support her financially after the divorce and that both Adam and his brother would have their college educations paid for. She also thanked him for working on the computer and said he should tell her in the future so she could give him credit where it was due for helping.

Gun Access

The report’s section on firearms and mental illness is less than two pages long. It notes that Adam Lanza had access to firearms as he grew-up. His father said in police interviews he didn’t know his wife had been buying her own guns and assumed they were rented for shooting activities.

He eventually learned Adam Lanza had access to guns when he took him to a shooting range and he showed up with two long guns.

The authors go on to cite a 2010 study in the American Journal of Law and Economics that showed gun-related homicides in Australia dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006 and firearm-suicide dropped 65 percent following meaningful gun control regulations that outlawed possession of assault weapons following a mass shooting.

“Access to assault weapons with high capacity magazines did play a major role in this and other mass shootings in recent history. Our emphasis on AL’s (Adam Lanza) developmental trajectory and issues of mental illness should not be understood to mean that these issues were considered more important than access to these weapons or that we do not consider such access to be a critical public health issue.”

Lanza’s grade school years

A classmate of Lanza’s described him as being a little “awkward” in elementary school. However, Lanza seemed to enjoy being a kid when he was 8 or 9-years-old his father said, according to the report.

He took part in school activities, including a school play and attended boy scouts. He also played baseball for two seasons.

During a 2006 psychiatric evaluation, when Lanza was 14, he said that he only participated to appease his mother and that he took no joy in the activities.

Lanza’s parents separated in 2002. His father said in a 2014 New Yorker magazine article that he felt the separation didn’t affect Adam because he saw him as much as he normally did due to his hectic work life.

Lanza was documented to be at reading grade level and above grade level in math in first grade, but he had a vocal articulation disorder and weak fine motor skills. Some teachers noted he was hesitant or reluctant to participate in the classroom, while other adults described his peer relationships as normal.

He received intervention for his impairments, but the amount of time was concluded to be inadequate by authors of the report.

By third grade, records reflect that Lanza was a “good citizen” in school and would answer questions in class, but would not ask many himself. He exited special education by fourth grade and it was reported he had no error sounds in speech, but according to the authors of this report that didn’t speak to his challenges with expressive language and ability to communicate.

In fifth grade Lanza and a fellow student listed as a co-author published the disturbing book called “The Big Book of Granny,” which was filled with images and narrative of child murder, cannibalism and taxidermy.

The book was spiral-bound; authors surmised that this may have meant that an adult helped professionalize the work.

The co-author, who is now an adult diagnosed with a mental illness and is purportedly living in a residential setting, said the book was for a creative writing project.

“There is no clear indication in the educational records that school staff carefully reviewed or were otherwise explicitly aware of the contents,” the authors of the report wrote.

“Mental health professionals contributing to this report determined that the content of ‘The Big Book of Granny’ can only be described as extremely abhorrent and, if it had been carefully reviewed by school staff, it would have suggested the need for a referral to a child psychiatrist or other mental health professional for evaluation,” authors wrote.

Lanza went on to attend Newtown Middle School, but during 7th grade he struggled with social, emotional and communication. Intensity increased and he was withdrawn from school.

He then transferred to a local Catholic school where he reportedly became obsessed with religion.

One teacher reported that Lanza didn’t participate in class and when instructed to write a page or two about what they wanted to talk about, Lanza would write 10 pages about battles, destruction and war.

He eventually was withdrawn from that school as well and did not return to school in 8th grade. He did return to school in 9th grade and was at first slowly eased back into school life with the help of individual tutoring.

An Individualized Education program, also called a Planning and Placement Team composed of teachers, Lanza’s parents and other professionals team met in January of 2007 during his freshman year. He was classified as eligible for special education under the primary disability of Other Health Impairment, instead of the more apt Autism or Emotional Disturbance category, according to the report.

His education plan was crafted almost entirely without reference to his social-emotional difficulties. A district psychologist and the Yale Child Study Center communicated after the IEP meeting. Another IEP occurred in May 2007, but no reference was made to Yale recommendations.

Lanza continued onto 10th grade and integrated more with other students. Records reflected an ongoing underestimation of his actual disabilities. A community psychiatrist diagnosed him with Asperger’s Syndrome, but Yale Child Study Center clinicians did not conclude that he definitely had the disorder. He did however have severe anxiety and extensive needs, according to the Yale diagnosis.

Lanza took several classes, but that didn’t last beyond a few months. He joined the technology club and socialized with members and the club’s faculty advisor.

Lanza then entered 11th grade and was educated between classes and tutoring. He acquired enough credits to graduate a year early.

He also took classes at Western Connecticut State University during 11th grade.

After that time Lanza increasingly became more isolated, according to the report. He would sometimes play Dance Dance Revolution with his brother and his one friend.

His one friend told investigators that the two talked about a number of topics including computers, chimp society, human nature, morality, prejudice and occasionally about family members. They also occasionally talked about mental health or depression, but Lanza never indicated he was diagnosed with anything.

According to the friend, Lanza was capable of emotion, laughing, smiling and making jokes, but wasn’t overly expressive.

The two also shared a mutual interest in mass murderers and serial killers. The relationship ended in June 2012 after an argument.

Lanza’s research on his computer about mass murderer’s began in 2011 and accelerated from there. In July 2012 he wrote to a cyber acquaintance about his interest in mass murders and his “enthusiasm” over the Virginia Tech mass shooting. He also said, “I don’t care about anything. I’m just done with it all.”

The authors didn’t have answers as to whether Lanza’s mother ever monitored his Internet usage.

“It may be that AL (Adam Lanza) fostered and nurtured his obsessive interest in mass murder because there was no parental oversight of his online and electronic activities … However, authors must emphasize that supervision and at least awareness of an adolescent’s online activities is very important, particularly so when the youth’s mental and physical well-being is already in question.”

Lanza’s mother also indicated that she planned to move either to Washington state or North Carolina. She indicated to a friend that if she moved to Washington she would enroll her son in a “special school.”

A friend also told investigators that Nancy Lanza told her that Adam hadn’t left his room for three months and that he would only communicate via email.

Adam Lanza sustained a head injury the night before his mother was to leave for a trip to New Hampshire. She did end up going on the trip and returned on Dec. 13, 2014, one day before the shooting.

Lanza had visited the Sandy Hook Elementary school website on numerous occasions and viewed security procedures at the school, according to the report. He had a purposefully thought-out and planned attack and didn’t just “snap.”

Although authors said they couldn’t definitely say what led him to commit such an atrocious act of violence, they do note there was a cascade of events.

He was no longer attending school and he didn’t have a job. His one relationship with a friend was severed months before the shooting, he had virtually no contact with his family and was in virtually complete isolation. He may have also feared losing his home in Newtown and that there would be a change of relationship with his mother.

Meanwhile, his primary obsession became about mass murders, and he found a group of like-minded individuals online.

He had “profound anorexia,” weighing in at 112 pounds despite being 6-feet-tall. His mental health needs weren’t being addressed.

One of the reports primary authors, Dr. Julian Ford, of the Department of Psychiatry, Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice at the University of Connecticut Health Center, said in a press conference Friday that many recommendations on how to treat Lanza went unheeded and that his mother wanted to keep him sheltered and didn’t think recommended treatment would work. He was also experiencing increased isolation, which was likely another factor.