New Investigation Remembers Adam Lanza's Most Forgotten Victim
The investigation, a special project from PBS' Frontline and The Hartford Courant, aired Feb. 19.
Adam fatally shot his mother Nancy Lanza in December before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he shot 20 kids and six teachers before killing himself.
However, Nancy Lanza has been virtually forgotten as a victim of her son's horrific rampage. As AP pointed out in December, few memorials have been created in her honor, and many blame her for keeping the guns used in the massacre in her home.
But "Raising Adam Lanza" painted a sympathetic picture of a mother who had been struggling since her first son, Ryan Lanza, was born to provide a good life for her boys.
Throughout her pregnancy with Adam, Nancy Lanza reportedly suffered from "severe morning sickness" and ultimately developed hypoglycemia.
Nancy Lanza claimed in a lawsuit that her pregnancies also caused her to be discriminated against, and ultimately lose her job, at John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Boston.
In her lawsuit against John Hancock, Lanza said she had "episodes of physical pain, distress, headaches, insomnia, crying spells, nausea and increased nervousness," according to the investigation.
The investigation goes on to detail Nancy Lanza's difficulty communicating with a battalion of counselors, all of whom had different ideas about the best way to treat Adam.
Nancy Lanza "could be at the high school as many as two or three times a week dealing with Adam's behavior issues," Adam's former teacher Richard Novia told PBS and the Courant.
The investigation also explores Nancy Lanza's emotional struggles while trying to help her younger son.
"He was very sensitive to touch and didn't want to be touched," her friend Rich Collins said. "That used to hurt her. She would get upset about that."
The investigation also touches on Nancy Lanza's mistakes as a mother of a child with special needs, namely keeping guns in the house.
"It's a serious mistake, first of all," Novia said of that decision. "If you have a child in the home with mental disorders, or learning disabilities, to have involved him with guns in the first place would be bad."
Check out excerpts from the investigation for yourself: