Its been a week since the shooting. bell tolling for most of the journalists in this newsroom, theyve never covered anything that came close to being as horrific as this. It is a singular event in the history of connecticut. bell tolls narrator a week after adam lanza massacred 20 children and six adults at sandy hook elementary school, church bells tolled across the state. Memorials were erected to the 26 victims. President obama read out 26 names. But there was a 27th person murdered that day the gunmans mother, nancy lanza. Nancy lanza is the person adam was closest to in the world. She was the first person he killed. He shot her four times in the head while she was in bed, and then he went off to sandy hook elementary school. If we can begin to understand adams relationship with nancy, we probably can begin to understand adam. One of the things that josh and i talked about early on when we were given this assignment is the fact that it didnt seem like nancy was ever really mentioned as a victim in this case. We had heard a lot of Different Things about her through other news outlets. We werent even sure if they were true. We come to find out later that some of them werent. We knew there was some diagnosis, some. Deficit, some social deficiency, and how that complicated their relationship and what it took to bring this kid along, and some. To some degree what happened, those were our marching orders. There are going to be many obstacles in reporting the story. The cops arent saying much, theyre still sort of holding back. The Family Members in this case are very reluctant to talk. And adam left very little behind. Its surprising that someone in this era where almost everything makes an imprint can still leave very few imprints along the way. Theres been this firestorm of coverage and some of it was right, some of it was wrong. People are just worn out from having reporters knocking on their doors, calling their house. They see another reporter and they think, why would i want to talk to you after all weve been through . When i found out about the connecticut shootings, i closed the door to my office and just started to shake. Narrator from the outset, the question was raised again and again in the media was nancy a victim or was she to blame . Are there firearms around your house . Oh, my goodness, no. Having the child that i have i would never own a firearm. I would never have firearms in my house. And i think thats just a responsibility issue. Narrator the story begins in kingston, New Hampshire. Nancy Jean Champion grew up here, and in 1981 would marry peter lanza. Eventually they built this house on the champion familys land. They had a son, ryan, in 1988. And four years later, along came adam. The person that were going to talk to, he described himself as a dear friend. He seems to have been involved with her a lot before she left New Hampshire so i think he can tell us about life with adam in the early days. Narrator this is the first time that Marvin Lafontaine has spoken to the media. Tell me how you first met nancy . Through the scouts. Okay, do you remember what year she actually joined the cub scouts with the boys, what year it was . 94, 95. 199495. Nancy was there for every single meeting with her kids. She never missed one. Those kids were everything to her and she was very, very protective over them and i understand that. I was very protective over mine too. Just in terms of adam, what do you remember seeing . Just a quiet kid. Kept to himself. There was a weirdness about him and nancy warned me once at one of the scout meetings. She said, just so you know, and she said i know you wouldnt do this, but just so you know, dont touch adam. I go, well, i wouldnt touch him. She goes, i dont mean like that but i mean like dont do at a boy thing or shake his hand and say way to go, brother. She said, he just cant stand that. Did you ever see a reaction to touching . Yeah, hed become upset. Usually it would be one of the other kids, you know, one of the kids theyre kids, you know, they dont care and they touch him and, um, i dont know, he was angry with them. Narrator marvins and nancys Young Children were friends through the cub scouts. In this exclusive home video filmed by marvin, nancy helps her brother james, a police officer, set up a demonstration for the scouts. adam imitating dog bark he sounds like a dog. Narrator thats adam, age four and a half, walking towards the camera. Did she talk about special programs adam was in at school . She said he was coded. And describe coded to me . Iep, individual education plan. I could see it was bringing her down. She didnt know what to do and, um, theres a lot of counseling help available but not all of its good and she was very particular about who she would bring him to. She often didnt trust, you know, the intentions of some counselors, that maybe they didnt know what they were doing or they didnt understand the situation enough to help. Narrator children with disabilities are entitled to an individualized education program, known as an iep. For nancy, it would be the first of many efforts over the next decade and a half to keep a struggling adam on track. And then they decide to go to connecticut. It was her husbands idea, and she didnt want to go at first. Was it because he got the job at ge . Is that what it was . Yeah, he got the job. He made a lot of money, he was very successful. The good thing is that she said she thought the schools in connecticut were better. There was more stuff there to help him versus New Hampshire, and she was very pleased about that. Narrator it was 1998 when peters job took the family to the affluent suburb of newtown. They settled into the spacious home where nancy and adam would spend the rest of their lives. Nancy and marvin kept in touch by email. Friday, may 21, 1999, nancy writes to marvin adam is in two plays next week. Ryan was in one last night. It has been so cute to watch them rehearse. Adam has taken it very seriously. Even practicing facial expressions in the mirror the emails at one point do turn a little dark. She does talk about how she was ailing. She doesnt specify what her disease is, but on thursday, july 1, 1999, she writes my diagnosis was not good. There isnt a fancy name for my problem, just a genetically flawed autoimmune system. When it happened to my grandfather, it was so quick that nothing could be done. Six weeks. Its like living on top of a time bomb. I have told very few people and she highlights very in all caps and have not told even some people in my family to try to save people from unnecessary worry. Narrator it has been reported nancy had multiple sclerosis, but frontline and the Hartford Courant were unable to confirm. Wednesday, march 31, 1999, nancy writes ryans and adams birthdays are coming up. Ryan is having an old friend party and a new friend party. Adam is having only a new friend party, but he has 26 new friends adam is doing well here, and seems to enjoy the new school. What an adorable class, huh . And wheres your son . Wait, dont tell me. Im gonna guess, im gonna guess. There. No, thats adam. Oh, thats adam . Yeah. Narrator the new school adam was so fond of was sandy hook elementary school. He was six years old and in the first grade. Wendy wipprechts son miles, who is autistic, was in adams class at sandy hook. And was invited to his new friends Birthday Party. Wendy now has parkinsons. Adam had his sixth Birthday Party and invited a group of kids to go. Thats where i remember talking with nancy. Nancy was concerned about adam. He was shy, a little withdrawn, quiet. She was worried that perhaps he had some kind of neurobiological condition. Wendy, were there any support groups . Oh, sure. Did you ever participate in any . Sure. Did you ever hear whether nancy did . None of the ones that i was in, but she was talking about sending adam to st. Rose because classes were smaller and she thought he might do better there. Did she say why she thought he needed. I think it was his shyness and uncomfortableness, i guess, in large social situations. A class of 20 people is a lot for a sixyearold to handle. So did he not have a oneon one aide like miles did . No. He may not have been diagnosed with anything at the time. What can pass inspection at six often is not going to pass inspection, say, at nine. But at whatever age, even if youre merely suspicious, its a kind of awful thing to have to deal with. So nancy, she sort of did it on her own. What do you think that would have been like for you to do it on your own . Oh, impossible. Narrator soon after moving to newtown, tensions develop between nancy and her husband peter. In her emails to Marvin Lafontaine, she described him working 16hour days and growing distant. on phone this is Alaine Griffin calling from the Hartford Courant. Narrator the Hartford Courant has made repeated attempts to reach peter lanza. Its probably tough to talk to the media, but we were hoping to get in touch with you because we feel you can help us to correct what has been reported out there in terms of this story. We have reached out to multiple Family Members. There wasnt anybody that wanted to go on the record and speak with us but we developed along the line was a Family Member who was willing to give us an email that gave us some really good information about adam that had not been out there before. We learned through this email that while peter and nancy did get divorced in 2009, peter actually had been out of the house in 2001. Peter lanza continued to support his family financially. Narrator the email also said that adam as a young boy had been diagnosed with sensory integration disorder a not widely accepted diagnosis involving difficulties processing and reacting to stimuli. Later, in middle school, the Family Member said adam would receive another diagnosis aspergers, a form of autism that interferes with social interan. I want to talk a little bit about the middle school years. Because isnt this when we start to hear about adam having problems that go beyond just the diagnosis of sensory integration . We were told around middle school. The middle school years. Right. There was the initial diagnosis, and then the diagnosis of aspergers. And that goes to. Social isolation, inability to communicate with others. But theres nothing, theres nothing that connects aspergers to the kind of violence we saw at. Absolutely nothing by itself, absolutely nothing. Family members have told us that when middle school came upon adam and the whole idea of changing classes and being in the hallways, that was too much for him. Why . Do we know why . The noise and the chaos disrupted him, is what we were told. So she moves him out of the Public School system and into st. Rose of lima . She didnt move him into Parochial School right away. Initially she had this special program set up for him. He was under the supervision of newtown schools, but he would do some of his work offsite and at home. And then he would later return to the school when the rest of the students werent there. Okay. And after st. Rose of lima, though, back to Newtown High School, which is a big school. So why if movement and, and people being around him are a problem is he back at newtown high . I dont know. We dont know . Narrator changing schools again, adam arrives at Newtown High School in 2006 and receives special education help. Though painfully shy and awkward, he joins the School Technology club at the urging of the clubs advisor, richard novia. I knew him for about four years, between the middle school and the high school. I identified him as a person who would be likely to be bullied or picked on and thats when i began to interact with his mother. How was it that she was dealing with him and what could i do . And what did she say about that . She was failing at bringing him out of his little world. And i said that i think i can help him. What was her reaction to that . She didnt think it would work. How often do you recall nancy being on campus on a weekly basis . There were periods of time where i think i saw her two or three times a week, and then youd have a good month or two and id see her once. Why would she typically be there on a two or three. . Adam had episodes, it was the best way i can describe them to you. Uh, where he would completely withdraw. He would become accustomed to certain things and when you try to raise that level or bar, he would pull back. You mean a change . Yeah. He would avoid the crowds in the halls. People rushing to the cafeteria, rushing to get to classes that would make him nervous. Where he felt fearful of other people. But over time i was able to get closer and closer to him to a point where i felt i could sit next to him and he wouldnt pull away. He wouldnt withdraw. Did nancy acknowledge that and let you know that she recognized that . Yes, she saw it working. Did you get a sense that in his development he was at a crossroad . I think adam had come a long ways. Theres a picture out there that shows him standing up with the other kids. Theres this funny little face on him. Hes not quite smiling. I was there when those pictures were taken and i can tell you that to have adam stand for that picture proves there was success. So the problem happens after. He goes backwards. Narrator these photographs were obtained exclusively by frontline. News reports to the contrary, nancy never spoke of disagreements with the school and believed adam would grow up to be a functional adult, according to the Family Members email. The relative went on to describe adam as brilliant, saying he played the saxophone and studied mandarin chinese. And yet, in 2008 nancy removes him from newtown high. When you left for other pursuits in july of 2008, did you learn that nancy took adam out of high school . Yes. Why do you think she pulled him out . I dont know. Ive pondered this issue for a long time, ive often wondered if she felt one of his main support networks was no longer there. I dont know. So you dont feel like youre in a position to know whether that was a good idea or a bad idea . It was a bad idea either way you have a boy who was receiving a tremendous amount of support. Suddenly when she pulls him out of there, he loses all those support groups. Thats where he would have fallen farther and farther into his problems because he didnt have the Mental Health support group that he once had. Richard, when it was observed that adam in high school was playing violent video games, did anyone try to dissuade him . A lot of kids were playing violent video games. Adam had shown at that point early on some high interest in the violent aspect of those games. You know that first hand . I remember that he would love to. He would opt to sit on the computer playing games like that rather than to go play ddr, which is dance dance revolution. You would remember what game he may have played . My best of my recollection, and some people have said there are other games too, but it was world of warcraft at that time. Theres a lot better games now. Did it ever come to your attention that nancy was into shooting sports . No, that shocked me to hear that nancy would have had anything to do with guns. What we understand is that she did shoot with ryan and adam at a range. Yes, that was a mistake. Why, richard . I have a child who loves to do the hot rod driving simulator on the tv, playing the video games. I should have been able to foresee that my son loved the speed when i bought him his first car. And it wasnt a couple of weeks after that that he got ticketed for 100andsomething Miles Per Hour on a town street in newtown and i went well, okay, that was my mistake. You own firearms . Yes, i do. And you believe shooting with ryan and adam was a miake . Yes i think it was a mistake on her part. And it cost her her life, and thats the sad thing. It cost her her life, that mistake. Narrator having left newtown high, adam, who was still only 16 years old, begins taking classes at western connecticut state university. The email from a Family Member says nancy was pleased to see him in a more adult environment. But soon adam withdraws from that school, too. What were looking at is this string of changes, and we understand that change wouldnt have sat well with adam because of his disposition, his disorder. His life was marked by change. Nancy struggled to find an educational fit. Public school, private school, Public School again. Home school, high school, no high school, college, no college. 2009, the divorce happens after years of being separated. 2010 comes and adam cuts off his relationship with his dad. He didnt have much to do with ryan after that either. So there is some isolation there. Narrator after adam leaves college, information about his life is hard to come by. This part of his life was difficult to get a fix on because he wasnt in a place where others could say, yeah, i saw him, yeah, i did this with him, yeah, he did that. We understand that he worked at a computer shop. We havent been able to find the one that hired him. No, i didnt see him in here. But it could have been someones house, it could have been a small shop. We did learn that nancy was working to make her son more independent. She was going on trips and leaving adam at home. She was very excited at the fact that he got his drivers license in 2010. She was the dominant and perhaps only significant relationship in his life. Until the end. Narrator the courant has learned that investigators have speculated privately that adam may have carried out the shooting in a manner consistent with video gaming, changing his weapons magazine frequently, even though it was not empty. Federal agents have told reporters that nancy and adam visited shooting ranges together as recently as several months ago. She was doing a lot of work on her house. We talked to a contractor who spoke about nancy taking the boys to the range. She excitedly showed him a rifle that she had acquired in a case, a beautifully crafted piece that he said she was very enthusiastic about. Narrator starting in 2010, she purchased guns that adam would use at sandy hook elementary school, including the bushmaster assault rifle. But guns were nothing new for n