EP. 61 CONNECTICUT - The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hyundai has an award-winning range of electrified vehicles, all covered by America's best warranty. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric, fuel cell. Hyundai has them all. It's your journey. Own every mile with Hyundai electrified vehicles.

Get up to $37.50 total savings on the IONIQ 5 Visit buyhyundai.com or see your Pacific Northwest Hyundai dealer. Offer ends May 31st. Call 714-568-7676 for offer details.

Colin Browen (0:30)

Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

Courtney Shannon (0:42)

Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

Colin Browen (0:48)

This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. Right here at the beginning, we need to add an additional content warning for this episode. We will be discussing a mass shooting that involves the.

It's one of the most disturbing true crime stories in American history, and it's a story that we were very hesitant to tell. But as we approach the state of Connecticut, it was hard to ignore one of its most tragic mass murders, the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary.

SPEAKER_4 (1:30)

Here at Murder In America, we tell stories that describe the violence in our country.

Courtney Shannon (1:37)

This episode discusses the deaths of children, many children, and listener discretion is heavily advised.

SPEAKER_4 (1:40)

This message is from the superintendent of the Newtown Public Schools.

Courtney Shannon (1:48)

Thank you.

On December 14th, 2012, hundreds of students and faculty walked into Sandy Hook Elementary thinking it was an average day. It was the last day before winter break. So the children were excited.

Unlike in high school where your last days are filled with finals, the elementary school children were celebrating and having Christmas parties. Some classes were making gingerbread men, others were singing Christmas carols, and eventually all of them were hiding from the gunmen walking through their hallways.

It was an eye-opening day for America when we learned that 26 people were killed inside of an elementary school. It was a tragedy that we never imagined would happen. We knew there were monsters here. We've seen it time and time again flash across our news screens. Mass shootings are unfortunately a big part of America. We've seen them at our places of work, our malls, movie theaters, concerts, and even in our high schools. But one place that many people assumed was off limits were our elementary schools. Children that age are innocent. They haven't lived long enough to make real enemies or to even understand the true horrors of this world. We all knew there were monsters here, but December 14th, 2012 opened our eyes to a whole new kind of monster. A monster that sought out to harm the most innocent people in our society, our children. This is the story of the Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre. I'm Courtney Brown.

Colin Browen (3:19)

And I'm Colin Browen.

Courtney Shannon (3:21)

And you are listening to Murder In America.

Colin Browen (4:25)

It's December of 2012, in the community of Newtown, Connecticut. Christmas was just around the corner, and houses everywhere were covered in holiday decorations. Like many people throughout the US., the people of Newtown were spending the week putting up Christmas trees, making plans to visit family, and catching up on some last-minute Christmas shopping, which is exactly what Neil Hesslin and his six-year-old son Jesse Lewis were doing that evening before the massacre. You see, Jesse had asked his dad if they could go shopping for Christmas presents.

He wanted to pick out the perfect gift for his family, and of course, his first-grade teacher. Jesse's father would later say in an interview that he spent the evening walking through the aisles of a local Walmart, looking at Nerf guns, toy soldiers, and action figures. But as much as Jesse wanted those toys for himself, he put his focus on the gifts that he wanted to buy for his loved ones. Neil would later say, quote, he put thought into it and was proud of the gifts he picked out, end quote. Jesse left the Walmart with four Christmas ornaments, one for his mom, one for his brother, and two for his teacher, Mrs. Victoria Soto.

Courtney Shannon (5:22)

The next morning, Friday, December 14th, 2012, Jesse got ready for his last day of school before winter break. After getting dressed, Jesse would sit at the kitchen table with his dad and eat his favorite breakfast, a sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich with a side of hot chocolate. Jesse was excited for the day ahead. Not only was he giving his teacher her presents, but his dad was also coming into his class later that day to help decorate gingerbread houses.