Family holds quiet funeral for gunman's mother in New Hampshire
Family of Nancy Lanza pay their last respects in New Hampshire as other victims are laid to rest
As the funeral processions unfolded this week across Newtown, Connecticut, laying to rest victims of last week's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the massacre's often-uncounted first victim - memorialised: Nancy Lanza, the mother of the killer - was quietly remembered.
An official source in New Hampshire confirmed that a private funeral, attended only by her family in an undisclosed location, had been held for Nancy Lanza, 52, on Thursday.
"About 25 family members attended," said Donald Briggs, police chief in Kingston.
The service probably occurred near Kingston, the New Hampshire town where Lanza grew up, married her high school boyfriend and bore the couple's two sons before moving to Connecticut in 1998.
Her family in New Hampshire has kept a low profile since the killings of 20 first graders, six school staff, and Lanza herself catapulted them into national scrutiny.
Lanza's mother, Dorothy Hanson, a 79-year-old former school nurse, broke down and could not speak when contacted by a reporter. Her brother James Champion, a longtime law enforcement officer in Kingston, had planned to read a statement to the media but was unable to do so. Rockingham County Sheriff Michael Downing read the statement instead.