In the quiet community of Littleton, Colorado, 16-year-old Kelly Ann Fleming was beginning to find her voice. Having moved from Phoenix, Arizona, with her family just 18 months prior, the shy teenager was blossoming, telling her mother only two months before her death, 'I'm not shy any more.' An aspiring author and songwriter, Kelly often found solace in the Columbine High School library, where she would pour her thoughts and dreams onto paper, crafting poems and short stories that often found their way to happy endings. She was even meticulously writing her autobiography, having chronicled her life up to the age of five. Her creativity was a defining feature, a passion she shared with a trusted math teacher who saw beyond her quiet exterior.
On April 20, 1999, Kelly was in her favorite haven, the school library, likely using the time to write. That day, the library transformed from a place of quiet contemplation to one of unimaginable terror.
Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a deadly assault on their classmates and teachers. As the chaos erupted in the library, Kelly hid beside a table with several other girls. The gunmen moved through the room, firing seemingly at random. From under the table, shots were fired, injuring two of the girls with Kelly and killing another, Lauren Townsend.
The shooters momentarily moved to another part of the library before returning their attention to the area where Kelly was hiding. Crouched in the open with nowhere to take cover, she was shot in the back by Eric Harris with a sawed-off shotgun. Her life, filled with the promise of stories yet to be written and songs yet to be composed, was cut tragically short. Her body was later found near Lauren's.
The suspects in Kelly Ann Fleming's death were her fellow Columbine High School students, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17. Their deadly rampage through the school resulted in the deaths of 12 students and one teacher before they both died by suicide in the library. There were no arrests to be made as the perpetrators took their own lives, leaving a community and a nation to grapple with the devastating consequences of their actions. Kelly was laid to rest with two teddy bears in her arms, a symbol of the innocence lost on that horrific day.
