The father of Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults in a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. has claimed his son's body.
Peter Lanza collected his son's corpse on Thursday, according to Lanza family spokesperson Errol Cockfield.
As is usually the case with mass shooters, the funeral home conducting the preparations and burial has not been disclosed.
The funeral will likely be a quiet affair, and the younger Lanza will probably be laid to rest in an unmarked grave, to prevent defacing by the public.
After the shooting, Peter Lanza released a statement expressing his regret.
"Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones and to all those who were injured," he said. "We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We, too, are asking why."
On the morning of Dec. 14, Adam Lanza killed his mother Nancy in their Newtown home. He took three of her guns -- a Bushmaster .223 rifle, a Glock handgun and a Sig Sauer handgun -- before driving her car to Sandy Hook.
Before entering the school, he donned a bulletproof vest and a mask, then forced his way past the security door.
He killed every child in a single classroom as well as their teacher, then killed some children in another room before he turned a gun on himself.
Victims' families and the public often blame the family of the shooter, insisting there must have been some way they could have foreseen or prevented the tragedy.
"Families are often blamed," said James Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University.
"If they didn't have a role in creating the dysfunction, people feel they should have seen something and intervened. It's not fair to blame them. They are not to blame, but it's the truth."
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