Examining Dr. Chris Colwell's Contradictions
He found imaginary bodies in a chair and the hallway, and made statements that don't match the crime scene documentation
Dr. Chris Colwell was the physician from Denver Health who pronounced everyone dead inside the school. However, his statements deserve a close examination because they don’t track.
Dr. Chris Colwell is not a name discussed often enough, which is surprising given the odd nature of his descriptions of the scene. What he says he saw in the library doesn't match what we have been told.
You would expect Colwell to tell a story that matches the official story, documented evidence, crime scene diagrams, notes, and summaries. However, that's not the case. Colwell is THE biggest reason to question the official narrative.
Colwell presents six major problems:
He stated that a victim was found slumped over in a chair, which contradicts the crime scene documentation.
He told reporters that a suspect was discovered dead in the library wearing a trench coat, which contradicts the crime scene documentation.
He stated that one of the suspects was found with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, which contradicts the crime scene documentation.
He stated one student was found dead while holding a pencil, which was documented as Matt Kechter in the evidence logs, but Matt’s parents were told that wasn’t true.
He stated that he pronounced a victim dead in the hallway just outside the library door, which contradicts the crime scene documentation. This couldn't have been Sanders since he was found in a science storage room that was far from the library entrance, and Colwell acknowledged Sanders in this location.
Colwell is said to have marched into the school with an ad hoc SWAT team he gathered, against police orders, to pronounce everyone dead, as if he was performing some heroic act to respect the dead. However, a statement from the officer who invited Colwell into the library says otherwise.
Problem #1: Colwell says a victim was found slumped over sitting in a chair
Denver Post, April 20, 1999
Who was slumped over in a chair? According to the official documentation, nobody was found in a chair.
The official crime scene documentation says Kyle Velasquez was shot while sitting in a chair, but his body was found on the floor.
p.12303, Library Documents, Team 2
Did Colwell’s story about finding a body slumped over in a chair come from the story of Kyle having been shot while sitting in a chair? It’s obvious to me that Colwell is just telling a story rather than sharing a real experience since Kyle isn’t dead, and that will be addressed in another post.
Here is the location where Kyle allegedly died. Note the bloodstains on the carpet. Although this is fake, the scene was set up as if Kyle died on the floor, not in the chair.
The location where Kyle Velasquez allegedly died on the floor.
So, who did Colwell pronounce dead while slumped over in a chair? A ghost? Or maybe it was supposed to have been Dave Sanders, and they changed the script without informing Colwell?
Was Dave Sanders supposed to have been the victim slumped over in a chair?
According to Jeffco, when SWAT members Beaulieu and Whitus found Sanders in the science room at 2:40 p.m., they called for a paramedic. After waiting 30 minutes for the paramedic, they decided to try to move Sanders out of the building on their own. They put Sanders in a chair and pushed him through some back doors into a storage area - room UA-24 . Right about then, the paramedic arrived and said Sanders was dead.
However, the crime scene documentation states that Sanders was found on the floor, supine. Colwell’s story does not track.
Problem #2: Colwell stated that Dylan was found wearing a trench coat
Colwell stated that a suspect that can only be Dylan was found dead wearing a trench coat. Colwell stated that one suspect was found wearing a bulletproof vest, and the other was wearing a trench coat. Eric was the only one wearing a bandolier, which could have been mistaken for a bulletproof vest. That means the suspect described as wearing a trench coat could only be Dylan.
Denver Post, April 20, 1999
According to the official crime scene documentation and crime scene photos, neither Eric Harris nor Dylan Klebold were found wearing a trench coat. Eric’s coat was found outside the school by the fence, which he is said to have dropped within minutes of the start of the incident. And Klebold dropped his coat on the floor in the library long before he allegedly died, in a completely different area.
Klebold’s trench coat where he dropped it on the opposite side of the library from where his body was allegedly found.
So, which shooter was wearing a trench coat when Colwell pronounced him dead? Another ghost?
Was Dylan supposed to keep his coat on the whole time, but decided to ditch it and go off script?
Problem #3: Colwell stated that a suspect was found with a gunshot wound to the back of the head
Denver Post, April 20, 1999
According to the official crime scene documentation and crime scene photos, neither Eric Harris nor Dylan Klebold were found with a ‘massive’ gunshot wound to the back of the head. Eric was reported to have shot himself through the roof of his mouth (from the front) and the (fake) photos imply that he shot half of his face off. A physician experienced in treating gunshot wounds like Dr. Colwell would not mistake a shotgun blast to the mouth for a shot to the back of the head.
Was this supposed to be Dylan? No. Dylan was reported to have shot himself in the temple with a 9mm bullet, which Colwell acknowledged. Even if Colwell was high on drugs and mistook Dylan’s temple for the back of his head, he would not have described that wound as '“massive.”
So, who was the suspect shot in the back of the head? Yet another ghost?
Problem #4: Colwell stated one student was found dead while holding a pencil
Seacoast, December 15, 2010
According to Colwell, along with some of the documentation, Matt Kechter’s body was found holding a pencil. However, additional documentation shows that when his parents asked investigators for the pencil, they said he wasn’t found holding a pencil and there was no pencil to recover. Was Colwell just reciting a scripted story?
I will need to add screen shots of these details later when I locate those pages.
Problem #5: Colwell pronounced one victim dead in the hallway just outside the library door
Colwell said there was a victim laying just outside the library door, whom he pronounced dead. Who could this have been? Colwell said he pronounced 12 students and one teacher dead inside the school with Dave Sanders having been found in the storage room. Everyone else was in the library. I mean, that’s where they put all the bloodstains and name placards, and that’s what the documentation says.
Denver Post, April 20, 1999
According to the official crime scene documentation, no victim was found in the hallway outside the library. Was Sanders supposed to have been “found” in the hallway, but he went off script and ended up in a storage room?
Sanders wasn’t found anywhere near the library hallway
Here is a map of the second level where the library and science wing are located. The "X" marks the office where teacher Theresa Miller extinguished a molotov cocktail. After being injured, Sanders was pulled into room SCI-3, as indicated on this map. He was later moved to the storage room UA-24 (where he was found), which is visible at the top of this map and marked “STORAGE” :
Here's a view of where the storage room is with the library and hallway in the same view. That's a long distance between the two locations. Sanders couldn't have been the victim in the hallway lying just outside the library door, but that may have originally been part of the script.
Who was this hallway victim? Another mysterious ghost?
Problem #6: Colwell is said to have marched into the school with an ad hoc SWAT team he gathered, against police orders, to pronounce everyone dead
Several law enforcement officers have stated that Colwell did not have permission to go into the school to pronounce everyone dead, and that he was ordered to stay out, but he gathered his own team of SWAT members and marched into the school against orders, risking his life because they were told to shoot to kill.
According to the handwritten testimony from Denver police officer and member of the Bomb quad, James Collier, he was the one who sought out Colwell and personally led him into the library where he pronounced everyone dead. There was no SWAT involved, and Colwell was asked to do this.
Collier’s statement was not included in the documents released to the public. How convenient.
Additional oddities
Colwell made a strange statement to the Denver Post. He said he went into the school at 4:34 p.m. and “I picked 4:45 to be the time of death.” What does he mean he picked 4:45 to be the time of death? Exactly who died 11 minutes after he entered the school? Everyone died hours before.
Denver Post, June 13, 1999
How does an experienced ER physician who treats gunshots on a daily basis, pronounce everyone dead, and then tell a story so different from the official crime scene documentation?
If I had to guess, knowing that nobody died here, I’d say he’s simply reciting a script and many small details in the story were changed afterward. We were never given a handwritten statement from Colwell or even a second hand summary. Another coincidence?