'Heartbroken' Father of Girl Killed at Sandy Hook Dies

The father of a first-grader killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings was found dead Monday. Police say the cause of death isn't known yet, the Hartford Courant reports, but it appears that Jeremy Richman killed himself. Avielle Richman was one of the 20 first-grade students and six educators killed by Adam Lanza in December 2012. The body of Jeremy Richman, 49, was found in a Newtown building where he had an office. Police found a note, per the Connecticut Post, but haven't disclosed its contents. "He was a brokenhearted person, as we all are," the father of another of the first-graders said.

A website for the foundation founded by Richman and his wife, Jennifer, says Richman was a neuro-pharmacologist. He left his job to work at the Avielle Foundation, which advocates for brain research in an effort to prevent violence. "He had such a clear purpose of what he wanted to do to honor his daughter," a relative of another Sandy Hook victim told the Courant. "I'm sitting in my car right now crying." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who came to know Richman after the shootings, said, "The cascading harm done by that savage, unspeakable act reminds us of the trauma that’s caused—and the after-effects." (Two survivors of the Parkland school shootings in Florida have died in apparent suicides this month.)