Sandy Hook Shooter Adam Lanza Had No Drugs, Alcohol In System

Toxicology tests show that Adam Lanza had no alcohol or drugs in his body when he shot and killed 20 first-graders and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14.

The tests were conducted as part of the autopsy by state Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II. Sources said his final report has been turned over to state prosecutors and investigators.

Law enforcement sources familiar with the test results said that Lanza, 20, had no traces of alcohol or any illegal drugs such as cocaine or marijuana in his body. The sources also said that there is no trace of antidepressants or anti-psychotic medications.

A toxicology exam searches for trace amount of hundreds of drugs from aspirin to antidepressants. Sources said testing for marijuana is a specific, separate test which Carver ordered in this case.

It is unclear whether Lanza took medication or used illegal drugs or alcohol. Search warrant records released by state police do not indicate whether drugs or alcohol were found when investigators searched the Newtown home Lanza shared with his mother. Lanza shot and killed Nancy Lanza in the home before he went to the school.

The warrants do indicate that unspecified medical records were found. Law enforcement sources have said that Lanza received some psychiatric care at an unspecified point and that state police obtained those records.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner in New York City, said it could take a few days or more for drugs to leave a person's system. Anti-psychotic drugs would take the least time, with some drugs such as marijuana taking longer, he said. Baden said the clean test for Lanza would seem to indicate no drugs were involved in the planning of the shooting.

"Whatever made him do this there weren't drugs involved,'' Baden said. "It was something else that made him decide to act out what was on his mind and start planning it."

Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole said she wasn't surprised to learn that Lanza had a clean toxicology test, noting that shooters in other recent mass killings also tested clean. Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho, for instance, had been prescribed Prozac but had no traces of the drug in his system after the attack, she said.

O'Toole said that other mass shooters have had histories of antidepressant use but acknowledged going off their medications because they "wanted to have a clear head" during their attacks.

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Sandy Hook Shooter Adam Lanza Had No Drugs, Alcohol In System