Newtown: An American Tragedy Read Online Free PDF Page A

against her after conceiving Adam; she said she earned consistentlyhigh marks on job evaluations for eight years, and it was only during her pregnancy—with bouts of morning sickness and other complications, including hypoglycemia—that her performance began to suffer. Nancy was forced to take a medical leave of absence while the company was going through departmental changes, but she was apparently told that she would still have a job after the restructuring. Just as she was about to return from maternity leave in 1993, Nancy learned she was among the employees who would be let go. She brought a suit against the company and the case was eventually settled.
    In addition to winning this settlement, Nancy and Peter had their marriage blessed by tremendous financial success—Peter landed a highly paid position in Newtown with General Electric; so ultimately, the responsibility of raising the two boys fell primarily on Nancy.
    The couple’s clashing personalities made them seem an off pairing to friends: Nancy was vivacious and passionate, arguably too much so at times, while Peter was more private and steered clear of social gatherings, preferring the comfort of his work to the company of others.
    “Peter worked all the time. He would leave for work before the children woke up and not get home until after they’d gone to sleep,” said Nancy’s friend Marvin LaFontaine. “Nancy never complained about it, but it was obvious that she had a lot on her shoulders. She was essentially a single mom, but that was something she took great pride in.”
    It wasn’t long after making the move to Newtown that theirmarriage began to fall apart. In Nancy’s view they both had shortcomings.
    “Peter has the wonderful ability of being able to talk to anyone, and get along with anyone in the short term. He is definitely very focused on his career, and rarely socializes . . . but when he finds himself forced into a social situation, he does very well,” Nancy wrote to a friend in an email on March 12, 1999. “Let’s not confuse the ability to seem friendly and sincere with the real thing. He can chitchat with someone and seem like best of friends, and then later say some of the most awful things about that person. It is pretty funny, really. One night I asked him if he could think of ANYTHING nice to say about ANYONE (personal . . . someone handling a business deal at work well would not qualify). He was silent for about five minutes . . . I thought he was ignoring my question. Finally he said, ‘Reagan was a good president.’ It took him that long to think of something nice to say, and even then, it wasn’t at all personal! He has few friends . . . no hobbies . . . but he certainly excels at his job.”
    In another email she wrote, “Peter works incredible hours . . . he leaves at 5:00 to 5:30 in the morning and gets home usually around 10:00. Sometimes he comes home early . . . 7:30 . . . and sometimes later . . . 12:00. Major workaholic . . .”
    In the same email thread, Nancy turned her critical eye inward: “I definitely am a very different person depending on the setting. I can come across as being very reserved in a group setting, but tend to relax more in small, intimate groups or with close friends. I tend to be more critical and judgmental . . . but I am like that all the time, not just in public or private. My dearest friends know that I am likethat . . . some other, more distant people might take me for a bit of a snob . . . but who cares about them? The best thing (I think) about me is that if I don’t like someone, I never feel the need to pretend or be fake about it. Everyone knows where they stand with me.”
    By 2001, now settled in Newtown for thirteen years, Nancy asked Peter to move out. He would move back in twice more over the next seven years, but the couple couldn’t seem to make it work. Friends said it was Nancy who wanted the separation and eventually the