Newtown and Columbine Funeral Directors Share Common Bond

Funeral homes and houses of worship in Newtown, Connecticut have set up staging areas for the media in town to cover the burials of shooting victims.  The scene there is bringing back vivid memories for at least one funeral director out West.  

The scenario playing out in Newtown is all too familiar to Daren Forbes with Horan and McConaty Funeral Homes in Colorado.  He says they cared for six of the people killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting, plus one of the assailants.  

"We had services where 2,000 people plus, were in attendance.  We normally will hold a service...a funeral service...where 150, 100 people will attend."

Forbes says the media frenzy also added to the intensity of handling those funerals.

"When we talk about the staff trying to manage that...everything's amplified...everything's different."

Forbes says his thoughts and prayers go out to the families of victims in Newtown, as well as to the funeral directors.  He says he knows their task is professionally and emotionally draining.