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Posted: 12:51 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17, 2012
By Doug Page
Staff Writer
MIAMI TWP. —
Friends, family and neighbors in Miami Twp. and Connecticut sought Monday to protect the privacy of a township couple whose 6-year-old granddaughter was killed in Friday’s school shooting.
William and Joyce Wirtz were in Sandy Hook, Conn., to comfort their daughter and son-in-law, Cheyanne and Benjamin Wyatt, according to neighbors. None wished to speak further.
Allison Wyatt was one of the 20 young children slain in the mass shooting. Six adults were also killed by the assailant, who took his own life at the school.
When a crew from WHIO-TV pulled up the Wyatt home, about 21/2 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, two people were standing in the driveway crying and hugging. The two went inside.
A Connecticut state trooper answered the door at the home. He said neither family nor neighbors were available to comment. Reporters also were told a state trooper was assigned to each of the victim’s families.
Allison’s former day care teacher, Kate Capellaro, told the New Haven (Conn.) Register that Allison was a shy, quiet child who was “sweet and caring.” Her older sister Lauren, a second-grader, survived the Sandy Hook shootings.
In Miami Twp., parishioners at St. Henry Catholic Church gathered Sunday to mourn the death. “As a people of faith, we turn our hurting hearts to our God, a parent of all, for all those affected by this tragedy in any way, particularly the Wirtz family, as we pray as a community of faith,” read a statement on the church”s website.
Neighbors on Vienna Parkway said they heard of Allison’s death over the weekend. They expressed shock and bewilderment over the deaths of 26 people and the alleged gunman.
The Wirtz’s one-story brick house was dark with the front yard filled with Christmas decorations.
Children’s Medical Center of Dayton, where Joyce Wirtz worked, declined any statement “out of respect for the family’s privacy.”
Reporters Kate Bartley and Mary McCarty contributed to this story.
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