columbine - tragedy and recovery

What happened on prom night?

By Patricia Callahan

Denver Post Staff Writer

May 1 - A friend who went to an after-prom party with Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold told ABC News that Klebold, fellow gunmen Eric Harris and another teenager disappeared from the party sometime after midnight.

Authorities are investigating whether Klebold and Harris planted bombs at the school during that party, which ran from midnight to 5 a.m. April 18. That's two days before the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

Nathan Dykeman, who shared a limousine with Klebold at the prom, told ABC he noticed Klebold, Harris and their friend, Chris Morris, 17, disappeared from the party between 2 and 2:30 a.m.

"I never got to say good night,'' Dykeman said. "I figured they were somewhere else ... having fun.''

Authorities said they have talked to Morris. And attorney John Richilano said his client has "cooperated extensively and completely'' with investigators and is not a suspect.

As Dykeman was leaving to go home for lunch April 20, he saw Harris walking into the school from a lot where he normally didn't park. Dykeman said he thought it was odd. He knew that Harris and Klebold hadn't been at school that day.

"The fact that both are absent on the same day - usually if Dylan's absent or going to be absent and knows it, he'll tell me where he's going,'' Dykeman said. "I hadn't heard anything from him.''

When he drove back to school after lunch, Dykeman found out about the shooting.

He called his friends to see if they were OK. He saved Klebold for last. Klebold's father, Tom, answered.

"I called them with the hope that he was there and would be OK and everything,'' Dykeman said. "And it basically eased up to me telling them that I think that he was involved in it, and I think he could possibly be in the school.''

Tom Klebold was in shock. He was speechless, Dykeman said.

"I honestly thought he was going to like drop the phone,'' he said. "He just could not believe that this could possibly be happening and that his son was involved in this, and he said, "Please keep me informed on whatever you hear.'- ''

Then Klebold called authorities to see if he could help. Authorities told him it was too late.

Dykeman said Klebold never dropped any hints about the shooting. Authorities found a journal in Harris' bedroom plotting the shootings and ways to blow up the school.

"I go over it countless times every day, just wondering what I possibly could have missed - if there were signs, if I should have seen something or should have done something differently,'' Dykeman said. "Every time I come up empty.''