Nancy Lanza’s estate is worth only about $64,000 because of a large mortgage on the now-vacant Newtown home where she was killed by her son.
An inventory of Nancy Lanza’s finances, filed in probate court earlier this month by Stamford attorney Samuel Starks, shows that at the time of her death Lanza had five bank accounts totaling about $60,000 as well as ownership of 36 Yogananda St., where she lived with her son Adam Lanza.
Adam Lanza shot his mother four times with a .22-caliber rifle on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 26 more people, including 20 first-graders, before killing himself.
Starks’ filing shows that the house, built on more than two acres, has a fair market value of $360,000, but that Lanza has a $402,232 mortgage on the house with CitiMortgage.
The only other asset for Nancy Lanza was about $5,000 in jewelry. Overall, Starks estimated Lanza’s estate at $64,236.
Several attorneys have been waiting for Stark to file an inventory of Nancy Lanza’s assets before deciding whether to sue the estate.
The 3,100-square-foot house has an appraised value of more than $523,000, according to town records. Real estate agents said that what the house would actually sell for once potential home buyers realize that a mass murderer lived there is unknown.
The yellow house has been vacant since the Dec. 14 massacre, except for police who removed evidence from it, mostly from Adam Lanza’s room. Eventually authorities turned the house back over to Peter Lanza, Nancy’s former husband, about two weeks after the murders.
By Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the type of gun.