a bizarre "human capital" theory, in which he could add value to his own life by taking the lives of others.

'Genetically loaded'

Within moments of hearing her brother had been arrested for the Aurora theater massacre, Chris Holmes knew things would get bad. She knew the police and FBI would invade her home looking for clues. She plucked a photo from a cardboard collage of her life that she'd made in the ninth grade. It was still in her room.

The photo showed Chris with her big brother. They are young and grinning broadly as they floss their teeth. It was a favorite, and she didn't want the authorities to take it from her.

Holmes' mother said she wished the psychiatrist who called her from Denver a month before the theatershootings had told her that he was talking about killing people. She would have dropped everything to rush to his side. "I would have crawled on all fours," she said, breaking into tears.

His father said he thought his son was "an excellent kid." He didn't understand how sick Jimmy was. He worried about him and was planning to take time off from work that August to travel to Denver to check on him. But by then, it was too late.

The family's testimony was heartbreaking, reminding everyone in the courtroom that the ripples of this tragedy extend in all directions.

But it was the expert witness who cut to the core issue. Dr Jeffrey Metzner, a court-appointed forensic psychiatrist, testified that Holmes was "genetically loaded" for mental illness. None of