For the family whose collective heart was splintered by horror and loss on Sept. 27, the final, official verdict of what occurred that day offered little that was new and much that was painful.

"I read it for this personal reason . . . I had to know how Emily's day was," said Ellen Stoddard-Keyes, who lost her 16-year-old daughter that day.

"We were very close; I found a lot that other people wouldn't notice. It's incredibly painful and sad, but now I have this knowledge."

When Stoddard-Keyes and her husband, John-Michael Keyes, were given the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's five- volume report in May, months before it was made public, she recalled "holding it a bit before I started reading," steeling herself for what might be unleashed inside her.

Then she sat down and read it in "three six-hour lumps - usually after everyone went to bed until about 3 in the morning. I'd go through massive sections at a time; through every page."

Except for the fifth volume. The one with autopsy photos.

What struck her first was, "There was nothing really new in it. Nothing we didn't expect or suspect. I was impressed at how they handled the summary report in March."

Stoddard-Keyes also stressed that the final report only "reinforces" the family's conviction that "there is no fault to be found in the command decisions made, given the information and behavior presented. There is no fault to be found on the courage and speed of their response. From our family, there is only respect."

After the ordeal of poring over the hundreds of interviews was over, Stoddard-Keyes also came away stung by some unexpected subtleties. Or, as she puts it, "The significant points in the report are between the lines."

One of those points she cited: "It's clear now that the perpetrator had some family members who really loved and cared for him. Unfortunately, there are many people walking on the edge and, in spite of the best efforts of friends and family, choose to slip off."

Despite her efforts to exhume some sort of twisted rationale for a terrible crime, Stoddard- Keyes came away empty.

"I wanted to find out what kind of person would terrorize and kill like this," she said, adding sadly, "There isn't an answer to that anywhere."

Searching to explain why she was so diligent in reading the document, Stoddard-Keyes said, "I had to see this before it was made public so I can own this privately in my heart."

And perhaps start reassembling its splinters into a whole.