Why Are There 4 Versions of Noah Pozner’s Death Certificate?

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Lenny Pozner, father of Noah, a victim of the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, is suing Professor James Fetzer. [Editor’s note: See “The Sandy Hook ‘Pozner v. Fetzer’ Lawsuit for Dummies” for the basic elements of the case.]

Central to the lawsuit is Noah Pozner’s death certificate. The lawsuit claims that Fetzer has “defamed” Lenny by asserting in books and his blog that Noah’s death certificate, which Fetzer had received from an individual named Kelley Watt who claims her source to be Lenny himself, is fraudulent. In the lawsuit, Lenny provides an image of what he claims to be Noah’s real “official” death certificate — Attachment A on page 15 in Pozner v. Fetzer Civil Complaint & Demand For Jury Trial, filed on November 27, 2018, at the Circuit Court of Dane County, Wisconsin.

We will number the Fetzer-Watt document as Death Certificate #1, which is Exhibit A on page 4 of Fetzer’s Request For Admissions, filed on January 24, 2019, at the Circuit Court of Dane County, Wisconsin. We will number the image that Lenny provided as Noah’s “official” death certificate as Death Certificate #2.

Death Certificate #1:

Below is a screen shot of Death Certificate #1 — Noah’s death certificate that Fetzer had received from Watt, who in turn had received it from Lenny Pozner himself. Note the following:

• The top right box (circled pink) for the death certificate’s State File Number is blank.
• The words in three boxes are blacked out: two side-by-side boxes for the name and location of the cemetery, and a box in the lower right labeled “Social Security Number” of the decedent, Noah.
• There is no seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom of the certificate.

Kelley Watt has provided Fetzer with an affidavit stating that the source of Death Certificate #1, Exhibit A in Fetzer’s Request For Admissions, is Lenny Pozner himself. That then leads to this question: How did Lenny get hold of Noah’s death certificate BEFORE it received a file number and BEFORE the State of Connecticut certified the certificate with its seal? 

• Death Certificate #2:

  Below is a screen shot of a very blurry death certificate of Noah which Lenny claims to be the “official” death certificate, which is Attachment A in Pozner v. Fetzer Civil Complaint & Demand For Jury Trial. Note the following:

  • There is a handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033 in the top right box. But the words in the other boxes, except for signatures, are typewritten.
  • The lower right box for the decedent’s (Noah’s) Social Security Number, which was blacked out in Death Certificate #1, is blank.
  • There is the seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom of the certificate.

Curiously, there are at least two other online versions of Noah’s death certificates, identified as Exhibits C and D on pages 6 and 7 in Fetzer’s Request For Admissions. We will call them Death Certificate #3 and Death Certificate #4.

Death Certificates #3 and #4:

A June 10, 2017 post on the blog, SandyHookFacts.com, has two images of Noah’s death certificate:

(1) A “parent copy” that was released by Lenny Pozner in 2014, which is identical to the Death Certificate #1 that Kelley Watt gave Fetzer. We will call this “parent copy” Death Certificate #3.

Below is a screenshot of Death Certificate #3. Note the following:

• Like Death Certificate #1, the box for State File Number is blank.
• Like Death Certificate #1, the box for Social Security Number is blacked out.
• Like Death Certificate #1, there is no certified seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom of the certificate.

(2) The same source, SandyHookFacts.com, also published another version of Noah’s death certificate, which the blog calls a “public” copy that is a “Certified Death Certificate” obtained in 2016 from Newtown Town Clerk, which “was released on video by SandyHookFact.com” — “the premeir release of this document by blog.” We will call this “public copy” Death Certificate #4.

Below is a screenshot of Death Certificate #4. Note the following:

• In the box for State File Number is a partial printed number 0243. Recall that the handwritten State File Number in Death Certificate #2 is 2012-07-078033.
• Boxes 54-58 and the box for Social Security Number that are in Death Certificates #1, #2 and #3 are missing.
• Nor does Death Certificate #4 have the seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom, which is also missing in Death Certificates #1 and #3.

Death Certificate #5:

Then there is Death Certificate #5, Noah Pozner’s definitive, official death certificate, certified by the State of Connecticut, with an issue date of March 20, 2019. Anyone can obtain a certified copy of any Connecticut death certificate by going to:

We will call this Death Certificate #5. Note the following:

• Like Death Certificate #2, and unlike Death Certificates #1, #3 and #4, the top right box has a handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033.
• The bottom right box for Noah’s Social Security Number is blank, but the blankness appears to be a result of erasure (or “whiteout”). The printed words “Social Security” of “Social Security Number” and a little bit of the bottom line are also erased.

To conclude, there are at least four different versions of Noah Pozner’s death certificate:

(1) Certificates #1 (Fetzer’s copy of the death certificate obtained from Kelley Watt) and #3 (death certificate posted on SandyHookFacts.com) appear to be identical and share these characteristics:

• A blank State File Number box.
• Three boxes are blacked out: two side-by-side boxes for the name and location of the cemetery, and a box in the lower right labeled “Social Security Number” of the decedent, Noah.
• No seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom of the certificate.

(2) Certificate #2, Attachment A in Pozner v. Fetzer Civil Complaint & Demand For Jury Trial, which Lenny Pozner claims to be Noah’s “official” death certificate, has the following characteristics:

• Unlike Death Certificates #1 and #3, there is a handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033 in the top right box.
• The lower right box for the decedent’s (Noah’s) Social Security Number, which was blacked out in Death Certificates #1 and #3, is blank.
• Unlike Death Certificates #1 and #3, there is the seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom of this certificate.

(3) Certificate #4, which SandyHookFacts.com claims to be a “public” copy of a “Certified Death Certificate” obtained in 2016 from Newtown Town Clerk, has the following characteristics:

• There is a partial printed, not handwritten, number 0243 in the box for State File Number, which is completely different from the handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033 in Death Certificate #2.
• Boxes 54-58 and the box for Social Security Number that are in Death Certificates #1, #2 and #3 are missing.
• Like Death Certificates #1 and #3, there is no seal of the State of Connecticut at the bottom, although SandyHookFacts.com says Death Certificate #4 is a “Certified Death Certificate”.

(4) Death Certificate #5, the official certified copy of the death certificate issued by the State of Connecticut on March 20, 2019, with the following characteristics:

• Like Death Certificate #2, but unlike Death Certificates #1, #3 and #4, the top right box has a handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033.
• Unlike Death Certificate #2, instead of being blacked out, the box for Noah’s Social Security Number is blank, but the blankness appears to be a result of erasure (or “whiteout”).

One last curiosity:

Note that both Death Certificates #2 and #5 have a handwritten State File Number 2012-07-078033, but the words in the other boxes (except for signatures) are all typed.

Below is a screen shot of the certified death certificate of X, a man who died in New Haven, Connecticut on November 6, 2017, which was issued on March 20, 2019. X’s name and the names of his relatives (Boxes 18-22) are blacked out in the interest of privacy. Note that the State File Number of X’s certified death certificate 2017 07027410 is printed, not handwritten as in Noah’s certified death certificate (#5).

To conclude:

Assuming that Death Certificate #5, the certified copy of Noah Pozner’s death certificate that was issued by the State of Connecticut’s Registrar of Vital Records on March 20, 2019, is the “real” death certificate, since it differs from Death Certificates (DC) #1, #2, #3, and #4, that would make those four death certificates fraudulent — including the Fetzer-Watt copy (DC #1), the subject of Lenny Pozner’s lawsuit against James Fetzer, as well as the death certificate Lenny claims to be Noah’s “official” death certificate (DC #2) which he included in Civil Complaint & Demand For Jury Trial as Attachment A.