Fact Checking “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”: Let’s Talk About Trees

Is there a more exciting subject than trees? Of course not.

Throughout Chapter Eight of Nobody Died at Sandy Hook, Allan Powell—an Australian conspiracy theorist with no apparent background in botany, climatology, or northeastern American winters—leans heavily on the claim that the crime-scene photographs from Sandy Hook Elementary School were not taken in December at all, but sometime in the fall. His preferred window shifts slightly from page to page, but generally lands on “late October or early November.” Maria Hsia Chang (“Dr. Eowyn”) echoes this same claim in Chapter Two, Six Signs Sandy Hook Elementary School Was Closed.

Powell returns to this argument repeatedly—four times in eighteen pages—and each time it rests on exactly one piece of “evidence”: trees.

“From the state of the leaves on the trees, the last oak leaves are falling so I would say late October or early November.” pg. 139

Late October or early November!

“Leaves are evident on the trees in the background. This is not December.” pg. 148

Definitely not December. Perhaps September? Who can say!

“Images of the mortuary tent show an oak tree in the background, which has yet to lose all its leaves: the time of year is late October.” pg. 151

Scratch November—now we’re certainly in October.

“The leaves are still on trees so the likelihood that this image was taken in December is very low.” pg. 155

Alright, maybe December… but probably not!

Despite the wobbling timeline, Powell’s core insistence remains unchanged: it is supposedly next to impossible for oak trees in Connecticut to retain leaves into the second week of December. That claim is not just wrong—it’s embarrassingly wrong.

But since we’re not dealing with people who accept “that’s ridiculous” as a sufficient answer, let’s dig in.

What Trees Are We Actually Looking At?

Let’s start with the photo Powell cites on page 151 (page 20 of Farr – scene photos.pdf):

Sandy Hook Elementary School was surrounded by trees—many of them conifers. Evergreen conifers, of course, retain needles year-round, which is why aerial views of the school in December aren’t completely barren. There’s a prominent conifer nearly dead center in the image above, likely an Eastern hemlock—the third most common native tree in Connecticut.

But Powell is clearly fixated on the deciduous tree to the left. While I’m not an arborist, that tree appears to be a Northern red oak, which happens to be the fifth most common native tree in Connecticut.

So the question becomes simple: Can oak trees in Connecticut retain leaves into December?

Yes. Of course they can. So often, in fact, that the phenomenon has a name: marcescence.

A Brief Introduction to Marcescence (a Real Thing)

From Wikipedia:

Marcescence is the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed. It is most obvious in deciduous trees that retain leaves through the winter. Several trees normally have marcescent leaves such as oak (Quercus), beech (Fagus) and hornbeam (Carpinus).

In short: many oak trees regularly hold onto their dead leaves well into winter—sometimes until spring. Early freezes, incomplete abscission layers, wind patterns, and tree age can all contribute. This isn’t rare, controversial, or even especially interesting to people who live around deciduous forests.

Wikipedia even includes photos of oak trees with orange leaves still attached while snow blankets the ground.

I took a similar photo myself on February 18th, with snow still visible in the distance:

But of course, a denier might argue that I’m untrustworthy—that the EXIF data is fake, the snow is staged, and I secretly took this photo in October.

So let’s use their sources.

When Deniers Accidentally Disprove Themselves

Here’s a still from a video made by a prolific Sandy Hook denier during his pilgrimage to Newtown, Connecticut. Snow is piled in the parking lot. Leaves are scattered on the ground. And—most inconveniently—leaves are still clinging to trees:

This is just one second from a nearly hour-long video, and evidence of marcescence appears throughout. I won’t link it here, but it’s trivial to find.

So much for “impossible.”

What Newtown Actually Looks Like in October

Now let’s look at what late October really looks like in Newtown.

Here’s the entrance to Sandy Hook Elementary at Dickinson and Riverside Roads in October 2014, via Google Street View:

Here’s a photo from Sandy Hook Elementary School’s Halloween parade on October 30, 2009:

The trees surrounding the school are mostly full and vibrant, with dense, colorful foliage—textbook late October in Connecticut. This is the same campus, photographed during the exact window Allan Powell claims the crime-scene photos belong to. It’s also one year after deniers insist Sandy Hook Elementary was shut down—apparently a closure that still allowed for student Halloween parades. The difference couldn’t be clearer.

Now compare that to this photo from December 15, 2012, taken at the makeshift memorial at the same location:

The difference is obvious. October is vibrant, full, and colorful. December is muted, sparse, and transitional—exactly what we see in the crime-scene photos.

Now compare the original crime-scene image Powell relies on to both of these photos and ask yourself which it actually resembles:

It’s not October.

Still Not Convinced?

Here’s what Halloween looks like on Main Street in Newtown:

Here’s a high-definition flyover of Newtown in early fall:

And here’s a photo from the 2013 Newtown Turkey Trot, held in late November:

Notice the trees.

Conclusion: Leaves Are Not a Time Machine

At this point, the claim collapses completely. Oak trees in Connecticut routinely retain leaves well into December and beyond. This is common, documented, and visible everywhere—including in deniers’ own footage. Meanwhile, Newtown’s foliage in late October and early November looks nothing like what appears in the Sandy Hook crime-scene photos.

Powell hung his entire argument on oak trees.

* Thank you to Marie for pointing this one out to me. I don’t watch denier videos unless I really have to, so I don’t think I would have ever found it independently.