Adam Lanza, the young man who killed his mother and 27 people at a Conneticut elementary school last week, was considered to be distant and quiet by a hair stylist who cut his hair for many years.
"He would just sit there and not speak. And I'll tell you the honest truth, as a mother, I just thought the child couldn't speak. I never gave it a second thought. I thought he couldn't speak," said Diane Skuba, who owns the salon in Newtown, Conn., where the Lanzas went for years.
Meanwhile, Bob Skuba, who also works at the hair salon, said he wished he had "slipped and stabbed" Adam Lanza by accident, according to CNN.
"I wish I would've killed him then," Bob Skuba said. "It would've saved all those kids and parents the trouble. I should've slipped and stabbed him by accident. It would've been a lot better."
The Lanzas came into the salon every few weeks for more than five years, Skuba said. But it had been "a good three years" since their last visit.
Cutting Adam Lanza's hair "was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation," stylist Diane Harty said. She said that she never heard his voice and that Nancy Lanza also hardly spoke.
When Adam came in to get haircuts, she said, he never made a move except as directed by his mother.
"He only moved on her direction. Like when you say, 'OK, you're all set,' and you expect them to get up? He didn't go [based] on the person that was cutting the hair. He only went on his mother's direction," Skuba said.
Friends of the family said he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.
Former classmates have previously described Adam Lanza as intelligent but remote, and former high school adviser described him as anxious and shy. Several people who knew his mother have described her as a devoted parent.
