58 is More Than Just a Number (Las Vegas Shooting Victims’ Names, Portraits and Stories)

Hannah Ahlers could be daring. The Murrieta, Calif., resident was part of a tightknit community of skydivers and enjoyed the outdoors. But a friend, Sunni Almond, said Ahlers also enjoyed simpler pleasures. She savored spending weekends lounging by the pool with friends and family.

“She was possibly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, with a heart to match,” Almond said. “She never came across with the diva mentality she easily could have had. She was a devoted mother and wife.”

Ahlers studied at Crafton Hills College and went to Redlands East Valley High School, according to her Facebook page.

She is survived by her husband of 16 years, Brian, and three children.

A mother of three and the wife of a firefighter, Heather Alvarado was someone who liked to see the good in others.

Alvarado enjoyed going on vacations and spending time outdoors with her husband, Albert, and their children.

“She would do anything for [her children]. She spent her whole life serving others in her family and community,” her husband said in a statement. Albert Alvarado is a firefighter in Cedar City, Utah, where the family lives.

The Cedar City Fire Department is selling cookbooks to raise money to help support the family.

Stefanie Anderson posted a photograph of her family on Facebook with a sorrowful caption. The Andersons were attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

“This is one of the last family photos we will take,” Stefanie Anderson wrote. “Sadly, my mom was one of the victims that did not make it.”

Dorene Anderson was a hockey booster in Anchorage and a self-described “stay-at-home wife and mother.” She had traveled to Las Vegas with her husband, John, and daughters Stefanie and Jessika, according to a friend. She was the only one shot.

Anderson had served as treasurer of the Cowbell Crew, a nonprofit organization based in Anchorage that supports local hockey teams.

“Dorene was … a wonderful, generous person who was a friend to many,” said friend Marie English, who was also involved with the nonprofit group.

Anderson attended Tigard High School in Tigard, Ore., according to her social media profile. On Monday, Stefanie Anderson updated her Facebook profile with a photo of her and Dorene at a hockey game.

“You lit up her world,” Gayle Simmons White commented on the photo. “There was no end to her love for you and your sister and dad. She was by far the best person I’ve ever known.”

Carrie Barnette was celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday in Las Vegas when she was shot in the chest. She died before reaching the hospital, her mother said.

She was the oldest of three children, and family was her priority, said her mother, Mavis Barnette.

“Beautiful child; she was my firstborn,” Mavis Barnette said. “She was always generous and helping everybody in every way. She loved her nieces and nephews and her sister and brother.”

Carrie, of Riverside, Calif., had worked at Disneyland for 11 years in food services and “she loved it there,” her mother said.

Mavis Barnette was almost asleep on Sunday night when she received a phone call around 11:30 from her daughter’s friend.

“She had told me she’d been shot. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ … I said, ‘Where? When? What?’ And she told me she was shot in the chest.”

As of Monday evening, Mavis Barnette still had not received confirmation of her daughter’s death because she’s been unable to reach officials, despite repeated calls.

“Nobody has any idea where she’s at,” she said.

Still, based on what her daughter’s friend said, she is convinced her daughter is dead.

Carrie was also close to her grandparents, and had a hummingbird tattoo — their favorite bird — in their memory. Her Facebook wall is covered with messages of love from friends and family who say they take solace in her reunion with them.

“She was the kind of friend that everybody would want in their life. She was vivacious, caring, funny, sweet, energetic, creative, loyal, thoughtful, giving and full of life,” Carrie’s friend Nicole Johnson wrote in an email.

Johnson remembers the laughter she and Carrie always shared, whether at the Stage Coach music festival two years ago, or on a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

“I am going to miss her greatly,” she wrote.

Jack Beaton and his wife, Laurie, had been with friends celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary, which fell on Sunday, the final day of the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

That evening, Jack posted a picture of the group on Facebook, all smiles as they sipped beers and sprawled on the grass with the stage in the background. Laurie later posted that she was with her best friend and soul mate.

“Here’s to 23 wonderful years and looking forward to 23 more,” she wrote.

Less than an hour later, the shooting began. Jack tried to shield his wife with his body, according to Laurie’s parents.

“Jack got on top of Laurie to protect her. He laid on top of her and said, ‘Laurie, I love you.’ She said, ‘I love you too,’ and boom he got hit. I don’t know how many times,” said Jerry Cook, Laurie’s father.

The group separated as they sought shelter, and later tried to find Jack. But his body was gone. Laurie Beaton did not learn until Monday afternoon that her husband had been identified among the casualties.

Later Monday, Laurie Beaton flew to Phoenix to pick up daughter Delaney, a freshman at Arizona State University, and returned home to Bakersfield, where her son Jake attends college.

“Lost my best friend. I love you so much more then you could ever imagine,” Jake Beaton posted on Facebook, along with a collage of pictures of his father, mother, sister and himself. “Please watch over our family. You will forever be remembered as our hero! #atruehero”

Jack worked in construction and Laurie in human resources at an energy company. But their lives centered around their children, watching their daughter cheerleading or taking their son dirt-bike riding in rural areas near Bakersfield. “He had a heart of gold, he would do anything for those who he loved, his family, his friends, even for strangers,” she said.

Steve Berger, tall, gregarious, an award-winning financial planner and single father of three, had presence.

“When you walked into a room, you knew Steve was there,” said Dorothy Fuller, director of operations at EFS Advisors, the Cambridge, Minn., firm where he worked. “He was just so nice to everyone and full of life, just the kind of guy everyone wanted to be around.”

It was a trait Berger had shown all his life, from his days as a standout basketball player and straight-A student at Wauwatosa West High School in Wisconsin, to his time at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where he graduated in 1995, said Richard and Mary Berger, his parents, as they drove to Minnesota to arrange their son’s funeral.

“He always had a smile on his face. He always would help you,” Mary Berger said. “He was very kind. He walked into the room and he just kind of lit up the room. He just loved life.”

Berger’s roommate in college was Josh Decker, who went on to work with Berger at EFS. The two were top financial advisors at the firm, Richard Berger said, adding that his son achieved that while also being a full-time single father to his three children, Hannah, 15; Harrison, 12; and Harlow, 9.

“The owner of the company said he has never seen a man have better time management in the world. He could juggle his business with taking care of three children,” Richard Berger said, noting that he spent his time off ferrying his children between school and sports practices, and also coached youth basketball and football. “He was a devoted father. You couldn’t ask for a better father and a better man.”

Berger went to Las Vegas with Decker to celebrate his 44th birthday, which was Saturday. He called his father that day from a casino sports book, noting that many Wisconsin Badgers fans were there placing bets on their team in the game against the Northwestern Wildcats later that day. His father advised against betting on the Badgers, saying the bookies knew what they were doing when they put the line at Wisconsin -17, but Berger bet $200 on the Badgers anyway.

“Wisconsin won but they didn’t cover the spread,” Richard Berger said. “That’s the last time I talked to my son.”

On Sunday night, Richard Berger couldn’t sleep and woke up around 3 a.m. He turned on the news and saw the chaos unfolding at a country music festival in Las Vegas. He didn’t realize his son was there until Decker called him an hour later, saying Berger had been fatally shot.

Candace Bowers, 40, overcame many challenges in her life. Her mother died when she was a young girl. She raised two children as a single mother.

Nevertheless, when a relative experienced her own life problems, Bowers took in the woman’s baby and officially adopted her in May. Family members say the act of kindness showed the Garden Grove woman’s character, always placing the needs of others above her own.

Bowers worked as a waitress at Mimi’s Cafe, had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed spending time with her children, 16-year-old Katie, 20-year-old Kurtis, and the recently adopted Ariel, 2.

“Everybody loved her. She always had a smile on her face and would help anybody,” Vicki Jeffries, Bowers’ aunt, said in a phone interview before breaking down in tears over Bowers’ death. “She had a big heart. She was just a sweetheart. She would do anything for anybody.”

There has been an enormous outpouring of community support. The football team at Pacifica High School, which Katie attends, plans to wear decals on their helmets honoring Bowers during their next game. The Posse Bar in Westminster, where Bowers socialized, is holding a fundraiser Oct. 21. And a fundraising website for Bowers’ memorial costs and children had raised more than $30,000 by Wednesday afternoon.

Bowers loved country music and spending time outdoors, so a trip with a girlfriend to the Route 91 Harvest Festival combined both. When the shooting broke out, the women huddled under a table but decided to seek safety by running. In the chaos, they got separated. The last time Bowers’ friend saw her, she was running behind her holding her phone in the air, Jeffries said.

Nobody could find Bowers on Sunday night, so her uncle, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, drove to Las Vegas on Monday. Late that night, the family received the confirmation that Bowers was among the fatalities.

Katie called her great-grandfather, Robert Lacayo, and asked him if he was sitting down.

“The worst day of my life was on Monday,” Lacayo said. Katie “called me and she tells me, ‘Pop, Mom’s gone.’ She started crying. She said, ‘Pop, what am I going to do without Mom?’ It was the worst feeling you can ever have. I can’t even express it. I would have preferred death myself.”

Lacayo, a 78-year-old veteran who served in the Korean War, wants to use his granddaughter’s death to try to decrease the availability of assault weapons.

“Everyone else might forget this in six months, but we will never forget about it. I won’t and her daughter won’t and her little daughter won’t and her son will never forget about it,” he said, thinking ahead to Thanksgivings and Christmases where there will be an empty seat at the dinner table.

“Thoughts and prayers are just not going to do it,” he said. “People tell me ‘God works in mysterious ways,’ and ‘Think of the good times.’ That doesn’t work when you’re hurting.”

Denise Burditus and her husband, Tony, held each other close and grinned big for a photo at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the Mandalay Bay hotel in the background.

The West Virginia resident posted the picture on Facebook, not long before the shooting broke out.

She later died in her husband’s arms.

“It saddens me to say that I lost my wife of 32 years, a mother of two, soon to be grandmother of five this evening in the Las Vegas shooting,” Tony later wrote in his own post. “Denise passed in my arms. I LOVE YOU BABE.”

The two lived in Martinsburg and loved to travel and spend time with their grandchildren. She was a Seattle Seahawks fan and described herself on Facebook as semi-retired. In photos, she’s often surrounded by family, acting goofy, planting kisses on Tony.

Most recent posts on social media showed them poolside and out to dinner in Sin City.

“Oh Tony,” Tammy Petersen Hacker wrote on Facebook. “I just keep looking at the cool, beautiful pictures both you and Denise have been sharing of all the fun you were having … your loss is unfathomable.”

Sandy Casey was a special education teacher at Manhattan Beach Middle School for nine years.

“She is loved by students and colleagues alike and will be remembered for her sense of humor, her passion for her work, her devotion to her students, and her commitment to continuing her own learning and to taking on whatever new projects came her way,” the Manhattan Beach Unified School District said in a statement. “She has made a tremendous difference in the lives of her students and their families, many of whom worked with her over multiple years.”

On Facebook on Monday, Sarah Kapusta called Casey her “best friend” during childhood. “Your loving spirit will always be a part of me. RIP,” Kapusta wrote.

The school district is offering counseling for students and staff.

“We lost a spectacular teacher who devoted her life to helping some of our most needy students,” Supt. Michael Matthews said in a statement.

Andrea Castilla didn’t know it, but her boyfriend of seven months, Derek Miller, was planning to propose marriage during the weekend of the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.

Castilla, a makeup artist at Sephora, had turned 28 on Sept. 29 and was celebrating in Las Vegas with her boyfriend, sister and a group of friends.

Castilla and Miller, from Huntington Beach, tried to spend as much time with each other as they could.

“I would visit her at Sephora on my lunch break even if it was only for 10 minutes,” Miller, 24, said in a phone interview.

On Sunday night, Castilla was fatally shot when a gunman opened fire on the crowd at a country music concert during the festival. Castilla’s sister, Athena, and Miller saw her fall to the ground.

With bullets flying around them, they carried her over a fence to a road, where they flagged down a driver who took them to a hospital.

Castilla graduated in 2007 from Estancia High School, where she was an avid and excellent swimmer, said her brother, Adam Castilla, the eldest of her three siblings.

After high school, Castilla remained dedicated to living an active and healthy lifestyle.

“She would make these cookies that she called ‘healthy cookies’ and come by my house and bring them to me,” Adam Castilla said in a phone interview. “She was always trying to spread the well-being of people.”

Adam Castilla said the siblings were raised by their father after their mother died of cancer when Andrea was 13. The weekend before her death, Andrea Castilla told her brother that she wanted to pursue a career as a makeup artist for cancer survivors.

“She wanted to make them feel beautiful,” Adam Castilla said.

Kristal Vogel never saw her big sister without a smile.

“I’ve known her my whole life and … she’s never said anything negative,” Vogel said. “Even when she was having a bad day, she’d be trying to cheer everybody up.”

Cohen was killed along with her boyfriend, Derrick “Bo” Taylor, as they attended the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas.

“She was amazing. She had the best personality, a free spirit, a smile that lit up a room,” said Vogel, 44. “She just loved music, she loved being outside in the sun.”

The sisters had a 14-year age difference, and when Vogel was 12, Cohen took her to see Prince — Vogel’s first concert. After that, they went to concerts together often, Vogel said. They once went to a Tom Petty concert together; his death this week felt like a bizarre coincidence, she said.

Cohen had two sons and two grandsons.

“They were her life. She loved them. They loved her,” Vogel said. “They are just devastated obviously. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother.”

Cohen enjoyed dressing up, donning plenty of accessories and dancing, Vogel said, like she was doing Sunday night.

Austin Davis was a proud union man.

The 29-year-old Riverside resident was a pipefitter for UA Local 364, which covers San Bernardino and Riverside counties, along with Edwards Air Force Base.

On Facebook he posted photos of himself at work and of the local union outfit’s insignia: A skull with an American flag do-rag with combustion lines running through the eyes. Two large wrenches cross behind the skull and below are the words “Union Til I Die.”

His girlfriend of nine years, Aubree Hennigan, commented on the photo: “Love your dedication baby!”

In May 2015, Davis became a journeyman pipefitter after years of training. He posted the news on Facebook and highlighted the increase in his pay that came with the promotion. One friend commented: “Congratulations to you my good man!”

Davis played softball and enjoyed fishing and skiing with his friends. He joined friends to attend the Route 91 Harvest festival.

Davis last called Hennigan around 8 p.m. Sunday. The gunfire started about two hours later.

“He just told me that Big & Rich was playing and he didn’t really care for them but they threw one hell of a concert,” Hennigan said. “That’s all he told me.”

When Davis couldn’t be reached, Hennigan traveled to Nevada to search for him. She eventually learned of his death, and Monday evening she wrote on Facebook: “Austin, my love, I can’t believe this happened. You didn’t deserve this.”

Thomas Day Jr.’s four children — all in their 20s and 30s — were with him at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

“He was the best dad. That’s why the kids were with him,” said his father, Thomas Day Sr.

Day lived in Riverside and worked as a home builder. His father, who lives in the Las Vegas area, said he received a phone call about 11 p.m. Sunday telling him that his son was among those killed at the concert. Now he and his grandchildren grieve together.

The elder Day struggled to put words together to do his son’s memory justice. “His kids are with me right now. They’re crushed.”

Before she graduated from the University of Arizona in the spring, Duarte interned for the Tucson Roadrunners, the Arizona Diamondbacks and then the Los Angeles Rams.

She started her first full-time job in September as a fan services associate with the Los Angeles Kings hockey team.

“She wanted to be in marketing in those organizations and probably run a sports team,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Atty. Danette Meyers, who has worked with Duarte’s father for decades in the prosecutor’s office. “She had those aspirations, and she would’ve made it.”

Chrissy was at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival with Mikey’s girlfriend, Ariel Romero, a law student at Chapman University, Meyers said. Mikey was supposed to be there too, but the White Sox needed him in Arizona.

As they stood at the concert Sunday, Romero watched Duarte fall to the ground. She jumped on Duarte and was shot in the face. Someone scooped up Romero, treated her wound and carried her to a paramedic — leaving Duarte behind.

Romero had surgery Tuesday and is expected to survive. Duarte’s death was confirmed late Monday, after her family spent a desperate day searching for her.

On Monday, Mikey Duarte tweeted a photo of his sister and girlfriend with an emoji of a broken heart.

Stacee Etcheber was as likely to be seen cheering on her kids’ sports games as starting a fire on their school camping trips, or helping someone change the oil in their car.

The hairstylist, mother of two and wife of San Francisco Police Officer Vinnie Etcheber died in the Las Vegas massacre.

“Stacee was taken in a senseless act of violence as her husband, SFPD Officer Vinnie Etcheber, heroically rushed to aid shooting victims in Las Vegas on Sunday,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in a statement. “Stacee was a beloved mother of two young children and a well-loved hairstylist in Marin County.”

She lived around the corner from San Ramon Elementary School, said Principal Amanda Langford. Both her children attended the school, and her youngest is in fifth grade.

“Stacee was a really intelligent, beautiful and caring mother,” Langford said. She was well-known for her involvement in the school and PTA, always making herself available to help students and families, or to chaperone field trips.

Her brother-in-law, Al Etcheber, announced her death on Facebook on Tuesday morning, after posting Monday that she was missing.

“It’s with a heavy heart and deep sorrow, Stacee Etcheber has passed away,” he wrote. “We will dearly miss you.”

Brian Fraser became an ordained minister to officiate the wedding of his stepson Nick Arellano in July, and he spoke these words with a beaming smile:

“Love and respect. The result is the best of what marriage has to offer.”

Fraser had married Arellano’s mother when Arellano, now 25, was still a teenager, helping raise the youth.

“He served as my rock and my mentor,” Arellano told the San Bernardino Sun. “He became my dad and my father figure. He helped anyone who asked. That’s why people loved and adored him.”

Fraser, his current wife and Arellano attended the Route 91 Harvest festival together. Though Arellano had to leave early to prepare for classes at UCLA, the others stayed. Frazer was shot as he pushed toward the stage in anticipation of Jason Aldean performing “Dirt Road Anthem,” one of his favorites, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his sisters-in-law, Briana Flanigan and Brittany Gonzalez.

“He had a way of saying what needed to be said in just enough words,” they wrote.

Arellano said that Fraser, a loan officer, had helped him and his new wife “grow and become the married couple we are today.”

Fraser is survived by his wife, three young children and Arellano.

Keri Galvan had three children under the age of 10, and her devotion to them wasn’t difficult to spot.

In one Facebook photo, she wears Mickey Mouse ears and holds her daughter as Minnie Mouse shakes the child’s hand.

In a selfie, Galvan tenderly kisses her daughter, who has big brown eyes and a pink bow around her head.

In her profile photo, her children walk hand in hand on a school track.

In a post on a GoFundMe page established in Galvan’s memory, her sister Lindsey Poole said Galvan attended the Route 91 Harvest festival with her husband and friends. The 31-year-old worked as a waitress at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Thousand Oaks

Galvan’s “days started and ended with doing everything in her power to be a wonderful mother,” Poole wrote.

Stefanie Reines, a friend, wrote on Twitter that Galvan was a “beautiful, amazing, kind and generous person who made everyone smile.”

When Bob Dutton became the San Bernardino County assessor-recorder-clerk, he knew a strong and experienced deputy would be essential to do the job.

Dana Gardner was just that person.

As the deputy recorder-county clerk, “she was one of my go-to people,” Dutton said. “If you needed advice or questions came up, she had the answer. She was my go-to person.”

Gardner, of Grand Terrace, had traveled to Las Vegas with one of her daughters to attend the Route 91 Harvest Festival. After Gardner was wounded in the gunfire unleashed on the crowd, the daughter rode with her in the ambulance to the trauma center.

The daughter, who was unharmed, contacted Dutton’s office and said she and her mother had become separated.

About 7:30 a.m. Monday, one of Dutton’s colleagues received the news. Gardner was dead.

“You never think it’s going to be someone you know until it is,” Dutton said.

San Bernardino was the site of the terrorist attack that left 14 dead and 22 wounded in 2015.

On Monday, getting through the day was particularly difficult because Dutton said they couldn’t just close the clerk’s office. Everyone kept working, he said, even after they got received the horrid news.

Angela Gomez was a Riverside native who left a lasting impact on her high school classmates and teachers.

She graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School in 2015 and attended classes at Riverside Community College.

“Angie was a fun-loving, sweet young lady with a great sense of humor,” her former cheer coach, Lupe Avila, said in an email. “Angie was a loyal friend who loved her family and will be forever missed by all those who knew her.”

She challenged herself academically, enrolling in Advanced Placement classes, and “loved the stage” — she was involved in cheer, choir and the Riverside Children’s Theatre, Avila said.

Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield was off duty when he attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival, one of many law enforcement officers who went to the country music concert. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hartfield was a military veteran and coached youth football.

Hartfield posted a picture from the concert on Facebook before the gunfire broke out. As news of the massacre spread, friends began posting on Hartfield’s page, urging him to let them know he was OK. He never responded, and then friends started posting messages grieving his death.

“I don’t know a better man than Charles. They say it’s always the good ones we lose early. There’s no truer statement than that with Charles,” Hartfield’s friend Troy Rhett told the Review-Journal. “Our hearts have just been very heavy since hearing the news.”

Hartfield enlisted in the Army in July 2000 and became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, ultimately rising to the rank of sergeant first class.

He deployed to Iraq during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and served in a task force that was awarded a presidential unit citation for “extraordinary heroism.” He was also awarded several individual commendations and achievement medals throughout his uniformed career, according to Army records.

“By all accounts he was a special human being, someone who carried the best virtues and characteristics from this division with him beyond his service here,” the 82nd Airborne said in a statement.

Hartfield joined the Nevada Army National Guard in June 2006 and continued serving until his death.

Colleagues and relatives described Chris Hazencomb as a kind and selfless man, a friend and co-worker who loved talking sports.

Tim Wong was among those who wrote about Hazencomb on social media. He said he worked with Hazencomb for eight years and “enjoyed his humor, love of sports, but most of all, love for his friends.”

Hazencomb’s aunt Carolyn Hazencomb said she and her nephew lived in the same mobile estate park in Camarillo — Carolyn on her own, and Chris with his mother.

Chris was 6-feet-5, so he would often reach to top shelves at grocery stores to get what his aunt needed, or help people around the park with different tasks, she said.

“He was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet,” Carolyn Hazencomb said.

He was at the country music festival Sunday with a friend who has two children, she said.

“He gave his life for the person that he was with at the show, at the concert. He covered her so that she wouldn’t get shot,” Carolyn Hazencomb said. “It was fortunate that he saved her life…so that her kids are ok to have a mom.”

Chris Hazencomb graduated from Thousand Oaks High School in 1991, said Principal Lou Lichtl.

He had worked as a self-checkout host at the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Camarillo since 2013, said Walmart spokesman Charles Crowson.

“We are deeply saddened that one of our associates, Chris Hazencomb, was among those killed in Las Vegas,” Crowson said in an email statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with his family, and with all who have lost family members and loved ones in this attack.”

To Kyle Kraska, Jennifer Topaz Irvine was a smart woman who enjoyed life and brought joy to others.

“She was like a little sister,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Irvine was a family-law attorney in San Diego who did her undergraduate work at the University of San Diego and later the California Western School of Law, according to the Union-Tribune. As news spread of her death at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, friends and family went on Facebook to offer condolences and share memories of Irvine, whose interests outside the courtroom learned toward the athletic — yoga, snowboarding and taekwondo.

Thomas Slattery, a fellow attorney, wrote on his Facebook page: “My good friend, colleague, and business partner Jennifer Irvine was killed by a madman at the festival in Las Vegas. A tragic loss of a kind, generous, and beautiful lady. She will be greatly missed,” he wrote. “Rest in peace Topaz.”

Among a close-knit group of Orange County friends who dubbed themselves the “framily,” Teresa Nicol Kimura was known for her energy, radiance and craftiness.

“Oh man, she was the life of the party without having to need all of the attention. If she was in the room, your attention was just drawn to her, because of her smile and her laugh,” said friend Chad Elliott. “She was Auntie Nicol. … One of the best ways to describe her was that she put Martha Stewart to shame in party planning. Everything she did was over the top.”

Kimura graduated from El Dorado High School, Cal State Fullerton and worked for the state government.

Elliott met Kimura, who went by Nicol, after her divorce five years ago. They started attending concerts together because of their shared love of live music. They had attended 15 concerts this year alone, including five over the course of eight days this summer.

“This last weekend of Route 91 was her favorite weekend of the year,” he said, adding that they persuaded five friends to come along.

Elliott and Kimura drove to Las Vegas on Thursday night, went to breakfast at the Peppermill, sunned by a hotel pool and visited the Neon Museum. But the main focus was the festival. Videos filmed by her friends at the concert show the 38-year-old wearing a black tank top that said “Dirty Martini is My Spirit Animal” and joyfully singing and dancing.

When the shooting broke out, the group took cover and scattered. But Kimura was hit. And Elliott refused to run.

“I wasn’t going to leave her and I basically laid on top of her and tried to do everything I could to try to shield her,” he said. “Eventually, somebody that I’m guessing was a concert-goer came up and said I’m a doctor. And we tried giving her CPR and after a couple attempts, he said there was nothing else we could do.”

The rest of the night is fuzzy, Elliott said, adding that he believes he was in shock. He called Kimura’s father, recalls walking around in a daze and eventually finding the rest of their friends. The one thing he recalls with perfect clarity is Kimura’s role in his life, and the void created by her death.

“Just being around her was infectious,” Elliott said. “Her smile just like radiated across the room. If you were in the same room with her, she just made you happy.”

Jessica Klymchuk was a librarian and a bus driver who was raising four children on her own. Then she found someone to love.

His name was Brent Irla, and in April Irla announced on Facebook that the two were engaged.

“Since meeting Brent my world has changed,” Klymchuk wrote. “His smile is something I can’t live without.”

The couple were together in Las Vegas when the hail of bullets rained down on the crowd.

Klymchuk died Monday morning with Irla by her side, according to a family friend.

Klymchuk was a resident of Valleyview, a tight-knit town of about 2,000 people in central Alberta, Canada. Her death was confirmed by Rachel Notley, the premier of Alberta.

She worked at St. Stephen’s School, northwest of Edmonton. Her children attended the school.

“She was loved by the kids,” the Rev. Abraham Joseph told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

He said when staff and students heard the news Monday, the teachers were in tears and the children in shock.

Betty Turpin, superintendent of the Holy Family Catholic Regional Division, said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. As well as all the families affected by this unimaginable attack.”

Carly Kreibaum lived in the small town of Sutherland, Iowa, with her husband and two children, worked at a Wal-Mart store and was beloved in the community.

“Carly is a wonderful woman. Well-loved by everyone and a fabulous mother,” said Sutherland City Clerk Natosha Petitt.

Kreibaum was a housewares manager at the Wal-Mart Superstore in Spencer, Iowa, where she had worked for the last 12 years, said Wal-Mart spokesman Charles Crowson.

Her Facebook page shows a photo of Kreibaum at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, smiling with two other women. Hours later, she was among the 58 people killed when a gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas.

“For us to lose a young mother this way, it’s been pretty devastating for the community,” said Dan Wetherell, who is the town’s library director and a cook at Mugshots Bar and Grill, where Kreibaum and her husband, Chris, sometimes ate.

Wetherell said he did not know Kreibaum well, but served with her husband in a local service organization. He is helping to organize a benefit Oct. 15 at Mugshots to raise money for the family, he said.

Twila Heemstra, administrative assistant at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School, said Kreibaum graduated in 2002, and that the school planned to hold a moment of silence for her at upcoming sporting events.

Rhonda LeRocque of Tewksbury, Mass., was an active member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and worked at a Cambridge design firm. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she and her husband, Jason, helped rebuild homes in Louisiana.

“All I know is someone started shooting and people are running and she got shot in the head,” Carol Marquis, LeRocque’s grandmother, told the Boston Globe. “And we lost a dear, close, good person — one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life.”

Her husband and her daughter were unharmed in the shooting, according to multiple media reports. LeRocque’s family struggled to understand the violence that broke out at the country music festival.

“It makes no sense. Why would he do this?” LeRocque’s sister Jennifer Zeleneski told the Boston Herald. “My sister didn’t do anything. She never hurt people. She was the [kindest] person that I know.”

Music was part of Victor Link’s life ever since he was a boy in rural Shafter, Calif. His parents were from Arkansas and Missouri, and regularly listened to Charley Pride, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams.

“He had a quite a collection of tapes,” said Link’s father, Loyd Link, a former mayor of Shafter. “I grew up on country and so did my wife. When there were parties, the theme was country music.”

Link’s older brother Craig, 58, a musician, recalled that they always had sophisticated sound systems.

“We just appreciated music from back in the day, rock and roll and today’s world of country because we’re folks who come from a small town … a farm town,” he said.

As Link grew up, he worked for a radio station in Bakersfield, and later owned a high-end audio-video business before working in the mortgage industry in Orange County.

His fiancee, Lynne Gonzalez, shared his love of music, and the couple regularly traveled to concerts.

“That was their favorite thing,” Craig Link said.

Victor Link, 55, and Gonzalez were in the VIP tent with another couple listening to entertainer Jason Aldean during a country music concert when the shots rang out Sunday at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas. Link was fatally wounded.

His family remembered him as a funny, giving man.

“He was a very kind and loving guy who gave whatever he could to whoever he could. If someone was in need, Victor was always there and he was a good man who always took care of his responsibilities,” Craig Link said. “Just as solid as anybody you ever meet, and respectful. And he was madly in love with his fiancee and she was madly in love with him.”

When Jordan McIldoon’s parents confirmed their son’s death to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., they summed up their pain and loss in 12 words.

“We had only one child,” Al and Angela said in a statement. “We just don’t know what to do.”

They described their son, a heavy-duty mechanic apprentice who was about to start a trade school, as a “self-described cowboy boot, tattoo-covered redneck who loved the outdoors.” He grew up on his family’s land in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Photos of McIldoon on social media show him in cowboy boots and on snowmobiles and motorcycles, often smiling big with an arm around his girlfriend, Amber Bereza.

Las Vegas had become an annual tradition for the couple, according to the Global News, and Sunday’s concert at the Route 91 Harvest Festival was a few days before his birthday.

When McIldoon was among the hundreds struck by bullets at the concert, a bartender named Heather Gooze stepped in to help.

“I felt his fingers, like tighten and then loosen,” Gooze told the CBC.

When McIldoon’s phone rang in his pocket, she told the news agency, she answered and found out his name from the friend on the line. Gooze wrote McIldoon’s name on his arm, then searched for his family on Facebook.

She eventually reached Bereza, who was on lockdown nearby.

“Please be honest with me,” Bereza asked. “What’s going on?”

“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, but he didn’t make it,” Gooze said she told her.

McIldoon’s mother soon called and Gooze promised she would stay with McIldoon. She did for five hours.

Kelsey Breanne Meadows stayed close to home, growing up to become a substitute teacher at her alma mater, Taft Union High School.

There she got to work close to her mother, Stacy Lynn Meadows, an IT manager for the district.

“My family and I want to take a minute and thank everyone that has been trying to help us locate my sister,” her brother, Brad Meadows, wrote Tuesday on Facebook. “So it is with an absolutely shattered heart that I let everyone know that Kelsey did not survive this tragic event.”

Meadows graduated from the high school in 2007 and earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fresno before joining the school district as a substitute teacher in 2012, according to the school district.

The school district made counselors available for grieving students and staff, and planned a vigil in honor of Meadows at the high school Wednesday evening.

“Kelsey was smart, compassionate and kind,” Principal Mary Alice Finn said in a statement. “She had a sweet spirit and a love for children.”

Calla Medig was going to become a manager at Moxie’s restaurant in Edmonton.

But before reaching that professional milestone Thursday, Medig was going to spend some time in Las Vegas.

She had gone to the Route 91 Music festival for three straight years. She and a friend decided to go again this year.

Her boss at Moxie’s, Scott Collingwood, grew concerned Monday morning when he couldn’t reach Medig. No texts were answered. Facebook messages went unread.

Finally, the friend who was with Medig at the festival called back and told Collingwood the news.

“She’s left a huge hole in our hearts,” Collingwood said of Medig. “She was an absolute fantastic lady.”

Now, Medig’s father is in Las Vegas arranging for her body to be returned to Canada.

Sonny Melton was a nurse from Tennessee who saved his wife’s life before losing his own.

“He grabbed me from behind and started running when I felt him get shot in the back,” his wife, Heather Melton, told USA Today.

The couple worked at the Henry County Medical Center — she an orthopedic surgeon, he a nurse.

“The thoughts and prayers of the entire HCMC family are with Sonny and Heather’s families,” Thomas Gee, CEO of Henry County Medical Center, said in a statement.

Melton was the president of his nursing class at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., according to a Facebook post from the college.

“You know how when you met someone and you just know that they’re good and kind? That was Sonny,” Christy Davis, an assistant nursing professor, said in the college’s statement. “He just had a sweet, kind spirit about him.”

A co-worker also posted her memories of Sonny Melton on Facebook.

“Sonny was such an amazing person and an amazing nurse,” Victoria Peyton Dowd wrote. “I’m thankful I had the pleasure of knowing such an awesome man.”

Pati Mestas’ love of music — particularly country music — led her to many concerts and festivals. And on Sunday, it took her to Las Vegas for the final day of the Route 91 Harvest music festival, a show she’d been eagerly awaiting.

“Pati was a lover of music in general, but country music was what she loved most,” said Alexis Magana, a family friend.

Magana remembers the first time she went to Mestas’ house. “I asked Pati’s son, ‘How will I know which is her house?’ He said ‘Oh, you’ll know; it’s the only one blasting country,’” Magana recalled. “He wasn’t joking. That was Pati, though — loving life and listening to music.”

The Southern California native had recently retired as deli manager at a convenience store in Corona. She graduated from Garey High School in Pomona in 1968.

Friends and family described the 67-year-old Corona resident as a dedicated Christian who had a beautiful smile and a bold personality.

“Pati was a firecracker. I never dreamed she’d be taken from us in an instant,” Magana said. “Our firecracker is gone and now it’s just dark,” Magana said.

Mestas is survived by her daughter, two sons and eight grandchildren.

Austin Meyer and his fiancee Dana Getreu headed for Las Vegas after she surprised him with tickets to a country music festival on the Strip.

They traveled down from Reno, where Meyer attended Truckee Meadows Community College, to celebrate his 24th birthday and the new life they’d begin together. A big lover of sports, and the Boston Celtics basketball team in particular, Meyer, a native of Marina, Calif., worked as a limo driver in Monterey before heading to Nevada to study transportation technology. He hoped to open a car repair shop once he graduated. Meyer was among those killed by a gunman who opened fire on the music festival Sunday. Getreu survived.

“He was a wonderful young man and my future son-in-law,” Gary Getreu, Dana’s father, wrote in a statement released by the college. “He loved attending the automotive program at your school and praised it all the time.” In one photo posted on social media, Meyer is shown kissing Dana Getreu on the cheek as she squints and smiles broadly. “The loss and grief his family and mine feel at this time is beyond belief,” Gary Getreu said.

Born and raised in Anchorage, Adrian Murfitt worked as a commercial fisherman. A fan of country music, Murfitt decided to travel with longtime friend Brian MacKinnon to Las Vegas to attend Sunday’s concert.

MacKinnon, 33, described his childhood friend as an animal lover and goofball. “He made me laugh. He was like an Alaskan cowboy, but when he saw a dog he’d turn into a 10-year-old kid,” MacKinnon said.

MacKinnon was with Murfitt when gunfire raked the crowd and said his friend died in his arms.

Other people described Murfitt as a caring person who went out of his way to help friends.

“Can’t describe in words how thankful and grateful I am to have you show me what a real true gentleman you are,” Christine Young said of Murfitt on Facebook. “I’ll keep the advice you gave me and I promise to take it as I go through life moving forward… you’ll be kept in a special place in my heart.”

Rachael Parker, a records technician at the Manhattan Beach Police Department, was among four off-duty department employees who attended the concert Sunday night. Two were shot — Parker and a sworn officer.

Parker died at a hospital, authorities said. The sworn officer suffered minor injuries.

Parker worked for the Police Department for 10 years.

“She was just a great, great worker, always happy — definitely had her whole future ahead of her,” said Manhattan Beach police spokeswoman Kristi Colombo. “I’m heartbroken and speechless.”

Jennifer Parks had just started her third year of teaching kindergarten at Anaverde Hills School in Palmdale.

She was attending the Sunday night concert with her husband, who was injured in the shooting, Westside Union School District Supt. Regina Rossall said, and she has two children: one in the elementary school where she taught and one in high school.

Parks was “the kind of teacher everybody wants their children to have.” Rossall said. “Every child in her class was the most important child to her.”

“She just has a zest for life,” Rossall said before correcting herself. “Or, had a zest for life. I can’t even say it that way.”

The school district learned of Parks’ death Monday morning, and the school’s principal asked parents to talk to their children.

“Obviously [in] kindergarten that’s a hard concept to grasp,” Rossall said. A crisis counselor who is familiar with the school is also in the classroom Tuesday, she said.

Parks was “a blessing to our school district and our students,” Rossall said. “It is just unfortunate that she will not get to share her joy of learning with more students.”