Loved ones honor memories of those lost in Vegas
They were country music enthusiasts, loving parents, sisters and brothers, friends
It’s been nearly a week since hundreds of people lost their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and friends.
But it’s only the beginning of grief for the families and friends mourning the lives of the 58 Americans and Canadians who died when a gunman opened fire at a Las Vegas, Nev., country concert Sunday night.
The victims were country music enthusiasts, loving parents, friends who always knew how to turn someone’s day around. Their loved ones are honoring their memories through interviews, social media posts, community vigils and fundraising efforts.
A tough, devoted single mother of three
Candice Bowers of Garden Grove, California, was a toughminded single mother of three with a loud, infectious laugh. Her family said she worked as a waitress and was spending some muchneeded time off at the concert. The huge Jason Aldean fan was very excited to be there.
She was also celebrating a personal milestone: Bowers had just finished a yearslong process to adopt a 2-year-old daughter.
“That was just done, and it was a big accomplishment to get through the adoption process,” said Michelle Bolks, Bowers’ aunt.
Bowers also had a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.
“She had a bit of a rough upbringing, but as soon as babies came into her life she stepped up and stepped forward and never looked back. She did this all by herself and took this little one in and was doing it again,” Bolks said.
Festival guard died helping others
Erick Silva, 21, was working as a private security guard at the music festival when he was killed while trying to help people escape.
His close friend, Martin Adrian Marin Jr., said he was not surprised Silva died helping others. “He would give the shirt off his back to comfort anyone,” Marin said. “He was such a courageous man.”
Marin has saved the last text message Silva sent to him that Sunday morning before going to work at the festival.
“I want to wish you a lovely and productive day,” Silva texted. “Just know that I am always here.”
Silva would send text messages like that almost daily, Marin said.
“He was always so sweet and generous and caring,” he said. “It was not hard to fall in love with his personality.”
Father of six known for big heart, personality
John Phippen was a father of six who was always willing to lend an ear — or a cold beer — to a friend in need.
“He had a heart that was larger than life and a personality to match,” neighbor Leah Nagyivanyi wrote on an online fundraising page. “You felt like you knew him for years the first time you met him.”
Nagyivanyi is raising money through GoFundMe to help Phippen’s children pay for his funeral.
Phippen, 56, lived in Santa Clarita, California. The youngest of his six children, a daughter, is 14.
‘Our firecracker is gone’
The first time Alexis Magana drove over to her friend Brandon Mestas’ house, she asked how to find it.
“Oh, you’ll know,” he told her. “It’s the one blasting country.”
It was Brandon’s mom, Pati Mestas, who was the household’s country music fanatic. Pati Mestas, 67, of California, died in Las Vegas while listening to that favorite music. Magana remembered her as someone who was “fearless and bold” and always welcoming, from that very first day they met.
“She really was a firecracker,” Magana wrote to The Associated Press in a Facebook message. “I just never dreamed she’d be taken from us in an instant. Our firecracker is gone and now it’s just dark.”
Brandon Mestas, 33, wrote on his Facebook page that his mother surely enjoyed herself in her final moments.
“She left this world surrounded by friends, singing and dancing with thousands of people. If I had to write the script myself, I could not have done a better job,” he wrote.
One of the first to die
Brett Schwanbeck was hit almost immediately when the first shots were fired, his niece Carla Dawn wrote in an online fundraising page.
Schwanbeck, 61, had been at the concert with his fiancee, Anna. She found refuge in a dumpster as the shots kept coming, then ran back to Schwanbeck and begged for people to help him as soon as the shooting stopped, Dawn wrote.
Schwanbeck was rushed to a hospital, where he fought his injuries for two days before dying Tuesday.
His niece described him as someone who “would drive 500 miles to help you if you needed it.”
Life of ‘gentle spirit’ revolved around music
Victor Link was doing one of the things he most enjoyed with the person he most enjoyed — his fiancee, Lynne Gonzales — when automatic gunfire peppered the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Link, 55, Gonzales, and two of their close friends were there to hear country music when he was shot.
A “gentle spirit” was lost with Link’s death, said his older brother, Craig Link, 58.
“He was somebody that everybody loved,” Craig Link told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Victor had a gentle spirit, a loving spirit. He was a giver. He was always there for any of his friends or family. If he could, he would help out wherever he could. He was a good man.
“He was my younger brother, but I always aspired to be him.”
Disney workers among victims in shooting
Carrie Barnette, 34, was a Disneyland food service worker who never lost her sense of wonder for things like hummingbirds, according to her friends and family.
Barnette, of Riverside, California, was part of the culinary team at Disney California Adventure for 10 years.
Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger said in a statement that she was “beloved by her friends and colleagues.”
“We are especially heartbroken over the loss of one of our own to this unconscionable and senseless act,” Iger said. Another Disney cast member, Jessica Milam, was seriously injured in the concert shooting.
Joey Castillo, who is married to Barnette’s younger sister, told the Orange County Register that Barnette loved hummingbirds because she saw them as a sign that her deceased grandparents were watching over them.
“She was always happy and loved her grandparents with who she’s now with up in heaven,” he said. “She will be greatly missed.”
‘Framily’ group is missing a member
Nicol Kimura, 38, went to the festival with a group of seven men and women who call themselves “framily” — friends who are like family. She was killed seconds after the gunfire began, said Ryan Miller, a businessman and pastor who is part of the group.
Kimura, a Southern California native living in Placentia, was single and didn’t have any children, but she was treated like family by the kids of group members, Miller said.
“She was a mom to all of our kids; they called her ‘auntie,’” he said. “I have two kids myself, and they were just absolutely devastated that they will not be able to see her again.”
Kimura, who is also survived by her parents and a sister, worked in a tax office for Orange County and spent most weekends with her friends. No one else in the group was shot.
“She was just such an amazing woman and she was just such a light,” he said.
‘The definition of American’
Brian Fraser, a father of four, was moving toward the stage in anticipation of Jason Aldean playing his favorite song, “Dirt Road Anthem,” when gunshots rang out.
While others around him ducked for safety, Fraser looked around to try to spot where the shots were coming from so that he could shield his wife. He died doing just that, said his son, Nick Arellano.
Fraser’s friend ushered their wives and friends to safety before rushing back to perform CPR on Fraser. A doctor and several nurses in the crowd came to help, eventually loading Fraser into a wheelbarrow and taking him to paramedics.
Arellano recounted the story as told to him by his wife, his mother and family friends. Arellano had been at the concert with them for the prior two days but chose to head home early, just missing the harrowing scene.
Arellano described Fraser, 39, as “the definition of American,” a man who boated, hunted, fished and snowboarded. Fraser married his wife, Stephanie, 11 years ago, adopting Arellano and one of her other children.
The couple had two more children together, now ages 4 and 10. The family lives in La Palma, California.
“He taught me what it meant to be an honest, motivated, driven, loving man to not only family and friends, but even to just strangers or anyone he came in contact with — just to be a human being to everyone on this planet,” Arellano said.
Friends died at concert together
Austin Davis, 29, “had this unbelievable super power of making everyone he knew and loved feel like he’d catch a speeding bullet out of the air for them,” friend Katelyn Hood told The Associated Press in a Facebook message.
Davis was the only child of his parents, Lori and Gary Davis. The family was so close that Davis built his house on their property in Riverside, California, so he would never be far away.
“He was their protector,” said Hood, who named Davis as her son’s godfather.
Davis also left behind his girlfriend of nine years, whom he met in high school. He was at the concert with a family friend, Thomas Day Jr., who also died.
He worked as a pipe fitter, loved watching his friends’ dogs — especially German Shepherds — and always made sure his friends’ had smiles on their faces.
“Austin was Austin and no one could change him,” Hood said. “He stood firm on his beliefs because he knew he was raised right.”
A search for mom, and then horror
Laura Shipp raised her son Corey by herself, then moved to Las Vegas from Thousand Oaks, California, a few years ago to be closer to him. Both were country music fans, and they went to the Route 91 Harvest Festival together, said Laura Shipp’s mother, Joyce Shipp.
They were together until just before a gunman opened fire Sunday night.
“We really don’t know what happened, just that she went to the bathroom and nobody saw her after that,” Joyce Shipp said of her 50-year-old daughter, a dispatcher at an air conditioner company.
After Corey, a Marine Corps reservist, spent more than a day trying to find out what had happened to his mother, he was notified she was dead.
“He’s not doing great,” Joyce Shipp said. “He’s just trying to get his arms around all this, but he’s surrounded by his friends and family. We don’t want to leave him alone at this time.”
Man died in boyfriend’s arms
Cameron Robinson, 28, had been looking forward to attending the festival with his boyfriend for days, said friend and colleague Brad Jerbic.
Robinson was a records specialist for the city of Las
Vegas, and his infectious personality made him the heart of the office, Jerbic said Tuesday. Robinson had moved to southern Utah about a year ago to be with boyfriend Bobby Eardley, and he commuted two hours each way to work every day.
“He was just so happy — you could see it in his face,” Jerbic said. “If he was alive, he would say this is the best time of his life.”
The couple was together when Robinson was shot in the neck and bled to death, Jerbic said. Eardley was also struck by shrapnel and suffered minor injuries.
“(Eardley) actually held him. He was with him when he died. He tried to stop the bleeding. There was so much chaos,” Jerbic said.
Youngest of four wanted to help others
Victim Michelle Vo, 32, was the youngest of four siblings in a family from the San Francisco Bay area.
She worked hard at her job at New York Life insurance group in Pasadena, California, loved to cheer for the Golden State Warriors and was a pretty good golfer, said sister Cathy Vo Warren.
Warren remembered her sister as someone who always wanted to do good for those around her. “You’d need a poet to tell you everything,” said Cathy’s husband, Paul Warren.
Born in Southern California, Vo was attending the Las Vegas concert by herself and befriended Kody Robertson. The two were together when Vo was shot. Robertson later helped relatives find her.
“We’re very thankful that we met Kody,” Warren said. “We’re very thankful for him to be there with Michelle so that she wasn’t alone in her last moments.”