Reno victim was excited about life
The future appeared bright for Austin Meyer.
The Reno man was engaged, enrolled in college and had dreams of opening his own business.
That was all cut short Sunday.
Meyer was in Las Vegas celebrating his 24th birthday at the Route 91 Harvest festival and was one of 58 people killed by a gunman, a spokeswoman for Truckee Meadows Community College confirmed Thursday.
The college student was the last victim to be identified by the Las Vegas Review-journal. The Clark County coroner released an official list of all the deceased Thursday night.
Facebook photos show Meyer had bright blue eyes and short blond hair. In an interview with a California TV station, his sister Veronica described him as “ambitious, smart and hardworking.”
“Austin was a joy to be around. He always had a smile on his face, was (witty) and was always making people laugh. He was passionate about cars, loved sports, basketball in particular, and his favorite team (was) the Boston Celtics,” Veronica Meyer told KSBW-TV, according to its website.
Austin Meyer recently moved from the Monterey Peninsula to Reno and enrolled in the college’s two-year transportation technologies program, KSBW reported.
His fiancée, Dana Getreu, is a student at the nearby University of Nevada, Reno.
“He had dreams of opening his own auto-repair shop after graduation. He was excited to get married and start a family,” Veronica Meyer told KSBW.
Getreu’s father declined a phone interview with the Review-journal on Thursday. Austin Meyer’s immediate family could not be reached.
The Review-journal has determined that more than half of those killed at the music festival were Californians. Only six concertgoers who were killed lived in the Las Vegas Valley.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s annual visitor profile study showed that nearly one-third of visitors to Las Vegas last year were from California.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-4773861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter. ▶ Page 7A