Las Vegas shooting survivors search for answers
Jonathan Hunt shares and update on the investigation.
In the more than seven weeks since 58 people were brutally murdered at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, investigators seem no closer to knowing why Stephen Paddock fired hundreds of shots from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel into the crowd below.
"I want to put my trust in the FBI and whoever else is conducting the investigation but it’s really hard, we don’t have any pieces of the puzzle,” said Jenn Gibson, one of the 22,000 people attending the country music festival that ended in gunfire the night of Oct. 1.
"I feel like we’re forgotten," Gibson continued. "I know that I’m not alone in feeling like [this.] We just need more answers.”
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Like many of those who lived through the ordeal, Gibson is struggling to move on without knowing Paddock’s motivation. Gibson managed to escape the gunfire but her close friend, 34-year old Carrie Barnette from Garden Grove, Calif. did not.
"She was an angel here on earth,” Gibson wrote on her Facebook page the day after the shooting. “Now she’s an angel in heaven.”
"I personally don’t think we’re ever going to be satisfied with the why," said John Sheahan, a former sergeant and SWAT team officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. "We're talking about someone who has never had a lot of friends, kept to himself, and had all the finances in the world to do what he was going to do."
Since the shooting, FBI and police investigators have interviewed hundreds of witnesses, including Paddock's girlfriend Mary Lou Danley. They also looked into his gun buying history, taken apart his computer and even sent his brain to Stanford University for detailed forensic examination.
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But in recent weeks, authorities have provided little to no insight into the status of their investigation. The FBI’s Las Vegas field office did not respond to Fox News’ request for an interview while the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department declined to take part in one.
"When we have more information to provide, we will let everybody know," LVMPD Officer Larry Hadfield told Fox News.
But Sheahan warns there may never be new information to release.
"Police investigators want to give the public answers. It takes the monkey off your backs,” said Sheahan. "If they’re able to provide answers -- sufficient answers -- that the public can trust in and the public can believe are the correct reasons as to why these things happen, then they don’t come under as much negative scrutiny as they are right now."
"I can tell you it’s not for lack of effort," added Steve Sisolak, the chair of the Clark County Board of Commissioners. "[Law enforcement] officers had an incredible presence here. They’ve gone through everything that they could possibly go through."
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"Some people want closure and they want to know why this happened or what his mindset might have been," Sisolak continued. "Now is there something out there that somebody knows? You’re always going to have that question."
That’s just one of the many questions survivors like Gibson carry with them as they try to move on from that horrific event.
"I feel once everything is resolved or they can give us more answers, I think a lot of us will be able to start to heal," Gibson said. "Nobody has closure right now."
Fox News’ Jonathan Hunt contributed to this report.
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