On Sunday, 26 people were killed, including the unborn child of one victim, at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The attack left a staggering hole in a town of fewer than 700. Here are stories of those who died.
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Robert Corrigan, 51, and Shani Corrigan, 51
Robert and Shani were high school sweethearts, and they married shortly after graduation, said Rodney Corrigan, Robert’s brother. Rodney said his brother, who served in the Air Force, was a devout Christian and amateur musician who composed religious hymns and played guitar.
“He dedicated his life to God and his music,” Rodney said in a brief interview. “He has always been very faithful. We went to church three times a week through our whole childhood, and my brother never strayed.”
When she lived in Nebraska, Shani was active in the women’s ministry at Chandler Acres Baptist Church, heading up the church’s gift and food basket program for low-income families, said the Rev. Dan Wills Jr., a pastor.
“She treated everybody like they were her kids,” Wills said. “She constantly told me she was praying for our youth at the church, and if they needed anything, to let her know and she would find a way to help out.”
Many children, Wills said, went to summer camp or educational seminars through scholarships funded by the couple.
After Robert retired, Wills said, the couple was eager to return to Texas.
Two of their sons remain on active duty in the Air Force, the veterans office said in a statement, adding that it was speaking on behalf of family members. Another son died last November at age 25.
–Tim Craig
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Bryan and Karla Holcombe
Bryan and Karla met in high school. One day, students at Bryan’s school were selling roses and delivering them to the classrooms of admirers. So Bryan delivered a rose to every one of Karla’s classes that day.
“He thought she was cute, and she was,” said Joe Holcombe, Bryan’s father.
Karla had the “gift of hospitality,” her mother-in-law said. She had planned on hosting the family’s Thanksgiving.
On his Facebook page, Bryan is shown hoisting his grandchildren on his shoulders, dressing up in costumes for church events and playing his ukulele. He would often play and sing for prison inmates, a relative told the Associated Press.
“Grandkids, it doesn’t get any better!” Bryan wrote on Facebook on one photo of his many grandchildren. “I’ll wake up at night and, in prayer, thank God for each of them . . . it takes a while :-)”
Bryan and Karla lived near his parents, between Floresville and Sutherland Springs. He ran a business on his parents’ farm, making tarps for cattle trailers, Joe Holcombe said.
–Samantha Schmidt
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Crystal Holcombe; Greg Hill, 13; Emily Hill, 11; Megan Hill, 8
Crystal was at church with her husband, John. Three of her five children – Greg, Emily and Megan – were also killed. She was pregnant; the unborn child was killed.
Rojean Staggs, 66, of Floresville said she had rented an apartment to Crystal and described her as a sweet and natural mother to a large brood.
“Crystal was a breath of fresh air. She loved children,” Staggs said, describing a woman who seemed to easily navigate children with different, competing needs without ever seeming flustered. “She had a full house and just seemed to take to it beautifully.” Staggs said Crystal had been married to her husband, John, for just a few years. Staggs said Crystal lost her first husband to cancer.
Crystal home-schooled her five children and was heavily involved in the church, like the rest of the family. On her Facebook page, she reported proudly on her children’s successes in competitions for their local 4-H and wrote about a recent bake sale benefiting families affected by Hurricane Harvey.
“The girls participated in their first 4H Food show & food challenge today!” read a post dated Nov. 4. “They’ve worked hard and learned so much, I’m very proud of them both!” The post included photos of two girls, one holding a red plate, and the other seated, grinning.
Another post, from late October, noted that Emily had taken part in a 4-H archery competition. Photos included in that Facebook post showed a girl holding a medal, smiling.
–Samantha Schmidt and Abigail Hauslohner
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Marc Daniel Holcombe, 36; Noah Holcombe, 1
Marc Daniel Holcombe, who went by Danny, wasn’t much of a chatterbox – except when he had a new photo or video of his young daughter, Noah, said Jennifer Kincaid, human resources manager at F&W Electrical Contractors.
“If you would go to the back shop where the mechanics were at, he would always be working,” Kincaid said. “The only thing, like I said, that he would stop working for was to tell you about his daughter. Because he was very proud of her.”
Kincaid remembered Danny as a generous and caring co-worker and as a clever and talented mechanic, noting that he used to whip up woodworking projects for her and could fabricate machines and equipment.
“We would be out on job sites and people would ask us, ‘Where’d you get that?’ ” Kincaid said. “And Danny had made it.”
Kincaid said Danny stopped her Friday evening and told her he’d take a look at a fog light on her car he thought was out.
“A lot of times, we could call him MacGyver because he could fix anything,” Kincaid said.
Danny was a son of Bryan and Karla Holcombe, who were also killed.
Danny’s daughter, Noah, and wife, Jenni, had fairly recently begun to visit the business on Thursdays for lunch, Kincaid said.
“She was just up here on Thursday, getting Halloween candy from people and playing on our desks,” Kincaid said of Noah. Noah was a friendly, vibrant child with big blue eyes and blonde hair.
After her birth in May 2016, Noah spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit but had grown to be strong and healthy.
“One of the mechanics was telling me she was just giving him a kiss last Thursday,” Kincaid said. “She’s so sweet. Very curious. Just full of life.”
–Sarah Larimer
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Haley Krueger, 16
This is not the first time tragedy befell Haley’s family. Her father died of pancreatic cancer in October 2015, leaving behind Haley and her three siblings.
“Haley loved life and was the most dramatic person,” her mother, Charlene Uhl, said in a GoFundMe campaign set up by a family friend. She dreamed of becoming a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Haley’s older brother, Chandler Krueger, wrote on Facebook on Monday, “R.I.P little sister we love you with all my heart and I will miss you Soo much.”
–Colby Itkowitz
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Karen Marshall, 59 and Scott Marshall, 59
It was Karen and Scott’s first time at the church Sunday. The couple had been living in different states, but finally, Karen would soon be retiring from the Air Force. So Scott went to help her pack up and move from the Washington area to Texas, said his father, Robert Marshall. On the way, they stopped in Pennsylvania to spend time with Scott’s family and celebrate Robert’s 85th birthday.
“Oh, what a good son I had,” he said Monday night. The couple regularly went to Bible study.
Scott grew up in Hopewell, Pennsylvania, and joined the Air Force after high school. Karen lived in Nevada before joining the Air Force, Robert said. Most recently, Karen finished a posting at Joint Base Andrews. Scott, retired from the Air Force, was working as a civilian contractor and mechanic at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, according to TribLive.
The couple met when they were in the Air Force decades ago and have multiple children and grandchildren, Robert said. Scott was his only son.
Robert said he wants to be in Texas with his grandchildren when they go to the morgue this week. So despite complications – he needs an oxygen tank to fly – he said he’s making the trip.
“I’m trying to get down there to help my grandkids,” he said. “It could be tough on them.”
–Ellie Silverman
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Tara McNulty, 33
After seeing news of the shooting on TV on Sunday night, Amber Maricle texted her best friend, Tara McNulty. On Monday morning, one of McNulty’s close friends in Texas contacted Maricle, 34, to tell her McNulty went to church Sunday morning.
“I said, ‘Is she still with us?’ and she said, ‘No,’ ” Maricle said Monday night through tears. “It rips your heart out of your chest.”
The two became friends when Maricle went looking for a home about five years ago in DeRidder, Louisiana. She became best friends with McNulty, the woman who sold it to her. When they lived in the same area, they would hang out on the couch, eat pizza, and watch “Gilmore Girls,” “Pitch Perfect” and other favorites.
“She was like me. She was like my soul sister,” Maricle said. “We could literally finish each other’s sentences. It was an immediate bond.” McNulty was a single mother and loved her kids more than anything else, Maricle said. Her kids were wounded in the gunfire, according to Maricle and Kevin Koenen, McNulty’s boss.
McNulty worked part time at the Aumont Saloon, Koenen wrote in a Facebook message to The Post. He declined to talk more about her “at this point.” Koenen posted on Facebook about a benefit event for her family.
“This is a huge loss. Tara was very kind hearted person great employee,” he wrote.
Another friend wrote in a Facebook message to The Post that McNulty had great character. Elaina Mendez described Tara as an “amazing mom and a good Christian with morals and faith like you don’t see today.”
–Ellie Silverman
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Annabelle Pomeroy, 14
Annabelle’s mother and father weren’t at church Sunday, but the shy, perpetually smiling girl with an affinity for motorcycles was surrounded by the church family she’d grown up with.
She was from a family of religious leaders; her father and uncle are pastors.
Her father is the pastor at First Baptist, but Sunday he was traveling with his wife, Sherri.
“We lost more than Belle yesterday, and the one thing that gives me a sliver of encouragement is the fact that Belle was surrounded by her church family that she loved fiercely, and vice versa,” Sherri Pomeroy told reporters at a news conference Monday.
“As senseless as this tragedy was, our sweet Belle would not have been able to deal with losing so much family,” Sherri said.
Cynthia Rangel, a family friend who lives in nearby Stockdale, told The Post that Annabelle “was very quiet, shy, always smiling and helpful to all.”
Annabelle was the youngest of six children. She turned 14 in October and was a seventh-grader at Briesemeister Middle School. The schools superintendent wrote that the school was mourning Belle, “a victim of this senseless crime.”
She was an “angel in the flesh,” her uncle Scott Pomeroy told BuzzFeed.
Later, in a Facebook post, he wrote: “She made being an uncle one [of] the best titles I’ve ever held.”
–Cleve Wootson
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Richard, 64, and Therese Rodriguez
On Saturday mornings, Richard would wake up early, and he and his daughter Regina would watch “Soul Train” together. On Friday nights, they would dance and act silly, always ending the night with “Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas.
He liked to watch the first Dallas Cowboys game of the season with Regina and take her to the flea market on weekends. He was always trying to make everyone happy, Regina said.
Her father, a foreman for the railroad, and his wife, Therese, a receptionist for the same company, had recently retired. If they weren’t cutting the grass or working in the garden, she said, they were at the church.
Both of them were in the church Sunday. Both of them were killed.
Regina’s mother died when she was 18, and her dad helped her through that. Her dad was at her graduation. Her dad walked her down the aisle. Her dad would take her children for the weekend to spend time with them. One of her sons would always put on boots and Wranglers and sunglasses on the visor of his cap before those weekends – so excited to see his grandfather that he wanted to dress like him.
Regina often found herself putting her sunglasses on the visor of her cap, too.
“He was my person,” she said. “The person I called. The person I went to if I had a problem.”
Her father taught her to be strong, she said. “I didn’t call anybody else but him,” she said, choking on her tears. “And now I can’t even call him.”