From left: Mary Marshall’s mother Jenny Marshall, father Thomas Marshall, fiancé Robert Steele, and sister Meaghan McCrickard.
One of five people murdered at a recent mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina, was two weeks away from her wedding. Mary Marshall‘s fiancé Robert Steele now wears the wedding band she planned on surprising him with, according to Sunday TODAY. There is a message on the inside.
“The engraving is ‘You’re my favorite place,'” Steele said in a heart-wrenching interview. “I loved when she would wrap me up in her arms, and every time that we would cuddle that way, she would whisper in my ear before we went to sleep, ‘You’re my favorite place.'”
She said that he last spoke to Marshall, 34, on Thursday, when she told him to return home immediately.
Their dog Scruff slipped his collar and she heard gunshots. She went after the dog. Robert said he arrived at home to find detectives nearby.
“And he started asking about tattoos that Mary has,” he said.
“And we knew right then,” Mary’s father Thomas Marshall said.
“We knew,” Steele said. “We knew she was gone.”
Police said it was a 15-year-old boy — identified in reports as Austin Thompson — who killed his brother James Roger Thompson, 16, as well as Marshall, Susan Karnatz, 49, Nicole Connors, 52 and off-duty Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Torres. Austin Thompson also allegedly shot and killed Connors’ dog Sammy.
Prayers for the Torres’s. This is Gabriel Torres, 29, he is the Raleigh officer who was shot and killed during a spree killing in east Raleigh. He is among five dead. He was a husband and father of a two-year-old daughter. #wral pic.twitter.com/8uNUzcn7tN
— WRAL Keely Arthur (@keelyarthur50YS) October 14, 2022
Susan Karnatz was one of 5 people killed in the #Raleigh mass shooting. Her husband tells @ChelseaDReports she was a loving mother to their 3 sons— 10, 13 and 14 years old. A friend describes Susan as an avid runner & one of the kindest people she’s ever known @WRAL pic.twitter.com/B6i2Cqu08b
— Renee Chou (@chouchoutv) October 14, 2022
Remembering the victims of the Raleigh mass shooting.
Nicole Conners, seen with her husband.
Susan Karnatz, “the kindest person.”
Mary Marshall, 2 weeks away from her wedding.
Officer Gabriel Torres, leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter.
16-year-old James Thompson.@WRAL pic.twitter.com/xqL5i7ocjZ
— Keenan Willard (@KeenanWRAL) October 14, 2022
“I was really looking forward to it,” her father Thomas Marshall told TODAY about walking down the aisle at his daughter’s upcoming wedding. “I couldn’t wait for it.”
Steele’s GoFundMe campaign to pay for Mary Marshall’s funeral, memorial as well as the wedding cancellation raised $14,348 of a $10,000 goal as of Sunday.
Update – Oct. 18, 2022: Marshall’s sister Meaghan McCrickard also started a GoFundMe campaign. It raised $11,490 of a $10,000 goal as of Oct. 18.
A GoFundMe campaign to pay for Connors’ funeral raised $20,570 of a $7,500 goal.
A GoFundMe campaign to support survivor Lynn Gardner as she recovers from critical condition raised $33,818 of a $50,000 goal.
A GoFundMe campaign to support Torres’ family raised $104,591 of a $120,000 goal.
[Screenshot via TODAY]
