Alaskans Among Victims Of Las Vegas Massacre

Among the Las Vegas shooting victims were two from Alaska: Adrian Murfitt was a commercial fisherman and Dorene Anderson was a stay-at-home mom and a hockey fan.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We are also keeping our focus on some of the at least 58 victims. That's the number that's being used now. Two of those victims came from Anchorage, Alaska. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann grew up in Alaska. And, Brian, who were your fellow Alaskans?

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Well, Steve, one was Dorene Anderson. She'd come south to Las Vegas with her family on holiday. On her Facebook page, she describes herself as a huge hockey fan. Her booster club called themselves the Cowbell Crew. And she also described herself as a stay-at-home wife and mother on her Facebook page, with her husband and two daughters and photographs. She just looks incredibly happy.

INSKEEP: The social media posts of victim after victim just give you windows into - into rich lives ended so quickly.

MANN: Absolutely.

INSKEEP: Who - who was the other Alaskan?

MANN: Adrian Murfitt. People called him Murf (ph). He was a 35-year-old guy, commercial fisherman in Alaska. Never married, but he had a dog named Pax (ph). And again, all over his social media pages, he called his dog his baby. Loved to hang out with his family. And he was at this concert with another Alaskan, Brian MacKinnon, who wrote on Facebook that one of the bullets knocked his hat off but then another round cut Adrian Murfitt in the neck. (Reading) Sadly, he died in my arms, Brian MacKinnon wrote.

And Adrian Murfitt's mother told Alaska Public Radio that her son was the guy who just loved life. He was having a good time after a hard season of work.

INSKEEP: And that season of work, people may know from the TV program, "Deadliest Catch," is a very hazardous line of work. He does that for a living, and then goes on vacation and gets killed on vacation.

MANN: Yeah. Alaskans live in hard territory, often do hard work like commercial fishermen. Work hard and play hard. So they'd come down to Las Vegas to have fun and let off steam and - and then this happened. And it's very painful.

INSKEEP: Brian, thanks for coming by. Really appreciate it.

MANN: Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: Brian Mann is a reporter who was part of our team in Las Vegas this morning helping us to remember some of the victims of this week's massacre.

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