CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Sunday, Jul. 29, 2012 8:40AM EDT
Last Updated Sunday, Jul. 29, 2012 10:22AM EDT
A young mother who lost her six-year-old daughter and was herself seriously injured in the Colorado theatre shooting has suffered a miscarriage.
The family of Ashley Moser, 25, said in a statement Saturday that she is recovering from surgery but that the miscarriage was caused by the extreme trauma she experienced during the shooting.
Jacki Kelley of the Jefferson County sheriff's office declined to release details and said the family has declined to speak to the media.
Moser's daughter, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was the youngest person killed in the attack at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., more than a week ago.
Moser suffered gunshot wounds to her neck and abdomen.
Annie Dalton, Moser’s aunt, said after the shooting that Moser was drifting in and out of consciousness and asking for her daughter. Dalton said she and the rest of Moser’s family couldn’t bring themselves to tell her that her daughter had been killed.
A funeral has not yet been planned for the murdered girl, the family said.
News of Moser’s miscarriage came the same day funerals were held for several other victims of the shooting. More funerals will be held next week.
Three victims laid to rest
On Saturday, mourners packed a church in western Ohio town of Springfield to remember Matt McQuinn, 27, who was shot three times when he dove in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler.
Yowler was in attendance, wearing a black cast around her leg and moving around on crutches. She is recovering from a gunshot wound to her knee.
McQuinn has been hailed as a hero for shielding Yowler.
His uncle Pastor Herb Shaffer addressed more than 200 mourners at the funeral service, asking them to be inspired by McQuinn’s actions.
"In moments of crisis, a person's true character comes out," he said during the service. "His immediate response was to protect the woman he loved."
A private funeral service was held at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo., for Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress on the same day and family and friends also gathered in San Antonio, Texas to remember the bubbly aspiring sportscaster Jessica Ghawi.
The 24-year-old was killed less than two months after narrowly avoiding a shooting at a Toronto mall.
At the funeral service in Ghawi’s hometown, her brother briefly mentioned the theatre shooting.
"If this coward could have done this with this much hate, imagine what we can do with this much love," said Jordan Ghawi.
Close friend Brent Lowak had accompanied Ghawi to the Batman movie screening.
Lowak’s mother Sue Greene told The Associated Press that her son tried to help Ghawi after realizing that a bullet had hit her leg. She said Lowak, an aspiring emergency medical technician, was applying pressure to the leg wound as Ghawi screamed.
Only when Ghawi stopped screaming did Lowak realize that she had been shot again, said Greene. She was pronounced dead a short time later.
Ghawi wrote and tweeted about hockey under the name Jessica Redfield.
Ghawi was dating Toronto-area junior hockey player Jay Meloff, who she met during an interview for an article about concussions. In an interview with CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney, Meloff described Ghawi as a “kind soul” who “would never hurt anybody.”
Saturday, Meloff said while others described her as “a tough, redheaded spitfire,” she was also warm-hearted and passionate.
“She was as mushy as they come,” he added.
Meloff said they were looking forward to building a future together and he also encouraged others to do as she did and "live each day fully."
"She drank in life," he said.
Twenty-four-year-old James Holmes has been arrested in connection with the massacre that also left 58 people injured. He is due to be formally charged on Monday.
With files from The Associated Press
