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Alex Cabrero ReportingOne of Talovic's victims is still recovering in the hospital. Carolyn Tuft has already been through two surgeries and will have several more in the near future. Rob Morgan told me his sister-in-law is doing very well, considering the circumstances.
She was shot twice in the back. But for all the reconstructive surgery she is going through, not even the best doctor in the world can heal her pain after she also saw her daughter get shot, then die.
We've heard many stories of death and survival from Monday night's Trolley Square shootings. This story is also about both, but in a different way.
Carolyn Tuft survived being shot, but her 15-year-old daughter, Kirsten Hinckley, did not.
Rob Morgan: "I think her decease was instant, and Carolyn knew it."
Rob Morgan, Carolyn's brother-in-law, says after she was shot, she fell on top of her daughter, who was already dead.
Rob Morgan, Relative: "When she was wounded and laying there, after having seen her daughter killed, she, the first thing she did was get out her cell phone and call some people. She thought she was going to die, so her first thought was of her family."
Even with all her pain, physical and emotional, Tuft wanted to say goodbye.
Rob Morgan: "She didn't expect to survive, and so she wanted to touch base with her family."
Family is the most important thing to Tuft. She owns her own house-cleaning business but always made time for her daughters. She and Kirsten were at Trolley Square shopping for Valentine's that awful night.
Kirsten was a sophomore at Brighton High School. A memorial has been set up there for her. Even the billboard outside says she'll always be missed. The family is just thankful they're not planning two funerals.
Rob Morgan: "That it didn't hit any vital organs or her spine is absolutely miraculous, and that she's still with us is a miracle we're very grateful for."
Kirsten Hinckley's funeral has not been set yet; the family wants to wait until Carolyn, her mother, is well enough to attend it.
A fund has been set up in their names at any Zions Bank branch, and for all the victims at any Wells Fargo.
