Thousands of abandoned phones, backpacks, handbags and clothing left behind in Las Vegas when concert-goers fled the shooting massacre are now slowly being returned to their owners.
The FBI started the slow process of returning the personal possessions on Sunday – one week on from when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest festival from the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel.
Thousands of people who were attending the concert fled for their lives as Paddock slaughtered 58 before killing himself in what became the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
Police have spent the seven days since the shooting collecting evidence amid the thousands of abandoned items, some of them covered in blood.
Thousands of abandoned phones, backpacks, handbags and clothing left behind in Las Vegas when concert-goers fled the shooting massacre are now slowly being returned to their owners
‘Whatever was dropped when people started running, those items we’re collecting and we’re going to provide back,’ Paul Flood, unit chief in the FBI’s victim services division said at a news conference.
The items have been cataloged with detailed descriptions and cleaned of blood and other substances.
‘Just in general, the sheer size of the space, the amount of personal items that were left there, it’s just a huge undertaking,’ Flood said.
So many phones, backpacks, lawn chairs, prams and other items were left behind that the FBI had to divide the huge crime scene into four quadrants, releasing items from only one of them at a time.
So items were left behind that the FBI had to divide the huge crime scene into four quadrants, releasing items from only one of them at a time
Police have spent the seven days since the shooting collecting evidence amid the thousands of abandoned items left begind, some of which were covered in blood
The items have been cataloged with detailed descriptions and had to be cleaned of blood and other substances before they could be returned to their owners
Property from just one quadrant of the scene filled seven delivery-sized trucks and required the attention of dozens of investigators.
The process of returning items left behind by those who fled in the chaos could take weeks, authorities said.
Meanwhile, investigators still lack a clear reason why Paddock unleashed a torrent of gunfire into a crowd of 22,000. The suspect shot himself to death before police stormed his 32nd-floor suite in the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort, high above the concert venue.
Unlike so many other perpetrators of deadly mass shootings before him, Paddock left behind no suicide note, no manifesto, no recordings and no messages on social media pointing to his intent, according to police.
Fifty-eight people died and nearly 500 were injured.
To honor the victims on Sunday night, marquee lights along the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 11 minutes from 10.05 until 10.16pm, the exact time and duration of the gunfire one week ago.
Thousands of panicked country music fans fled the concert grounds on Sunday night when gunfire rang out. Two days later, the venue remains a scene of chaos (above)
Investigators are seen wearing bags on their feet to avoid contaminating the massive crime scene
The teams of FBI investigators were seen meticulously exploring the abandoned festival ground where so many bodies fell