VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – Four years since the tragedy in Virginia Beach, families of the victims are still desperate for answers.
A laptop allegedly belonging to the mass shooter surfaced in January. Now, a copy of its hard drive is in the hands of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.
10 On Your Side has learned a copy of the hard drive is now being analyzed by the computer crimes forensics lab.
Jason Nixon’s wife, Kate, was one of the victims in the mass shooting and he said it brings him comfort knowing it’s finally in the attorney general’s hands.
“Kate was our rock,” said Jason. “She was the foundation of this family.”
Jason Nixon said he can see his wife Kate, in all three of his daughters, Morgan, Madilyn and Mackenzie.
“They all talk like her,” Jason Nixon said. “They all have her characteristics.”
They say holidays, vacations, birthdays, and especially Mother’s Day, are tough.
“Mackenzie’s birthday is a little hard because that was the last birthday we celebrated and she’s the youngest, so she only had one birthday with her,” said Morgan.
“I keep her memory alive with Mackenzie, because she didn’t really have much of a memory,” Jason Nixon said.
Kate Nixon was one of 12 people killed when a gunman opened fire in Municipal Building 2 on May 31, 2019.
Earlier this year, Virginia Beach Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler told 10 on Your Side she was given the personal laptop that allegedly belonged to the mass shooter.
The sister of one of the victims was in the gunman’s condo cleaning out items when the laptop was discovered.
The family who found it filed a case in civil court against the shooter’s estate and won, so that’s why they were inside the apartment.
Jason Nixon said he remembers seeing the laptop when he would visit Kate at work for lunch.
“I told everyone there was a laptop from day one and they just treated me like a crazy person,” he said.
He said he’s been pushing for authorities to look into this laptop for some time now. He thinks there could be a manifesto on it.
“I think that once we get into the hard drive, we’ll be able to see what the etching shows,” Jason Nixon said. “You cant hide everything.”
Nixon said he thinks once the IT team is able to get into the hard drive, they’ll be able to get more answers.
“I’m not going to quit until its finished,” he said. “I owe it to these girls and I owe it to Kate.”
The Virginia Beach Mass Shooting Commission released a statement saying, “If the AG’s office conducts an analysis of the laptop and its data, if there is any that can be recovered, including impacts of the chain of custody of the laptop on the reliability of its contents, the commission likely would vote whether to consider any resulting report. The board continues to move toward fulfillment of its mandate.”
Nixon said as far as he knows, Kelly Convirs-Fowler still has the original laptop and Attorney General Jason Miyares and Attorney Justin Fairfax both have copies of the hard drive.
Nixon said there’s a rumor going around that he and the other families have sued the city of Virginia Beach. He says that’s not true.
He and the other family members went to the state and asked for an allocation to help with funding for the kids of the victims and co-workers who didn’t go back to work.
Nixon said the families have created a group called Virginia Beach 531 Families United to help other mass shooting victims’ families navigate life after a traumatic event, like they experienced in Virginia Beach in 2019.
