Batman Colorado shooting: mother shot in the neck yet to learn of daughter's death

Ashley Moser, 25, is in a critical condition and is drifting in and out of consciousness as she attempts to recover from the injuries sustained when Holmes, 24, opened fire in the crowded cinema on Friday.

The massacre claimed 12 lives. Among them was Ashley’s daughter Veronica Moser-Sullivan.

But yesterday the Moser family revealed that they cannot bring themselves to tell Ashley that her daughter is dead.

They told how the young mother cries out for her daughter from her hospital bed, unaware that she is dead.

Annie Dalton, Ashley’s aunt, told Denver’s 9News: “Nobody can tell her about it. She is in critical condition, but all she's asking about is her daughter."

Veronica’s father, who has only been identified as Sullivan, said of his daughter: “She is the last girl I will ever love."

Veronica was “vibrant” and “excitable”, and just days before her death had bragged about how she had recently learned to swim, her family said.

“She loved to dress up, and read and was doing well at school. She was beautiful and innocent,” Mrs Dalton said.

"She was excited about life as she should be. She's a 6-year-old girl.”

Veronica’s mother is expected to survive and have use of her hands but may have some paralysis, her aunt added.

The tragic tale of the Moser family is just one of those emerging following the massacre during a midnight screening of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado.

On Saturday afternoon a full list of names of the dead was released.

They included Matthew McQuinn, a 27-year-old shop worker who died shielding his girlfriend Samantha Yowler, also 27, from gunfire.

Mr McQuinn’s family said that Miss Yowler had to undergo surgery for her injuries but hospital officials refused to tell her about her boyfriend’s death because the two were not related.

Alex Sullivan, who had gone to watch the film to celebrate his 27th birthday was also named as one of the dead. A day earlier his father Tom had brandished a photograph of Alex and emotionally urged the media and police to help find his son, who at that point was still missing.

John Larimer, a US Navy Sailor, was also killed. He too was 27-year-old old. “We love you John and we will miss you always," his family said in a statement. Sgt. Jesse Childress, 29, an Air Force reservist, was another military victim.

Gordon Cowden, a 51-year-old father who had taken his two teenage children to see the film, also died. His children escaped. He was the eldest of the victims.

Rebecca Wingo, 32, was among the dead. Her father Steve Hernandez wrote on Facebook: "I lost my daughter yesterday to a mad man, my grief right now is inconsolable, I hear she died instantly, without pain, however the pain is unbearable."

Jon Blunk, 26, died trying to protect his friend Jansen Young, she said. Mr Blunk’s estranged wife lives in Nevada with their two children and had to be notified of his death by the FBI.

Jessica Ghawi, a 24-year-old sports journalist, was the first person to be confirmed dead on Friday. It later emerged that she had survived a similar massacre at a mall in Toronto last month.

University of Denver graduate Alex Teves, 24, 18-year-old high school graduate Alexander J. Boik and college student Micayla Medek, 23, also died.