Town mourns Iowa mom lost to Vegas gunman

SUTHERLAND - Like many of his niece's friends and family, Wayne Buchholtz is in disbelief that Carly Kreibaum is gone.

'Best person that you could ask for,” the Sibley native who now lives in Dubuque recalled Wednesday. 'She was the best that anyone would want as a niece, a daughter or wife.”

Kreibaum, 34, of Sutherland, was one of those shot and killed Sunday night in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. From the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas Strip hotel, multimillionaire Stephen Paddock opened fire on 22,000 spectators gathered for an outdoor country music festival.

Kreibaum and her friends, Alison Huckaby of Larrabee and Amy Douglas of Cherokee, had bought tickets to the Route 91 Harvest Festival as part of a fun getaway to Vegas that quickly turned tragic.

During the chaos, Huckaby and Douglas lost track of Kreibaum, who appeared to have been shot. She was listed as missing for nearly two days before relatives confirmed her death Tuesday night.

'It's still not real,” Lisa Kreibaum, an aunt to Carly Kreibaum's husband, Chris, said. 'It just doesn't seem like it's possible and I don't think it's still set in.”

Lisa Kreibaum, who lives in nearby Everly, said she's known Carly since Carly and Chris started dating more than a decade ago.

The pair married on July 21, 2006. The couple, who live on a farm just outside of Sutherland, have two children, 9-year-old Dalten and 6-year-old Cambri.

The single biggest trait everyone the Journal spoke to Wednesday was how nice Carly was.

'She was the best mom, the best wife - she was such a wonderful addition to our family,” Lisa Kreibaum said.

The former Carly Buchholtz grew up in Sibley, the Osceola County seat of about 2,600, and about an hour's drive north of Sutherland. In 2001, she graduated from Sibley-Ocheyedan High School, where she participated in band and choir, played basketball and threw the shot put for four years on the Generals track and field team.

Daryle Tutje, a science teacher who has taught in the district for 31 years, recalled having Carly in his classroom in fifth and sixth grades and again as a freshman and sophomore after she entered high school.

'She was a little quiet, very pleasant, very likable kid,” Tutje said.

Sibley-Ocheyedan Superintendent Bill Boer expressed condolences to on behalf of the district.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time,” he said.

After high school, Carly attended Wayne State University in Wayne, Neb., where she earned an undergraduate degree in art, according to the Wayne Stater student newspaper.

For the last 12 years, she was a department manager at the Wal-Mart Super Center in Spencer.

Many of her former co-workers and customers expressed their grief on Facebook posts.

As in her hometown of Sibley, family and friends in Sutherland were trying to cope with the loss of one of their own to a senseless act of violence more than 1,100 miles away.

The streets of Sutherland were more quiet than usual as news of her death spread in the southern O'Brien County town of about 650, said Don Wetherell, the library director. He is a friend of the family.

'People are kind of still in shock about it,” he said. 'I mean we've had tragedy here before, but nothing like this.”

The librarian is helping Mugshots Bar & Grill, a downtown Sutherland staple where he also works as a cook, organize a benefit.

For a freewill offering from 10:30 a.m.to 2 p.m. Oct. 15, supporters can dine on smoked pork sandwiches and items donated by merchants.

Security National Bank of Sutherland has established an account for the family and is taking donations.