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Bryan Muehlberger’s life was forever changed when his 15-year-old daughter, Gracie, lost her life in a school shooting. A new documentary is now helping her family cherish the memory of how Gracie lived.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Netflix’s latest documentary, “All the Empty Rooms,” offers a poignant glimpse into the lives of families who have endured the unimaginable loss of a child due to school shootings. The film, featuring CBS Correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp, delves into the intimate spaces of these children’s lives, capturing the essence of their bedrooms as they left them.
Among the families highlighted are the Muehlbergers. Gracie’s father recently shared his story as part of the series “Untraceable and Accessible: Felons, Kids and Ghost Guns.” In 2019, Gracie tragically fell victim to a school shooting when a student brought a ghost gun to school and began firing.
“After five years, Steve reached out for this project, and it provided us with a sense of peace,” Bryan Muehlberger expressed. “We’ve documented it so well that we no longer need the physical room. Gracie is with us every day, but now we have a collection of photos by Lou, a video, and a wonderful documentary if we ever want to see that room again.”
“The documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at those affected,” he continued. “As I recounted being in Gracie’s empty room that night, laying on her bed, I was reminded that people often forget. After the news fades, families are left to cope with rooms that were once filled with life and joy, now frozen in time.”
The Muehlbergers are one of four families featured in the documentary, yet they are the only ones who have relocated. Bryan mentioned that Bopp’s portrayal of their daughter’s room has eased their transition to a new home, closer to family.
“He’s just got an amazing eye to capture certain things that just look normal to most people if you just glance at a room. But he’ll get it at an angle and just sit on it for a second, and you can feel the child again in many ways. You know, the pair of shoes that Gracie was wearing, you know, catching the angle at just such an angle that we didn’t even catch it, that there’s even still a little bit of a drop of blood on the shoes, on her vans or the toothpaste with the cap still off still sitting there on the sink last used by that child. And so it captures it in a great way,” the father said.
You can watch All the Empty Rooms streaming now on Netflix, and you can watch our investigation “Untraceable and Accessible: Felons, Kids and Ghost Guns” streaming now on the 10 Tampa Bay News app for your TV.
