Disclaimer: The article has references to violence against children.
A school shooting at the Saugus High School on Nov. 14, 2019, killed Gracie Muehlberger, but her emotional words in a letter to her future self live on. Her words of encouragement for her future self have become a symbol of strength to her parents.
The 15-year-old was killed by her junior, Nathaniel Berhow. The rise in school shootings and lack of gun control inspired CBS Evening News correspondent Steve Hartman to document what victims left behind.
It’s an emotional take on the subject of how these shootings impact the family and their dreams left behind. Gracie Muehlberger’s bedroom, shown on Netflix’s All The Empty Rooms, has been untouched for years since she died. Journalist Steve Hartman wanted to raise awareness to the matter.
Gracie Muehlberger, a 15-year-old student killed in the 2019 Saugus High School shooting, wrote a journal entry that inspired a mantra for her surviving parents Bryan and Cindy Muehlberger. https://t.co/fNE5q3VaC5 pic.twitter.com/7kT0E1Txsa
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 26, 2025
He first covered a school shooting in 1997, when such incidents numbered around 17 a year; today, that figure has surged to more than 130. He agreed that everyone, including him, has become numb to such horrific news of school shootings.
As a result, he felt the need to showcase the victim’s side of the story. He noted that media sensationalization often focuses on the shooter, not the victims.. Hartman started his project privately, where he sent emails to parents who were grieving the loss of their kids.
Along with his friend, photographer Lou Bopp, he captured the rooms of the children who were left behind. This project is now a part of the Netflix documentary, All The Empty Rooms. He said, “I’d done so many of these essays that I felt like I was repeating myself. In fact, I was using the same lines in the stories, and I saw that America was kind of moving on from each school shooting quicker and quicker every time. I felt like I’ve got to do something different.”
A reporter and a photographer embark on a cross country journey to memorialize the bedrooms of children lost to school shootings in the documentary short film ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS.
Premiering December 1. pic.twitter.com/ggrwzsLmnE
— Netflix (@netflix) November 14, 2025
He did not want to argue in the gun debate, but wanted to bring attention to the children who were killed. Hartman also met Gracie’s parents, who showed him her room and also shared her encouraging letter. Her mother, Cindy, said, “She was just so much fun. It’s where everybody would go and watch her perform. She’d pass out invitations with the time we were supposed to be there.”
She was so excited about going to high school that she wrote a letter, “Dear future self, OMG! It’s high school, I’ve been waiting for this day FOREVER!” She suggested that her future self not be nervous or focus on negativity. Her father said, “As long as that room exists, she exists in a way.”
