“This Might Hurt Some People to Hear” — The Sole Surviving Son Speaks at Vigil After Losing His Entire Family in Iowa Shooting

He said from the start that he was not good at public speaking. That he almost did not come up to speak at all. That he was still in denial — still unable to fully process that any of it was real.

And then he stood at a microphone in front of his community and delivered one of the most quietly devastating speeches anyone in that gymnasium had ever witnessed.

A Family Destroyed in a Single Night

The community of Muscatine, Iowa is still trying to comprehend the scale of what happened when 52-year-old Ryan McFarland killed six members of his own family before taking his own life. Among the victims were the speaker’s mother Lisa, his sister Riley, and four brothers — Dakota, Austin, Mark and Ryan. The youngest victims were 16 and 13 years old.

Dakota Willow, 32, was also among those killed — the fiancé of a woman who spoke at the same vigil, her voice breaking as she described losing the person she had planned to build a life with.

“My heart breaks for everyone left behind to grieve imaginable losses,” she said.

The Speech Nobody Forgot

When the surviving son stepped to the microphone, he was careful and deliberate — apologizing in advance for not looking up, explaining that it was not selfishness but simply the weight of standing in a moment that did not yet feel real.

He thanked the community for showing up. He thanked law enforcement, chaplains and detectives for their support. He asked — gently but clearly — for privacy as those closest to him found their way through the grief ahead.

And then he said the thing that made the room go completely still.

“This might hurt some people for me to say. No matter what is being told to me — I will always love and miss my dad, Brian.”

The words landed with the full complexity of what this young man is carrying — a grief that does not fit neatly into any category, a love for a father that the events of that night have not been able to erase, and a honesty so raw that it silenced an entire community.

A Community That Showed Up

The vigil at Muscatine High School drew an outpouring of support that the surviving son described as one of the few things anchoring him in the days since the tragedy.

“I am incredibly, incredibly thankful to have such an amazing community,” he said. “And I know if they were still here with me today, they’d want me to come up and say some stuff to you guys.”

The Iowa State Patrol continues to manage the investigation.

For the young man left standing after losing everyone — mother, sister, four brothers and a father whose memory he refuses to surrender entirely — the road ahead is one nobody should have to walk.

“They’re gonna forever be always in my heart, my prayers, my thoughts,” he said. “And I’ll always talk to them.”

Source: Compiled from various sources