Barry Gutierrez / AP
Tom Sullivan holds a photograph of his son, Alex Sullivan, outside Gateway High School Friday in Aurora, Colo., as he pleads with the media to help find him.
By NBC News
Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET: Navy officials on Saturday confirmed that Petty Officer Third Class John Larimer, 27, died from he sustained in the mass shooting Friday morning at a Colorado movie theater.
"He was an outstanding shipmate," Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer's commanding officer, told Navy News Service. "A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew him."
Larimer was one of the 12 people who were killed in the shooting rampage, which injured 58 other people, including 11 who remained in critical condition Saturday morning. James Eagan Holmes, 24, a graduate student at the University of Colorado-Denver, was arrested outside the theater, clad in black body armor and armed with three weapons.
Larimer's family in Crystal Lake, Ill., spent Friday making desperate phone calls about their son.
Alex Sullivan was supposed to be celebrating his 27th birthday Friday, beginning with a midnight screening of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises."
"Oh man one hour till the movie and its going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever," he tweeted before heading to the theater where a black-clad gunman wearing body armor opened fire shortly after midnight Friday.
Late Friday, his family got confirmation of what they most dreaded: He was among the dead.
In Colorado and across the country, friends and family members of missing moviegoers anxiously awaited word on their loved ones, hoping for good news but fearing the worst.
The final bodies were removed from the theater a little after 5 p.m. Friday (7 p.m. ET), Aurora police chief Dan Oates said. He said police met with about 70 family members and friends to give an accounting of bodies that had been identified.
Police said families of the dead were being notified Friday night.
Late Friday, Sullivan's family said in a statement that he had been killed. Heart-wrenching photographs taken earlier Friday showed Sullivan's father, Tom, grieving and pleading for information about his son.
"We're still hoping that he's missing somewhere and that they missed him at the hospital," Jim Schwab, Sullivan's cousin, told The Denver Post earlier Friday from his Rochester, N.Y., home, where he was gathered with 20 of Sullivan's other relatives.
One victim, a 24-year-old aspiring sportcaster named Jessica Ghawi, was identified to the public by her brother.
Shooting victim Marcus Weaver talks with MSNBC's Chris Jansing about the injuries he sustained during the Aurora shooting, and describes how he was forced to leave his injured friend behind.
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Micayla Medek, 23, was also among the dead, her father's cousin, Anita Busch, told The Associated Press.
Busch said the news, while heartbreaking, was a relief for the family after an agonizing day of waiting for news.
"I hope this evil act ... doesn't shake people's faith in God," she said.
Matt McQuinn was also among those dead, Aurora police confirmed to CBS station WHIO-TV of the Dayton, Ohio. He was from nearby St. Paris and had reportedly died shielding his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler.
Yowler underwent surgery after taking a bullet to her leg, The Denver Post reported.
Missing
Rosemary Ratcliff was waiting to hear from her son. She told The New York Times that she believes her son Abdullah, 17, went to the midnight show.
"I haven't heard from him, and none of his friends are picking up their phones," she said from Gateway High School.
After barely escaping a mall shooting last month, aspiring sports reporter Jessica Ghawi did not survive the theater shooting. Her brother spoke to reporters about her remarkable spirit. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
Those who made it out of the movie described a scene of confusion when the gunman appeared at the front of the theater at 12:39 a.m. (2:39 a.m. ET).
"He shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY.
Tanner Coon, who was in the theater with a friend and the friend's 12-year-old brother, said the shooter fired about 20 rounds and then paused, giving him time to escape.
"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said, 'We need to go.' There was no response, so I presume she was dead," he said.
Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of Denver, with a population of about 333,000 people, just 15 miles northeast of Columbine High School, seen of the 1999 massacre in which two gunmen killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before taking their own lives.
The Red Cross set up a Safe and Well list where victims can list themselves to let their relatives know they're alive. You can view the list here.
Elizabeth Chuck, M. Alex Johnson and Marian Smith of NBC News contributed to this report.
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