To anyone who sees it in passing, the small brown leather bag Elizabeth Heaton carries around on her shoulder is just any other purse. But it’s so much more to her than a carry-all.
The Millbrook woman and her boyfriend John were vacationing in Las Vegas earlier this month.
“We’d had a fantastic time,” recalls Heaton.
“We’d gotten lots of sightseeing in…it had been unbelievable. It had just been such a great experience.”
Pictures from that vacation show the purse strapped to her shoulder for much of it.
As part of the trip, the couple attended all three nights of the Route 91 country music festival.
On the final night of shows Elizabeth and John decided to catch a Vegas Golden Knights NHL hockey game beforehand. That got them to the venue a little late and so they “ended up being a little further back than where we were standing on Friday and Saturday.”
That delay may very well have kept them out of the line of fire as shots rang out from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort.
WATCH: Global News Coverage of Las Vegas Shooting
During Jason Aldean’s performance. The couple immediately began fleeing from what would become the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
“You just run,” says Heaton.
“It’s a situation that you never in a million years think you’re going to find yourself in. And every time (John) thought that we should stop and hide behind something, my fear of stopping was just too great. So we just kept running.”
WATCH: Global News Coverage of Las Vegas Shooting
Her strongest memories of the night are of people helping each other escape. Pushing and pulling each other away from the shooting zone, aiding each other in finding cover.
The couple were uninjured aside from some bad bruises Heaton suffered while climbing over a 10-foot fence to escape the area.
Heaton’s purse was lost in the mayhem, but that was the last thing on her mind; until last week. That’s when she received a voice message that really lifted her spirits.
“Elizabeth, hi,” it begins as the officer on the other end identifies himself by name.
“I’m a special agent with the FBI in Las Vegas. I’m calling in regards to a purse that I have, and I’m trying to get a good address to mail that to you.”
Heaton smirks with appreciation as she plays the message over speakerphone. She never thought she’d see the purse again, and didn’t really care. But the gesture warms her heart.
Upon calling the agent back she learned “he not only found my purse, but when he opened it up to go through the contents, he found all of my money; all of my ID,” she reflects.
“He also found a ticket from a slot machine where we’d won some money…So he took it upon himself to drive down to the Bellagio; he went and cashed the ticket in and put the money in my purse before he (shipped) it back to me on Friday which completely blew my mind…With everything that they’ve had to deal with and are still dealing with and will be for a long time to come, that he would take the time to do that sort of thing…It was an incredible gesture and it overwhelmed me.”
Liz now sees the purse as a symbol of the enduring kindness people can display in the worst situations.
She and John met a lot of other country music lovers at the festival. That’s why she still can’t bear to look at photos of any of those killed or injured in the shooting.
“I’m just not ready to see a face and recognize it on that list.”
Three weeks removed from the Las Vegas shooting, Heaton is still easing back into attending large public events and says she refuses to let the actions of one individual stop her from going back to the city someday.
As for the purse; it actually belongs to her sister; but it means too much to Elizabeth now.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s probably not going to get it back,” she says with a laugh.