BALTIMORE _ As he settled into the afternoon's tasks, John McNamara must have slipped his shoes off under his desk.
Rob Hiaasen likely was tapping away at his own station, kept company by a toy soldier, a snow globe and other desktop ephemera. Sitting next to him was Gerald Fischman, surrounded by books, so many books. Nearby was Wendi Winters, keeper of the office candy jar, and up front, Rebecca Smith, still new to the job but the first face someone would see coming into the Capital Gazette offices in Annapolis.
On June 28, 2018, a gunman shot his way through the front glass doors. He killed the five co-workers as six of their colleagues fled or took cover under desks and between file cabinets. Jarrod Ramos, 39, of Laurel, who harbored a yearslong grievance against The Capital, is awaiting trial on murder and assault charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible, Maryland's version of the insanity defense.
One year later, what remains of that terrible day for the families of the victims range from small mementos to larger intangibles: their belongings, at home or retrieved from the ravaged office. The unfinished projects, the now-scuttled plans. The legacies that will outlast their foreshortened lives.
As they mark the year's passing, their loved ones reflect on the things they left behind.
