KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Six years after the Saugus High School shooting shattered Santa Clarita, the room where 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger once planned her weekend outfits and filmed silly videos has now vanished – packed into boxes, folded into memory, and shipped across the country. Now, Netflix is bringing that room back to life in a documentary that refuses to let the world forget the children who never came home after a school shooting.
The 33-minute documentary “All the Empty Rooms,” premiering December 1, steps inside the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
Netflix describes it as “a moving short documentary in which a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.”
Among those rooms are the spaces belonging to both Saugus High School victims – Gracie Muehlberger and 14-year-old Dominic Michael Blackwell.
For Gracie’s father, Bryan Muehlberger, watching her room live on through the documentary – even after the family packed it away and moved to Georgia – is a bittersweet memorial of the life she built within those four walls.
A Room That Once Held an Entire Life
Before the shooting, Gracie’s room in Santa Clarita was an unfiltered snapshot of teenage life.
Clothes for the week were laid out… a half-eaten bowl of chili sat on her desk… a bag of her favorite Trader Joe’s cherries was open on the bed… and two possible outfits for Friday were still hanging, because she couldn’t decide between them.
Muehlberger said Gracie even planned to go shopping the next day for a dress to Saugus’s Sadie Hawkins dance.
Then, at 7:38 a.m. on November 14, 2019, Gracie was shot on campus and never returned home to the room she left behind.
“She spent so much of her life in that room,” Muehlberger said. “A child’s room is their sacred space.”
In a tiny treasure chest, Gracie kept a collection of letters to herself for future accomplishments: her first day of high school, getting her driver’s license at 16, her first day of college, and her wedding day.
She only accomplished one: Making it to high school.
It was in her room where Gracie filmed countless videos – long before TikTok – using old cameras to record stories, jokes, and moments entirely her own. Her family later digitized thousands of those clips.
A Filmmaker’s Search for Humanity
The documentary is the creation of longtime CBS journalist Steve Hartman, known for his uplifting “On the Road” segments. After decades of covering the aftermath of school shootings, Hartman found himself struggling emotionally and professionally.
“He was always asked to find the good,” Muehlberger said. “He got to a point where he felt he couldn’t anymore.”
Hartman began sending letters to families who have gone through the struggle of losing a child in a school shooting – more than 100 in total – and asked if he could document their children’s rooms. The Muehlbergers received their letter in April 2024. The family said they were honored and felt compelled to participate.
They agreed, with one request: the film must not be political.
“We wanted it to be about humanity,” Muehlberger said. “And it is. You feel the discomfort of losing a child.”
The documentary ultimately features the rooms of four children, including both Saugus victims. It opens with Dominic’s room and closes with Gracie’s.
Two Santa Clarita Families – Brought together by a Shared Loss
Gracie and Dominic were never close in life, but since their deaths, their families have become deeply connected.
“It’s like the boy version of Gracie and the girl version of Dominic,” Muehlberger said. “They were both loud, funny, full of life.”
Their shared presence in the documentary feels significant – not just for the families, but for the Santa Clarita community that still feels their loss.
“We were fortunate to have such loving support,” he said. “I don’t know how we would have made it without the Santa Clarita community.”
The Room Is Gone – But the Memories Live On
When the Netflix crew filmed Gracie’s room in June 2024, they captured it almost exactly as it had been left five years earlier. Soon after, the Muehlbergers finally did what they’d been unable to do: they packed the room up.
For years, the thought was too painful. Staying in Santa Clarita meant waking up down the hall from a space that held her last moments of normal life. But moving meant letting go of something that felt like all they had left.
“Through this film, through this process, we finally had peace about it,” Muehlberger said. “We felt comfortable packing things up and moving.”
The family now lives in Georgia, closer to relatives, slowly building a new life and new community while carrying Gracie with them.
“Not a day or moment goes by where you don’t think about it,” he said. “But we’re doing better.”
A Message From a Father to the Viewers Who Will Meet His Daughter
Muehlberger hopes the film leaves an imprint on its audience, one rooted in empathy and responsibility.
“So much can be done,” he said. “Support your community. Love the ones you’ve got.”
He also hopes viewers pay attention to mental health issues, struggling teens, secure firearms in their homes, and recognize that most school shootings grow from untreated trauma.
“Hurt people hurt people,” he said. “We need to do better… all of us.”
The Legacy That Continues
The Gracie Strong Foundation continues to honor her life. One of its upcoming projects, The WAY Journal, is designed to help teens explore who they are, inspired by one of the last conversations Gracie had with her parents.
“We believe if you understand who you are, you can find your direction,” Muehlberger said.
Dominic Blackwell’s family also started a non-profit in their son’s honor, the DMB Foundation, dedicated to supporting education and kindness in the community.
Mia Tretta, Dominic’s best friend, who was also shot but survived, now works as a gun violence prevention advocate at the national level.
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What “All the Empty Rooms” Leaves Behind
Gracie’s bedroom may no longer exist, but the documentary gives viewers a rare chance to step inside the space where she dreamed, laughed, grew, and lived. It preserves not just a room, but a life interrupted and a love that endures long after the lights were turned off.
In the end, the film isn’t about bedrooms at all. It’s about the children who should still be sleeping in them.
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