As authorities continue to investigate last week’s mass killing in Copley Township, they are facing a daunting task of piecing together what happened and why.The mass killer, Michael E. Hance, is dead.So are most of the people who witnessed the start of his shooting rampage that spanned several properties.Even his longtime, live-in girlfriend, Rebecca Dieter — the person who arguably knows the killer the best — was severely wounded and remains hospitalized.Authorities have few eyewitnesses, multiple crime scenes and a 51-year-old man who showed no penchant for violence before he used two .45-caliber handguns to mow down his next-door neighbors, three children and members of Dieter’s family on a Sunday morning.“It does make it substantially more difficult to develop a motive ... because you don’t have statements and interviews with the suspect and witnesses,” Summit County sheriff’s spokesman William Holland said about the ongoing investigation.One thing authorities have on their side is time. With Hance dead, there is no pressure to quickly gather evidence for his prosecution.The public, though, is eager to know why the quiet, yet eccentric Hance snapped that day. Why did he shoot his girlfriend? Why did he shoot the neighbors? Why did he shoot two teenage girls cowering in a parked minivan? Why did he hunt down Dieter’s 11-year-old nephew, break into the house where the boy was hiding and shoot him point-blank in the head?Hance left no letters indicating his intention, authorities said.People who might have some insight into these questions — those who survived the shootings and members of the victims’ families — have declined to comment to the Akron Beacon Journal. So far, authorities also have been tight-lipped about any reasons they have discovered.“When there are questions without answers, we have to lean into what we know and find our peace and comfort there,” said Jeff Bogue, senior pastor of Grace Church of Greater Akron. He presided over funeral services for five of the victims.“At the same time, I make no bones about the fact that those killed are victims of evil,” he added. “I think we all recognize that.”Did he plan the killing?Five days before the shooting, Hance walked into Sydmor’s pawn shop in Barberton and bought a .45-caliber Hi-Point weapon — one of the two guns used in his shooting spree.He breezed through a required federal background check and was given the gun that same day, the store owner said.Hance displayed no unusual behavior.Three days before the shooting, Hance was at his two-story, three-bedroom home on Minota Avenue in Akron’s Firestone Park neighborhood. He and Dieter had moved to a four-bedroom colonial in Copley two years ago, but had kept their Akron residence, as well.The Copley residence was owned by Dieter’s parents, who had died.Akron neighbor Ralph Petz said the Minota property was usually a “pig sty,” with overgrown grass and weeds. But Hance had returned just before the shootings to fix it up.“All of a sudden, he cleaned it up,” Petz said. “I saw him doing it. I don’t know what possessed him to clean the yard up.”Hance and Dieter, who worked as a clerk for the Veterans Administration, were considered decent neighbors. They kept to themselves — although the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Hance exhibited some bizarre behavior such as putting a kayak in his driveway and rowing, and going out in a rainstorm to hose off his driveway.Petz’s dog once relieved itself in Hance’s yard.“He got mad and put the poop in a bag and brought it over to me,” Petz said. “But he never really bothered people.”When he would come back to his Akron home, Hance would tell his neighbors that he didn’t like living in Copley and that his new neighbors didn’t like him. His Copley neighbors apparently were irritated with the condition of the property and had asked him to clean it up.The home, built in 1926, is two stories, with white stucco and black shutters on top and red vinyl on the bottom. There are flowers by the mailbox and a wooden ramp leading to the front porch. There are shrubs and trees in the front yard. A tarp is over a side roof that makes it appear work was being done at the time of the shootings.Hance’s Akron neighbors also saw a softer side. He would help shovel snow and clear driveways with his snowplow. And he helped fix a neighbor’s car.“A neighbor a couple houses down was working on his Harley,” Daryl McCraney said. “He was smoking a cigar when it fell over on him and gas started coming out. He hollered for help and Mike ran over and picked up the bike and got it off him.”Neither Daryl nor his mother Gail McCraney remember him ever being loud or raising his voice.Everyone who knew him described him as quiet and keeping to himself. But not much is really known about him.He was out of work. He had no history of criminal violence. He often would focus on repairing broken-down vehicles. Both his parents died in 2006. And he apparently had few, if any, close friends.Most mass murderers are law-abiding men who provide few, if any, clues that they are plotting to kill, said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston and co-author of the book Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder.“For the most part, these men are extraordinarily ordinary,” Fox said. “…They are clear-headed, in control, selective and methodical. They are well-planned executions.”And in most cases, he added, they are suicidal and know they will either kill themselves or be killed as they carry out their plans.Most courteousA 1978 graduate of Norton High School, Hance was in the astronomy and biology clubs. During his senior year, he was named “most courteous” because he was so good-mannered.Classmates who knew him then can’t believe he would be capable of mass murder.“He was a very nice guy in school,” classmate Kathryn Mitchell said. “If he knew someone didn’t have lunch money, he would always offer to help them out.”He was interested in astrology, and once created a hand-written booklet for Mitchell based on her sign.“It was really detailed, and actually said that I would probably have twins in the future, and they’d probably be girls,” she said. “It actually came true.”“I know that once Mike was interested in a subject, he would learn all he could about it, and talk about it a lot. One article I read ... actually stated that he was kinda slow. He wasn’t slow at all. He was very intelligent, dressed nicely, was very considerate of other people, and did well in school. He never spoke of having an interest in any kind of guns to my knowledge, or violence,” Mitchell said.“It’s very hard to grasp the magnitude of what he’s done. Other classmates and I are so shocked by this. This certainly isn’t the Mike that we knew at all. Like everyone, we wonder what could ever make a person turn into this kind of monster,” she said.“I haven’t seen Mike since high school. So, that’s really all that I know of him. Maybe it would comfort his family to know that some people remember the young, kind Mike way before any of this happened.”The Dieter familyCraig and Beth Dieter, along with their 11-year-old son Scott, and a German shepherd puppy named Samantha drove from their home in Richwood, Ky., to spend last weekend with relatives in Copley.Craig Dieter, a 1978 graduate of Copley High and 1984 graduate of the University of Akron with a degree in mechanical engineering, was the brother of Rebecca Dieter, Hance’s girlfriend of two decades.The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the visit was part of an attempt to resolve a property dispute that had been ongoing between neighbors and Dieter and Hance, who were living in the home of Craig and Rebecca Dieter’s deceased parents, Helen and Wayne Dieter.The estate of the parents was estimated to be worth about $260,000, including more than $191,000 in stock and bank accounts, according to Summit County Probate Court records. Lesa Dieter, sister of Craig and Rebecca, is listed as executrix of the estate.The Cincinnati paper reported that the Northern Kentucky family was staying with Russell and Gudrun “Gertie” Johnson, who lived next door on Goodenough Avenue. The Johnson and Dieter/Hance homes are separated by a driveway that leads to the home of Russell and Gudrun’s son Michael Johnson, who survived the shooting spree.His home cannot be seen from the street. The Goodenough Avenue and Schocalog Road area is picturesque and quiet, filled with trees and well-kept homes. It has the feel of Americana — a postcard vision of an Ohio suburban neighborhood.In front of the Johnson home, there are now flowers, stuffed animals and balloons by the mailbox and on the front porch. There is a flag at half-staff near the driveways of both Johnson homes. Sequence unknownThe exact details of what happened during the rampage may never be known.This much is known: Seven people were killed and then Hance was shot and killed by police.Just before 11 a.m., Hance shot Gudrun Johnson, 64, once in the head. Russell Johnson, 67, was shot in the head and chest. Their bodies were found in their driveway.The Johnsons’ granddaughter Autumn Johnson, 16, and Amelia Shambaugh, 16, were in a parked minivan. Autumn was shot in theneck, chest and extremities. Amelia was shot once in the head.Hance killed Craig Dieter, 51, at some time by shooting him multiple times in the head.At that time, Rebecca Dieter walked on a side porch of her house.Her neighbor, Gilbert Elie, who had heard the shooting, had just run over from his house and saw the bodies at the Johnson home.He asked Rebecca Dieter if she had called 9-1-1 when he heard more shots.“Pow, pow, pow, pow!” was how he described Hance shooting Rebecca Dieter from behind.She fell down the steps and Elie jumped behind a vehicle in the driveway, thinking he would be the next victim.On the runAfter that, the Johnsons’ sons, Michael and Bryan Johnson, and Craig Dieter’s wife, Beth, and son, Scott, ran for their lives.Bryan Johnson, 44, managed to run several hundred yards before Hance caught and shot him in the head multiple times.Hance then focused on tracking down 11-year-old Scott Dieter and Michael Johnson.Both sought refuge in the same house on Schocalog Road.Once inside the house, Michael Johnson ran upstairs and then jumped out of a second-floor window to continue his escape.The child hid in the basement along with a woman and her three children.Hance shot his way into the house and went into the basement. He took the woman at gunpoint and demanded to know where Scott was. She said he wasn’t there.For some reason, Hance shoved her aside and continued his search. She and two of her children fled.But another, a 9-year-old boy, was with Scott.“My nephew said he was standing up and the little boy was sitting down asking him to please help him and to call the police,” Monique Bagley told the Beacon Journal the next day. “[Her nephew] said he saw the man [Hance] come in with a flashlight on his key chain as if he was searching, shining it around to see who was in the room and he asked the man if he was there to help them.” Hance then identified Scott and shot him once in the head.But the killer left the 9-year-old unharmed.In the meantime, Michael Johnson ran to a passing truck and was picked up and taken down the street to police.BethDieter, Scott’s mother and Craig’s wife, had run south on Schocalog after witnessing the murder of her husband. She didn’t know the whereabouts of her son or whether he too had been shot.“My husband has a hole in his head,” she screamed as she collapsed in front of the home of Maria Flanagan and her boyfriend, Joe Leigh. “Somebody get my son!”After Hance left the home where he had just killed Scott, Copley police officer Ben Campbell and retired police officer Keith Lavery, who lived in the neighborhood, spotted him.Campbell asked Hance to drop to the ground. When it appeared he was going for one of his two weapons, Campbell shot him.The entire rampage lasted about 10 minutes. In all, Hance fired at least 21 shots.It’s unclear whether he reloaded during his assault. The Hi-Point handgun has a nine-shot magazine. Authorities haven’t released the brand of the other weapon.Copley police Lt. Luke Marchmon said the death of the suspected shooter does not mean the work by investigators is over.Four law enforcement agencies — Akron and Copley police, Summit County Sheriff’s Office and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation — are continuing to investigate the mass shooting and are developing two major reports to be issued in the coming days.Marchmon said one report, by sheriff’s detectives, will focus on the Copley officer’s shooting of Hance. The other report, by Akron and Copley police, will be a timeline of the fatal shootings, from start to finish.The Johnson familyThe Johnson family was into BMX racing.Autumn Johnson was a member of the Bike Authority Team, a group of teens that participated in BMX racing. Her uncle Michael had put together a team about five years ago that included his two sons.The kids would come to the BMX track in Akron to ride.“Gertie was always there for anybody on the team,” said Steve Fox, president of the Akron BMX Track. “She was the grandmother of the team. She was yelling for the kids once a week, sometimes twice.“The whole team was built as a family. Mike always wanted to stress it was really a family-oriented activity. Russ was a volunteer whenever the help was needed. He was corner marshal on the track,” he said. “As time went on, he was a steady volunteer.”Michael and Russell helped put a new roof on a shed at the track recently. Russell recently bought a new flagpole for the track. The flag will be flown at half staff for each race held at the track for the rest of the season in memory of Autumn.“He [Russell] was proud of his country, his military service, and that Mike set this up as a family activity,” Fox said.Russell met Gudrun when he was stationed overseas in Germany while in the Army.“She still had a very thick German accent,” Fox said. “My 5-year-old daughter thought she was funny every time she spoke to her. She loved to joke with people and had a really funny sense of humor.”Russell loved hiking.“I know he hiked a part of the Appalachian Trail at least once a year and he always looked forward to it,” Fox said. “He was so proud of the kids, all three of the grandkids, and he treated my kids the same way he treated his own.”There was a regular race scheduled Tuesday after the killings. They considered canceling the race but Michael didn’t want that, he said.“Knowing Russ and the way he wanted to go forward, he would have wanted it to go on,” Fox said.The kids drove the track backward — in the reverse direction of how they usually race — and stopped at Russell’s corner.A community grievesThe Rev. Robert Denton of the Victim Assistance Program has counseled families and safety forces who responded to the shooting scene.“The magnitude of the incident and the victims involved is just sheerly overwhelming,” he said. “This hammers a neighborhood and a community where people are closely connected.”Denton, who lives in Copley, said the incident also “hammers those who witnessed the terrible event and these events happen so fast that at first it’s hard to piece together what you have seen and heard. That one person can spread such pain across so many leaves everyone asking how and why and these are not questions we can really answer.“It is easy and inconsiderate to forget how many loved ones went back to their homes to absorb what at this stage cannot be true, but it is.”In addition to overseeing the funeral services for five of the victims, Pastor Jeff Bogue spoke at two community prayer services.“We have seen the very worst of humanity and we have seen the very best of humanity when total strangers go to God in prayer with each other and for each other,” he said.Bogue is the pastor of Michael and Janelle Johnson, the surviving son and daughter-in-law of Russell and Gudrun Johnson, and brother and uncle of Bryan and Autumn Johnson. He also was the pastor of Anthony Shambaugh, the father of murder victim Amelia Shambaugh, before the father moved to Michigan.Even when horrible things happen, Bogue said, “there is hope that comes out of it. I think hope comes as we put our trust in Christ. There are two sides to every coin in life. The positive side is that we have a renewed faith, we have a renewed awareness of our love for each other, even for those we lost, we have a renewed awareness of our love for them and their love for us and we have a renewed understanding of who Christ is and how he wants to interact with us.”When Stephanie Luecke and her neighbor Melanie Horning heard of the Copley shootings last Sunday, the two women began planning a community prayer vigil to be held that night.Neither woman knew any of the victims, but Luecke, a 35-year-old Summa Health System registered nurse, said they felt the need to bring people together.“It was truly a heart thing,” the mother of three young children said.“You don’t have to know somebody to grieve for them, but I am grieving for them a lot,” she said.Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.Also contributing to this report were Beacon Journal staff writers Kathy Antoniotti, Cheryl Powell, Marilyn Miller, Ed Meyer, Paula Schleis and Dave Scott.