CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A state panel investigating the Virginia Tech shootings has effectively finished a report that contains a detailed chronology of the incident, an examination of the gunman's life and mental health history, and more than 70 recommendations for Gov. Tim Kaine and policymakers to consider.

The panel met privately for eight hours Friday to complete work on a long-awaited report summarizing its investigation of the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history. Each panel member will review the 300-page report early next week before the group formally delivers it to Gov. Tim Kaine on Thursday in Richmond.

Families of the shooting victims are scheduled to receive a briefing on the report the night before it is released to the public.

Panel members would not discuss details of their findings on Friday but promised a report that will answer major questions about the Tech shootings and the gunman.

"I can't say we left no stone unturned, but we turned over every stone we found," said panel member Diane Strickland, a former Roanoke County Circuit Court judge.

The report will contain 11 chapters covering every aspect of the shootings, said Philip Schaenman, the staff director for the eight-member panel and president of the Arlington-based consulting firm TriData Corp.

"I think the detail to which we've done it has been amazing," said panel Chairman Gerald Massengill, a retired Virginia State Police superintendent.

"It's the type of thing that, quite honestly, consumed us all," Massengill said of the panel's four-month investigation.

The document will provide a detailed timeline of the shootings and the responses of Tech administrators and police, including critical decisions made during a 2 ¹₂-hour gap between the killing of two students in a campus dormitory and the shooting spree in Norris Hall that left another 31 people -- including gunman Seung-Hui Cho -- dead.

The report also will examine Cho's mental health history.

The panel initially struggled to obtain records of Cho's encounters with the mental health system, particularly those stemming from a December 2005 complaint that resulted in Cho's temporary detainment at Carilion Saint Albans Behavioral Health. But Kaine issued an executive order in June that gave the group greater ability to access Cho's health and academic records that are protected by privacy laws.

Schaenman said privacy laws won't keep the panel from answering questions about Cho's mental health history in the report, though the records themselves will remain off-limits to the public. He said the panel's report will go "as deep as you can get" into the topic.

Other chapters of the report will cover campus security, privacy laws governing academic and mental health information, firearms laws and the overall community response to the shootings, among other things.

"We have been looking at all the areas of this tragedy, from Cho's life history to the different areas of response to the different decision-making," Massengill said. "We've all been educated in a lot of areas. I think this experience has left us with a lot of understanding of things that make us appreciate the simple things in life."

The investigation was projected to cost about $400,000, according to the governor's executive order.