At least six killed in Amish school shooting

Gunman was a child molester

THE truck driver who executed five Amish girls meant to molest them before shooting them and confessed to sexually preying on young children 20 years ago.

Suicidal killer Charles Roberts, 32, was also "angry with God", hated himself over the death of his infant daughter nine years ago and dreamed of molesting again, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.

The sordid revelations came hours after two Amish girls aged seven and eight died of their wounds after they were shot "execution-style" in the head in the rampage which shattered the peace of the rural community yesterday.

It was the third fatal shooting in a US school in a week and five girls from Nickel Mines were still battling for their lives after the attack.

Showing meticulous planning, Roberts took wood, latches and a lubricant to the one-room Pennsylvania schoolhouse, indicating he intended to restrain and molest the schoolgirls before killing them, Miller said.

"He perhaps planned with the kind of wood and I-bolts and flex cuffs and KY jelly and other things, ... it's very possible that he intended to victimise these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself," said the police chief.

The confession over the past sexual assaults came in a mobile phone call to his wife minutes before the slaughter, Miller said.

"He said 'I am not coming home' and he states 'I molested some minor family members that were three or four years old, 20 years ago'," Miller said.

At the time of the alleged assaults, Roberts would have been around 12 years old.

"It's unknown what type of molestation whether it was fondling, or inappropriate touching or sexual assault or if anything occurred, we don't know."

"In his suicide note, he mentioned he was having dreams of molesting again," Miller said.

Miller said that there was no evidence that any victims of the shooting rampage were actually molested at the school before they were cut down in a hail of bullets which ended when Roberts turned the gun on himself.

The killer's wife said he was also traumatised by the loss of an infant daughter who lived for just 20 minutes after birth nine years ago.

"Roberts was angry with God for taking (her) as outlined in the suicide note," Miller said.

As the agony of the tiny Amish community went on, the seven-year-old died after being removed from life support at Penn State Hershey Medical Centre in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a spokesman said. Police said the other girl died in a hospital in Delaware state.

The deaths brought the toll from the third US school shooting in a week to five dead.

Three girls, aged eight, 10 and 12, underwent surgery for gunshot wounds at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, and remained in critical condition early today, a spokeswoman said.

Two survivors at the Hershey Medical Centre were a six-year-old in critical condition and a 13-year-old listed in serious condition, according to spokesman Sean Young.

The incident stunned the quiet farm region 55km west of Philadelphia, where Amish men rushed from their fields to gather in shock outside the schoolhouse.

Miller said no one had any idea that Roberts planned such a killing.

"There were no outward signs exhibited that he was planning something like this," he said.

On entering the school, Roberts ordered the 15 boys aged six to 13 and their teacher to leave, keeping behind 11 girls -- three teenage teachers' aides and eight younger girls.

Police said Roberts nailed lumber across the inside of doors of the school. The girls were bound with wire and plastic cord and lined up against the blackboard.

Police surrounded the school and frantically tried to make contact with Roberts, then rushed the building after hearing several rapid gunshots.

"It appears that when he began shooting the victims, these victims were shot execution-style in the head," Miller told reporters on Monday.

Police found a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, two knives, smokeless powder and 600 rounds of ammunition on Roberts's body.

Gunman was a child molester | Herald Sun
 
Gunman's suicide note

HERE is the first page of a three-page suicide note written by Charles Carl Roberts IV to his wife, Marie:

"I don't know how you put up with me all those years. I am not worthy of you, you are the perfect wife you deserve so much better.

We had so many good memories together as well as the tragedy with Elise. It changed my life forever I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible.

I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptyness it seems like everytime we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

Gunman's suicide note | Herald Sun
 
Killer's sordid plan for victims

The truck driver who slaughtered five Amish schoolgirls meant to molest them before shooting them and confessed to sexually preying on children 20 years ago, police said today.

Suicidal killer Charles Roberts, 32, was also "angry with God," hated himself over the death of his infant daughter nine years ago and dreamed of molesting again, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.

The sordid revelations came hours after two Amish girls aged seven and eight died of their wounds after they were shot "execution style" in the head in the rampage that shattered the peace of the reclusive rural community yesterday.

It was the third fatal shooting in a US school in a week. Five Amish girls were today still battling for their lives in hospital.

Showing meticulous planning, Roberts took wood, restraints and lubricant to the one-room Pennsylvania schoolhouse, indicating he intended to restrain and molest the schoolgirls before killing them, Miller said.

"He perhaps planned with the kind of wood and I-bolts and flex cuffs and KY jelly and other things, ... it's very possible that he intended to victimise these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself," said the police chief.

The confession over the past sexual assaults came in a mobile phone call to his wife minutes before the slaughter, Miller said.

"He said 'I am not coming home,' and he states 'I molested some minor family members that were three or four years old, 20 years ago'," Miller said.

Hail of bullets

At the time of the alleged assaults, Roberts would have been around 12 years old.

"It's unknown what type of molestation whether it was fondling, or inappropriate touching or sexual assault or if anything occurred, we don't know."

"In his suicide note, he mentioned he was having dreams of molesting again," Miller said.

Miller said that there was no evidence that any victims of the shooting rampage were actually molested at the school before they were cut down in a hail of bullets which ended when Roberts turned the gun on himself.

The killer's wife said he was also traumatised by the loss of an infant daughter who lived for just 20 minutes after birth nine years ago.

"Roberts was angry with God for taking (her) as outlined in the suicide note," Miller said.

As the agony of the tiny Amish community went on, the seven-year-old died after being removed from life support at Penn State Hershey Medical Centre in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a spokesman said. Police said the other girl died in a hospital in Delaware state.

The deaths brought the toll from the third US school shooting in a week to five dead.

Girls undergo surgery

Three girls, aged eight, 10 and 12, underwent surgery for gunshot wounds at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, and remained in critical condition early today, a spokeswoman said.

Two survivors at the Hershey Medical Centre were a six-year-old in critical condition and a 13-year-old listed in serious condition, according to spokesman Sean Young.

The incident stunned the quiet farm region 55 kilometres west of Philadelphia, where Amish men rushed from their fields to stand in shock outside the schoolhouse.

Miller said no one had any idea that Roberts planned such a killing.

"There were no outward signs exhibited that he was planning something like this," he said.

On entering the school, Roberts ordered the 15 boys aged six to 13 and their teacher to leave, keeping behind 11 girls - three teenage teachers' aides and eight younger girls.

Police said Roberts nailed timber across the inside of doors of the school. The girls were bound with wire and plastic cord and lined up against the blackboard.

Police surrounded the school and frantically tried to make contact with Roberts, then rushed the building after hearing several rapid gunshots.

"It appears that when he began shooting the victims, these victims were shot execution-style in the head," Miller told reporters on Monday.

Police found a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, two knives, smokeless powder and 600 rounds of ammunition on Roberts's body.

AFP

part 1
 
Killer's sordid plan for victims

The deaths brought the toll from the third US school shooting in a week to five dead.

Girls undergo surgery

Three girls, aged eight, 10 and 12, underwent surgery for gunshot wounds at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, and remained in critical condition early today, a spokeswoman said.

Two survivors at the Hershey Medical Centre were a six-year-old in critical condition and a 13-year-old listed in serious condition, according to spokesman Sean Young.

The incident stunned the quiet farm region 55 kilometres west of Philadelphia, where Amish men rushed from their fields to stand in shock outside the schoolhouse.

Miller said no one had any idea that Roberts planned such a killing.

"There were no outward signs exhibited that he was planning something like this," he said.

On entering the school, Roberts ordered the 15 boys aged six to 13 and their teacher to leave, keeping behind 11 girls - three teenage teachers' aides and eight younger girls.

Police said Roberts nailed timber across the inside of doors of the school. The girls were bound with wire and plastic cord and lined up against the blackboard.

Police surrounded the school and frantically tried to make contact with Roberts, then rushed the building after hearing several rapid gunshots.

"It appears that when he began shooting the victims, these victims were shot execution-style in the head," Miller told reporters on Monday.

Police found a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, two knives, smokeless powder and 600 rounds of ammunition on Roberts's body.

part 2

Killer's sordid plan for victims - World - theage.com.au
 
'So much hate': gunman's final message

Text of the first page of a three-page suicide note written by Charles Carl Roberts IV to his wife, Marie:

"I don't know how you put up with me all those years. I am not worthy of you, you are the perfect wife you deserve so much better. We had so many good memories together as well as the tragedy with Elise. It changed my life forever I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptyness it seems like everytime we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

'So much hate': gunman's final message - World - theage.com.au
 
Family man who killed little girls

TO THOSE who thought they knew him, he was a soccer dad — a quiet, hard-working, church-going family man who did not flinch at changing nappies.

So when Charlie Roberts was named as the suicidal gunman who marched into a tiny Amish schoolhouse shooting 11 girls, execution-style — killing three at the scene, with a fourth and fifth dying later in hospital — and then committing suicide, there was nothing but shocked disbelief.

"The man who did this today is not the Charlie that I've been married to for almost 10 years," said Marie Roberts, 28, the gunman's widow, in a statement released to the media. "My husband is loving, supportive, thoughtful, all the things you'd always want and more."

Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, held a steady job working nights driving a truck that picked up milk from area dairy farms. A driver who worked with Roberts said he picked up milk from some of the farms where the children in the school lived.

"I imagine he knew some of these kids," said Ray Shirk, 60.

Roberts, his wife and three children — two boys and a girl, all under seven — lived in the tiny village of Georgetown, Pennsylvania, 88 kilometres west of Philadelphia and a short drive from the school.

After taking his school-aged children to their bus stop on Monday, as usual, Roberts drove a borrowed pick-up to the entrance of the rural West Nickel Mines Amish School around 9am. The shootings occurred about 10.45am — the third such deadly incident in a US school in a week.

Roberts took revenge for what he said in a rambling suicide letter to his family was a 20-year-old grievance.

State police officers stormed the building at the sound of shots — some of the bullets aimed at them — to discover the doors barricaded by desks and timber. They broke windows and climbed inside to find Roberts and three girls dead, and eight children badly wounded. Authorities have not released the names of the dead or wounded.

"Clearly, he wanted to attack young female victims," said Jeffrey Miller, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. Roberts came prepared for a siege, Mr Miller said. "He was angry with life and was angry at God … There may have been a loss of a child at some point in his life," Mr Miller said, declining to elaborate.

Discussing the state of the wounded victims, Mr Miller said: "It would be a miracle if we were somehow able to have no further loss of life."

Found with Roberts' body were a nine-millimetre pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, knives, and 600 rounds of ammunition. He also brought a bucket filled with tools that included a hammer, a hacksaw, pliers and rolls of clear tape, and a change of clothes.

"It is clear to us that he did a great deal of planning," Mr Miller said.

The tragedy stunned this peaceful, largely Amish community, where descendants of settlers of Swiss-German descent have preserved a religious lifestyle that shuns aspects of modern life like cars and electricity.

In her statement, Marie Roberts called her husband "an exceptional father" who took his children to soccer practice, played ball in the backyard and took his seven-year-old daughter shopping. She pleaded for people to pray for the families of the slain, as well as her own.

The White House said President George Bush, troubled by the recent rash of school shootings, would convene a conference of law enforcement authorities and education officials next week to try to determine what the Federal Government could do to stop the problem.

■A 15-year-old boy who had been expelled from Mojave High School, North Las Vegas, returned to its grounds on Monday morning with an automatic pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle, but fled when he was recognised and remained at large, police said. The boy, whose name was not released, did not fire the weapons and apparently did not threaten anyone, police said.

BALTIMORE SUN, NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS, MCT

Family man who killed little girls - World - theage.com.au
 
Family man who killed little girls

Found with Roberts' body were a nine-millimetre pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, knives, and 600 rounds of ammunition. He also brought a bucket filled with tools that included a hammer, a hacksaw, pliers and rolls of clear tape, and a change of clothes.

"It is clear to us that he did a great deal of planning," Mr Miller said.

The tragedy stunned this peaceful, largely Amish community, where descendants of settlers of Swiss-German descent have preserved a religious lifestyle that shuns aspects of modern life like cars and electricity.

In her statement, Marie Roberts called her husband "an exceptional father" who took his children to soccer practice, played ball in the backyard and took his seven-year-old daughter shopping. She pleaded for people to pray for the families of the slain, as well as her own.

The White House said President George Bush, troubled by the recent rash of school shootings, would convene a conference of law enforcement authorities and education officials next week to try to determine what the Federal Government could do to stop the problem.

■A 15-year-old boy who had been expelled from Mojave High School, North Las Vegas, returned to its grounds on Monday morning with an automatic pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle, but fled when he was recognised and remained at large, police said. The boy, whose name was not released, did not fire the weapons and apparently did not threaten anyone, police said.

BALTIMORE SUN, NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS, MCT

Family man who killed little girls - World - theage.com.au
 
Amish school shooter's sex crime secret

THE gunman who attacked an Amish school in rural Pennsylvania confessed to molesting two young members of his family 20 years earlier as he turned a shotgun and pistol on a class of girls aged 6 to 13, police said.
Text of suicide note

"He wasn't agitated, he wasn't screaming, he was just taking control," said Commissioner Jeffrey Miller, of the Pennsylvania Police, as he recounted the last moments of Charles Carl Roberts IV, a milk lorry driver, who shot ten Amish schoolgirls at close range yesterday morning.

In the first insight into the possible motives of Roberts, a respected and well-liked father of three, Mr Miller said that the gunman had called his wife, Marie, on a mobile phone soon after taking the schoolgirls hostage and said he had attacked two young relatives as a 12-year-old.

"I'm not coming home, the police are here," he is reported to have said before directing her to suicide notes in which Roberts said he had assailed by dreams of assaulting young people again.

Police said today that Roberts had panicked when ten state troopers surrounded the one-room Georgetown Amish School in the tiny village of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and started "executing" the schoolgirls rather than following what appeared to be a plan "to victimise them in many ways".

Three girls died instantly when Roberts shot them in the back of the head and two more succumbed to their injuries overnight.

Five others remain in hospital after being shot in the head and back. All of the victims were students. The dead girls were named today as Naomi Rose Edersol, 7, Anna Mae Stolzfus, 12, Marian Fischer, 13, and sisters Lina and Mary Liz Miller, aged 7 and 8.

Roberts then killed himself as police broke through the windows of the school. Officers had to free the dead and wounded from wires that bound their ankles.

Roberts had nailed closed the side door of the school and blocked the main entrance with a piece of wood and desks. As well as equipping himself with 600 rounds of ammunition and a change of clothes, he also brought plastic handcuffs, planks of wood mounted with ten pairs of hooks, apparently to restrain his victims, and KY jelly, a sexual lubricant.

At a news conference this afternoon, Mr Miller said that rambling suicide notes left for Roberts's wife, Marie, and his three children, suggested that the gunman, a home-schooled Christian, acted out of grief for a daughter who died nine years ago and as a furious reaction to his alleged attack on two relatives as young as 3 when he was just 12 years old.

Mr Miller said that Roberts's confession had come as a complete surprise to his wife and that interviews with his family, although ongoing, had yet to corroborate any wrongdoing. "They have no knowledge of any molestation of family members or anyone else," he said.

Although it is unclear what, if any, crime Robert committed as a young boy, his assault, America's third fatal school shooting incident in the last week, was meticulously planned.

Mr Miller said today that Roberts parked his milk lorry outside the Nickel Mines Auction House, just yards from the school, after every shift and that the unprotected building represented "a target of opportunity".

Based on his phone call and suicide letters, investigators believed he wanted to attack girls of a certain age rather than members of the Amish community.

Police discovered a checklist and receipts that showed Roberts was buying equipment for the attack up to six days ago. A handwritten list in a notebook read: "Tape. Eyebolts. Tools. Nails. Hoes. KY. Bullets. Guns. Binoculars. Earplugs. Batteries. Flashlight. Candle. Wood."

Colleagues have described Roberts as acting distantly in the days leading up the attack, but Mr Miller said today that he spent his last weekend playing with his children and that there had been "absolutely nothing odd that his wife and family picked up on."

He finished his Sunday night shift at 3am, as usual, and returned home to eat breakfast with his wife and take his children to the bus stop for school.

"I don't think we are ever going to know with precision or exactness what he was thinking," said Mr Miller. "He's gone, he's dead. We can't interview him."

Amish school shooter's sex crime secret | The World | The Australian
 
Childhood grudge that ended in violence

A MILK-TRUCK driver nursing a 20-year-old grudge walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and systematically started to execute young girls, killing three of them instantly before turning the gun on himself.

Two more girls, aged seven and eight, have since died of their wounds in hospital and six more remain in a critical condition.

The incident on Monday - the third fatal school shooting in the US in the past week - seemed incomprehensible to the Amish community, where crime rates are so low that homeowners do not lock their doors.

Many people say that their insular lifestyle has given the Amish a sense that they are protected from the violence of American society.

But as Nickel Mines residents gathered near the school on Monday, wearing traditional garb and arriving in horse-drawn buggies, they said their sense of safety had been shattered.

"If someone snaps and wants to do something stupid, there's no distance that's going to stop them," said Jake King, 56, an Amish lantern maker who knew several families whose children had been shot.

The heavily armed gunman, Charles Carl Roberts, 32, had first ordered the 15 boys in the room to leave, along with several adults, and demanded that the 11 girls line up facing the blackboard. As he lashed the students' legs together with wire and plastic ties, the teacher dashed from the room and called the police for help.

The gunman killed himself as the police stormed the school. "He wanted to find female victims," said Commissioner Jeffrey Miller of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Roberts had no criminal record or history of psychiatric illness. But in notes he left at the home he shared with his wife, Marie, and their three children, he said he was distraught about an incident that had occurred more than 20 years ago.

Police would not say what this was, but Mr Miller said Roberts, who lived near the school but was not Amish, did not appear to have been motivated by any religious bias.

When Roberts arrived at the school he was carrying a pistol and asked the teacher, "Have you seen anything like this?" By the time police arrived nine minutes later, Roberts had barricaded the doors with bolts and planks of wood he had brought in his ute. After a brief mobile phone call to his wife, and another to police, Roberts began shooting the children, aiming the handgun and a shotgun as they were lined up in the room. When police charged the building, Roberts turned the gun on himself, Mr Miller said.

Roberts lost a child of his own three years ago and "that had something to do with his state of mind," Mr Miller said.

"He was angry with life and he may have been angry with God for having lost a child.

"It appears he chose this school because it was close to his home, it had the female victims he was looking for and it probably seemed easier to get into than some bigger school."

Roberts's relatives said they were stunned by his violent outburst. His wife issued a written statement offering sympathy to the families of his victims, and said that she could not reconcile the day's events with the man she had loved. She described Roberts as a devoted father who played with his three children and "never once refused to help change a diaper".

"The man that did this thing is not the Charles I was married to for nearly 10 years," Mrs Roberts said.

Once the police entered the building they found a cache of weapons and supplies that indicated Roberts had prepared for a long siege.

They included the nine millimetre semi-automatic pistol, two shotguns, a stun gun, two knives, two cans of gunpowder and 600 rounds of ammunition.

In a toolbox near his body, police discovered bolts he had used to barricade the school doors, pliers and wires he had used to bind the girls' legs. A bucket he brought into the building contained earplugs, toilet paper and a clean change of clothing, the police said.

Roberts lived about two kilometres from the school in the town of Bart. Neighbours said he was jovial and generally well-liked, and they were struggling to understand what had driven him to violence.

"I am dying to know what kind of insult from a girl 20 years ago could have led to this," said Mary Miller, who lived on his street.

Roberts's co-workers had noticed changes in his behaviour over the past months, police said. While he had been known as an upbeat and outgoing person, earlier this year he began to appear sullen, his co-workers told the police. Then, late last week, he changed again and seemed much happier at work, Mr Miller said. "We think that's when he decided to do what he did," Mr Miller said. "It's like his worries and burdens were lifted from him."

Most of Roberts's weapons appeared to be legal, police said. He had bought the nine millimetre semi-automatic, which he fired at least 13 times during his rampage, eight kilometres from the schoolhouse in 2004. Ammunition and other supplies had been bought locally over several months.

Just moments before the shooting, Roberts called his wife on a mobile and told her: "The police are here. I'm not coming home."

The New York Times

Childhood grudge that ended in violence - World - smh.com.au
 
Childhood grudge that ended in violence

Roberts lost a child of his own three years ago and "that had something to do with his state of mind," Mr Miller said.

"He was angry with life and he may have been angry with God for having lost a child.

"It appears he chose this school because it was close to his home, it had the female victims he was looking for and it probably seemed easier to get into than some bigger school."

Roberts's relatives said they were stunned by his violent outburst. His wife issued a written statement offering sympathy to the families of his victims, and said that she could not reconcile the day's events with the man she had loved. She described Roberts as a devoted father who played with his three children and "never once refused to help change a diaper".

"The man that did this thing is not the Charles I was married to for nearly 10 years," Mrs Roberts said.

Once the police entered the building they found a cache of weapons and supplies that indicated Roberts had prepared for a long siege.

They included the nine millimetre semi-automatic pistol, two shotguns, a stun gun, two knives, two cans of gunpowder and 600 rounds of ammunition.

In a toolbox near his body, police discovered bolts he had used to barricade the school doors, pliers and wires he had used to bind the girls' legs. A bucket he brought into the building contained earplugs, toilet paper and a clean change of clothing, the police said.

Roberts lived about two kilometres from the school in the town of Bart. Neighbours said he was jovial and generally well-liked, and they were struggling to understand what had driven him to violence.

"I am dying to know what kind of insult from a girl 20 years ago could have led to this," said Mary Miller, who lived on his street.

Roberts's co-workers had noticed changes in his behaviour over the past months, police said. While he had been known as an upbeat and outgoing person, earlier this year he began to appear sullen, his co-workers told the police. Then, late last week, he changed again and seemed much happier at work, Mr Miller said. "We think that's when he decided to do what he did," Mr Miller said. "It's like his worries and burdens were lifted from him."

Most of Roberts's weapons appeared to be legal, police said. He had bought the nine millimetre semi-automatic, which he fired at least 13 times during his rampage, eight kilometres from the schoolhouse in 2004. Ammunition and other supplies had been bought locally over several months.

Just moments before the shooting, Roberts called his wife on a mobile and told her: "The police are here. I'm not coming home."

Childhood grudge that ended in violence - World - smh.com.au
 
Amish Forgive, Pray And Mourn

(CBS/AP) For a second day, neighbors were coming together at the homes of three families who were all next-door neighbors and lost four daughters in Monday's shooting at a one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

Charles Carl Roberts IV invaded the West Nickel Mines Amish School Monday and held 10 schoolgirls hostage before shooting all of them and then himself. Five of the students and Roberts died. The other five are all hospitalized.

The victims were identified as Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7.

Three other girls were in critical condition and two were in serious condition. They ranged in age from 6 to 13. Stoltzfus' and Fisher's sisters were among the wounded.

Roberts said he was tormented about molesting two relatives 20 years ago and by dreams of doing it again, police said Tuesday. Authorities also raised the possibility that Roberts, who brought lubricating jelly with him, may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls.

"It's very possible that he intended to victimize these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself," State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said. But Roberts became disorganized when police arrived and shot himself in the head, Miller said.

There was a steady stream of carriages arriving the families' homes Wednesday, reports CBS News' Rob Milford (audio). There are also multiple prayer services and community outreach programs for the residents of the close-knit area.

Four funerals were planned for Thursday, a fifth for Friday.

Sam Stoltzfus, 63, an Amish woodworker who lives a few miles away from the shooting scene, said the victims' families will be sustained by their faith.

"We think it was God's plan and we're going to have to pick up the pieces and keep going," he said. "A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors."

While the Amish gathered by the hundreds to mourn in private, more than a thousand of their neighbors came to a nearby church Tuesday evening, all asking for god's grace and for answers, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.

Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, spoke at a community prayer service Tuesday evening and said he was at the home of Roberts' father when an Amish neighbor came to comfort the family.

"He stood there for an hour, and he held that man in his arms, and he said, 'We will forgive you,'" Lefever said. "He extended the hope of forgiveness that we all need these days."

For the Amish, the first step in moving forward is forgiveness, something their faith requires them to do.

"We have to forgive. We have to forgive him in order for God to forgive us," an Amish woman told CBS News Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith on the condition that her name and face not be shown.

Roberts' wife, Marie, was in a prayer meeting when her husband began his attack on the school. Her community loves her and is supporting her, Barb Beiler, who also attended that service, said on CBS News' The Early Show.

"We are certainly supporting her. We have been, and we will continue," Beiler told co-anchor Harry Smith. "We, too, extend forgiveness. Our lives are all shattered. We constantly lift her up before God. God is the only one that can heal. We will continue to stand with Marie and her children."

Roberts left separate suicide notes for his wife and each of his three children, who are all 6 years or younger, at their home in Bart, Miller said.

Roberts also said he was haunted by the death of his prematurely born daughter in 1997. The baby, Elise, died 20 minutes after being delivered, Miller said.

Elise's death "changed my life forever," the milk truck driver wrote to his wife. "I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptyness it seems like everytime we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

During the standoff at the school, Roberts told his wife in a cell phone call that he molested two female relatives when they were 3 to 5 years old, Miller said. Also, in the note to Marie Roberts, he said he "had dreams about doing what he did 20 years ago again," Miller said.

Police could not immediately confirm Roberts' claim that he molested two relatives. Family members knew nothing of molestation in his past, Miller said. Police located the two relatives and were hoping to interview them.

"He certainly was very troubled psychologically deep down and was dealing with things that nobody else knew he was dealing with," Miller said.

Amish Forgive, Pray And Mourn, Private Funerals To Be Held For Five Schoolgirls Killed By School Gunman - CBS News
 
Amish Woman Says ‘Innocence Is Gone’

An Amish woman says she doesn't think it will ever be the same again for the children.

Rebecca Smoker says they've had their innocence taken away with the killings of five young girls in their Pennsylvania schoolhouse. (See story links.)

"We know it happens," Smoker says, of the violence and hatred of the outside world. "It just has never happened here."

Smoker's 8-year-old grandson now says he's too afraid to return to his own school. Another boy doesn't sound as worried -- but that's because he says his school is so far back in the countryside, no gunman could find him there.

Authorities looking for answers say Charles Roberts claimed to have molested two young relatives 20 years ago and dreamed of molesting again. Police say they hope to talk to those relatives.

Tormented about the premature birth of his daughter nine years ago and her death 20 minutes later, the 32-year-old married father of three wrote of "unimaginable emptiness" and hatred.

Today's THV KTHV Little Rock News Article
 
Heartbreak In a Small Town - people magazine

A red-haired little girl who liked gardening and reading, 8-year-old Rachel Ann Stoltzfus was blissfully unaware of most of the evils of the outside world. But when Charlie Roberts, 32, a troubled local truck driver, barged into her one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., on the morning of Oct. 2, armed to the teeth and with a heart full of hate, young Rachel didn't flinch. Speaking in an even tone, Roberts ordered the children to lie down. He then began to tie up the 10 girls, ages 6 to 13, and ordered the 15 boys and four adults to leave. Rachel Ann's brothers John, 12, and Samuel, 6, who were among those who fled, were struck by their little sister's courage and composure. As their brother Melvin told PEOPLE, "Rachel Ann stayed very calm."

And the unimaginable happened. Forty-five minutes after entering the school, Roberts shot the 10 girls as they stood facing the chalkboard – a horrific act that left five of the girls dead and five others critically wounded – before turning his gun on himself. The senseless killings were only the latest in a rash of school shootings around the country.

part 1
 
Still, the cold brutality in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, in a community dedicated to simplicity and peace, seemed to take shock to a new, numbing level. "In my career I've never seen anything like this," Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said in an emotional news conference. "We all look at this and see innocent victims and it could easily be our children." As one Amish shopkeeper in the community put it the day of the tragedy, "Everybody's over at the firehouse, and they don't even realize they're in shock, but they are in shock."

There could be, of course, no rational explanation for the horror. But in the day after the massacre authorities began to get a clearer idea of what might have triggered Roberts's rampage. In a suicide note to his wife, Marie, 28, Roberts described his anguish over the death of their daughter Elise, minutes after her premature birthin 1997. (The couple had three other children, ages 7, 5 and 2.) He said he was angry at God and wrote mysteriously of repeating something he had done 20 years ago. "I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself, hate towards God," he wrote. He went on to say that in recent years he had been tormented because his dreams had led him to believe he wanted "to do those things again," according to commissioner Miller of the state police. Later, in a phone call to his wife shortly before he began shooting, he was more explicit, claiming that he had molested two young relatives in his family.

If true, the incident would have occurred when Roberts was roughly 12 years old. But state police commissioner Miller said that investigators had so far turned up no evidence that any such molestation had ever taken place. Whatever the truth, neighbors and acquaintances describe Roberts, who lived with his family in a modest one-story home about five minutes from the Amish schoolhouse, as slightly aloof but not unfriendly.

part 2 - people magazine
 
As far as anyone could tell, he had no grudge against the Amish. One Amish merchant recalls that Roberts often came into his store with his children. "He was a nice guy, very nice," says the man. "He never said no when the kids would ask him for something." He was, in fact, to all outward appearances a doting father who generally was the one to pick up his children at the school bus stop in the afternoon. "He would play ball with the kids in the yard," says neighbor Mary Miller. "It seemed like he was an active participant as a father."

In the weeks leading up to the killing, there had been a pronounced change in Roberts's demeanor. His coworkers told police Roberts had become more reserved, as if he were brooding. Then, in the days just before the murders, he suddenly seemed relaxed and at peace. Said state police commissioner Miller: "A few days before the shooting, a weight was lifted." On the morning of the attack he took the unusual step of seeing his two older children off at the bus. Paula Derby was also there for her daughter and witnessed a telling scene. As the Roberts kids started to climb on the bus he suddenly called them back. "He knelt down and gave them each a big hug," recalls Derby, "and said, 'Remember Daddy loves you.' Then they got back on the bus."

Given the timing, several experts speculate that a school shooting in Colorado the week before might have played a role in stirring Roberts to action. "I suspect he had gone through his plans in his mind many times," says school-violence expert Jared Lewis, "and all it took was the shooting in Colorado to push him over the edge."

part 3 - people magazine
 
Police soon discovered Roberts's attack had been carefully planned: There was evidence that he had purchased some of the items used in the attack a few days before, and investigators later discovered a checklist in his vehicle. He arrived at the schoolhouse driving a borrowed pickup truck and armed with a 9mm handgun, a shotgun and a bolt-action rifle. He walked in and showed the children his handgun and asked, "Have you ever seen one of these?" (Though the Amish are avid hunters, handguns are less common in their culture, and one of the children guessed the weapon was a horseshoe.) He then began the process of binding the feet of the girls with flex-cuffs and wire. One teacher who was released raced off to get help because there was no phone at the school, in keeping with Amish custom, which shuns most modern conveniences.

Meanwhile, Roberts was busy nailing lumber that he had brought with him across the doors as a barricade. Various items he carried in a bucket, including personal lubricant, suggested he had planned to molest the girls, as had happened in the Colorado attack. Police surrounded the building and tried to initiate negotiations. Roberts called his wife, who told police she could hear no sounds in the background. "We believe at this point that the kids were just quietly standing there," said Commissioner Miller.

Roberts called Lancaster county 911, demanding the police back off. A moment later police heard shots and stormed the school, but it was too late. The wounded girls ranged in age from 6 to 13; the dead were 7 to 13. "He had no intention of coming out of there alive," said Miller. "He planned this out meticulously."

part 4 - people magazine
 
The attack shattered the tranquility of the Amish community, where many of the men work in farming or the making of small crafts. Because of the lack of television and telephones inside homes it took authorities hours to track down the parents of students in the school. But when many of the Amish elders heard the news, their normal reserve broke down. "They are stoic," says Dwilyn Beiler, a local resident with close ties to the Amish who visited the family of two of the victims with his wife. "But we fell into each other's arms and cried. They're as human as anyone else."

And they are also generous of spirit. At an evening vigil on Oct. 2 the pastor for the Roberts family appeared and told how one Amish neighbor had already gone to the killer's parents and offered forgiveness for the shooting. In a statement, the parents, Chuck and Terry Roberts, declared, "Our hearts are torn and anguished at the tragedy and loss we have experienced as a family and in the Amish community."

Outside the home of Rachel Ann Stoltzfus, her brother Raymond, 14, attired in traditional overalls and wide-brimmed straw hat, watched over two of their younger siblings, Emma, 4, and David, 2. His parents, Daniel and Annie, were at the hospital watching over Rachel Ann. Raymond was pulling for his sister, who, he explained, "likes to play dolls and stuff." Now she was struggling to pull through, with a shattered jaw and wounds in her shoulder and side. Looking out over the fields, Raymond could still not comprehend how little children could be shot in cold blood. "I just can't see why that man thought he had to do this," he says. "Did he know what he was doing, or what?"

part 5 - people magazine

Heartbreak In a Small Town : People.com
you can read that 1-5 from post and also send share of condelences of PA shootings
 
(CBS/AP) As the Amish prepared to bury four young victims of a horrific school shooting, they asked to be allowed to do so in private.

There will be a service at each home of the five children killed Monday at their school, and then a procession — by horse and buggy — to the gravesite, as this community of faith comes to grips with what they say is God's will, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith.

National mourning of similar tragedies, such as the massacre at Columbine High School, has been enabled in part by media coverage — something the Amish generally shun and specifically spurned in a statement Wednesday that pleaded for privacy.

Instead, the Amish are coping with the slayings by looking inward. They are relying on themselves and their faith, just as they have for centuries, to get them through what one Amish bishop called "our 9/11."

Amish custom calls for simple wooden caskets, narrow at the head and feet and wider in the middle. An Amish girl is typically laid to rest in a white dress, a cape, and a white prayer-covering on her head, Furman said.

The services are conducted in German, with the men and women sitting separately, reports CBS News' Rob Milford (audio). The locations of the burial sites is also kept private.

"Other than the embalming they prepare the bodies themselves. They makes the clothes they dress the body and I really think it helps them work through the grieving process," said midwife Rita Rhoads, who delivered some of the slain children.

The four girls to be buried Thursday are Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7. The funeral for a fifth girl, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is scheduled for Friday.

About 300 to 500 people are expected at each funeral, said funeral director Philip W. Furman. The church-led services typically last about two hours.

The Amish say they are quietly accepting the deaths as God's will.

"They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent ... and they know that they will join them in death," said Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher who has written a book about children in Amish society.

"The hurt is very great," Huntington said. "But they don't balance the hurt with hate."

In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue.

But that's not the Amish way.

part 1

Private Funerals For Amish Children, Services In Victims' Homes, Then Horse-And-Buggy Processions To Cemeteries - CBS News
 
In the aftermath of Monday's violence, the Amish have reached out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack in a one-room schoolhouse.

"We saw that in action. we saw it being played out in front of our eyes. And it may be the silver lining in this very, very dark cloud," Rev. Bob Schenck of the National Clergy Council told CBS News.

Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Among Roberts' survivors are his wife and three children.

"I hope they stay around here and they'll have a lot of friends and a lot of support," said Daniel Esh, a 57-year-old Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack.

Roberts' relatives may even receive money from a fund established to help victims and their families, said Kevin King, executive director of Mennonite Disaster services, an agency managing the donations.

Though the Amish generally do not accept help from outside their community, King quoted an Amish bishop as saying, "We are not asking for funds. In fact, it's wrong for us to ask. But we will accept them with humility."

Roberts stormed the school and shot 10 girls before turning the gun on himself. Investigators said Roberts, who brought lubricating jelly and plastic restraints with him, might have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls.

Roberts revealed to his family in notes he left behind and in a phone call from inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School that he was tormented by memories of molesting two young relatives 20 years ago.

But police said Wednesday there was no evidence of any such sexual abuse. Investigators spoke to the two women Roberts named, who would have been 4 or 5 at the time, and neither recalls being sexually assaulted by Roberts.

"They were absolutely sure they had no contact with Roberts," state police Trooper Linette Quinn said.

The schoolhouse where the little girls were killed is now boarded up and likely to be torn down soon, reports Smith.

part 2

Private Funerals For Amish Children, Services In Victims' Homes, Then Horse-And-Buggy Processions To Cemeteries - CBS News
 
Slain Amish girls laid to rest

GEORGETOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Horse-drawn carriages carried mourners through the quiet town of Georgetown, Pennsylvania, past the home of gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV, as funeral services were held Thursday for the girls he killed at an Amish schoolhouse.

As is the custom in their closed society, the families of four of the five girls killed Monday are holding funerals in their homes prior to burial later in the day.

A funeral for the fifth victim is set for Friday.

About a mile from one of the funeral sites -- on a cool, clear day -- horses pulled buggies past the home that Roberts shared with his wife and three children.

The killer's grandparents-in-law, Lloyd and Lorraine Welk, watched the passage of the mourners' buggies from outside Roberts' home.

Lorraine Welk sat in a chair crying, as her husband comforted her, along with other members of the extended family.

Handmade signs outside one home read: "Our thoughts and prayers to all the families," and "Private property, keep out."

Thursday's funerals were scheduled for Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7, according to The Associated Press.

Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is to be buried Friday, AP reported.

Five other girls who were victims of the shooting remained hospitalized -- three in critical condition and two in serious condition. They ranged in age from 6 to 13.

Roberts, 32, shot the 10 girls Monday and then committed suicide as police stormed the schoolhouse. The truck driver brought lubricating jelly and plastic restraints with him, and may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls, police said.

Service 'quiet, sober, somber'
Wes Yoder, who said he grew up in the area with many Amish cousins, has been reaching out to the closed Amish community to offer comfort and to act as a liaison with the public.

He said a grandfather of one of the victims was instructing his children and grandchildren to forgive as they embalmed the body of one of the girls, preparing it for burial.

"I talked with two young men and took them around to each of the farms where the girls' families live," Yoder said. "These are two of the young men who have dug the graves now. They were going around and communicating the funeral arrangements to other family members."

"It's a very quiet and sober and somber service that will be held in the homes," he said. "The bodies are even prepared in the homes for burial."

Typically there are two or three Amish preachers who will speak at each service, Yoder said, probably in the traditional Amish-German dialect.

There will be a service in each home and then once that service is completed, the body will be taken in a procession to the Amish cemetery for burial, Yoder said.

About 300 to 500 people are expected at each funeral, said Philip W. Furman, an undertaker, according to AP. In keeping with custom, the Amish use simple wooden caskets -- narrow at the head and feet and wider in the middle. An Amish girl is typically laid to rest in a white dress, a cape, and a white prayer-covering on her head, Furman said.

Others who have attended traditional Amish burials say mourners often circle around a hand-dug grave and lower the casket into the ground by hand with ropes. Family members then throw dirt on the coffin.

"I asked various Amish friends what message do you want to communicate to people around the world and they said, 'We want them to understand how rich and deep our friendships and family relationships can be, and while we don't have insurance and we don't enjoy many modern conveniences, we have the richest treasure in the world and that is brotherly love.'"

Amish mourners have been going from home to home for the past two days to attend viewings for the victims, all little girls laid out in white dresses made by their families, according to AP. Such viewings occur almost immediately after the bodies arrive at the parents' homes.

Typically, they are so crowded, "if you start crying, you've got to figure out whose shoulder to cry on," said Rita Rhoads, a Mennonite midwife who delivered two of the five girls slain in the attack, AP reported. (Watch how the Amish have already forgiven the killer -- 2:46)

Reaching out
The Amish have also been reaching out to Roberts' family. Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them, AP reported. (Full story)

"I hope they stay around here, and they'll have a lot of friends and a lot of support," Daniel Esh, a 57-year-old Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack, said of the Roberts family, according to AP.

Police said Roberts revealed to his family in notes he left behind and in a phone call from inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School that he was tormented by memories of molesting two young relatives 20 years ago. (Full story)

A deputy county coroner on Wednesday described a gruesome scene at the school, with blood on every desk, every window broken and the body of a girl slumped beneath the chalkboard, below a sign that read "Visitors Brighten People's Days," AP reported. Roberts' body was facedown next to the teacher's desk. (Full story)

CNN.com - Slain Amish girls laid to rest - Oct 5, 2006
 
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