The son of a police officer, he didn’t attend public schools, instead earning a diploma through a home-school association.

The employee of Northwest Food Products Transportation in East Earl Township shared a vinyl-sided mobile home at 1084 Georgetown Road, Bart Township, with his wife of nine years and three children.

Roberts married Marie Lynn Welk Nov. 9, 1996, at Highview Church of God in Ronks. The couple lived in Lititz before moving to Bart Township in 1999.

Marie gave birth to a daughter about a year after the wedding. The infant, Elise Victoria, died shortly after birth.

The couple later had two sons and a daughter. The children range in age from 1½ to 7.

Monday morning, Roberts left suicide notes for each of the children before driving to West Nickel Mines School, where he executed several students before killing himself, police said.

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After the shooting, Marie went to the home of her father, Kenneth L. Welk, on Furnace Road. Her children played in the backyard while she stayed inside.

She said in a statement Monday her husband was not an evil man.

“The man who did this today was not the Charles I’ve been married to for almost 10 years,” she said. “My husband was loving, supportive, thoughtful — all the things you’d always want, and more.”

He was an exceptional father, she said. He took the children to soccer practices and games, played ball in their backyard and took their 7-year-old daughter shopping.

“He never said ‘no’ when I asked him to change a diaper,” she said.

“Our hearts are broken, our lives are shattered and we grieve for the innocence and the lives that were lost today.

“Above all, please pray. Pray for the families who lost children. And please pray, too, for our family and children.”

Roberts’ mother, Teresa Roberts of Strasburg Township, said Monday her son was devoted to his wife and children.

“He was an excellent family man,” she said, sobbing in the front yard of her Sawmill Road home. “I had no idea anything like this was going to happen.”

Roberts’ father, Charles C. Roberts III, retired as a sergeant from Manor Township Police Department. He later applied for a state license to be a taxi driver for the Amish community.

Teresa Roberts consoled her mother and father, Harry and Teresa Neustadter of Strasburg. The couple drove to the Sawmill Road home to confirm it was their grandson identified as the suicide gunman.

“He was a good son and a good father,” Teresa Neustadter said. “I just don’t understand why he did it, why he killed those kids.”

Neustadter said his grandson was a gentle person.

“He was a family man,” he said. “I just don’t understand.”

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Normally outgoing and friendly, Roberts became introverted and tense in recent weeks, co-workers told police.

The dark mood changed late last week as Roberts turned jovial, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said Monday.

“It seems to us that he may have made a decision to do this within the last few days and seemed to be relieved of some of the pressures that he was exhibiting to some of his co-workers,” Miller said.

On Monday morning, Roberts took his children to school.

He returned home and wrote the notes to his family before driving about a mile to the school at 4876 White Oak Road.

Roberts’ milk truck was found outside Nickel Mine Auction, 1904 Mine Road. His pickup truck was found in front of the school shortly before 10 a.m., Miller said.

Roberts carried into the school a 9 mm handgun, 12-gauge shotgun, .30-06 bolt-action rifle, about 600 rounds of ammunition, cans of black powder, a stun gun, two knives, a change of clothes and a box containing a hammer, hacksaw, pliers, wire, screws, bolts and tape. He used 2-by-6 and 2-by-4 boards with eye bolts and flex ties to barricade the school doors, Miller said.

Roberts fired three rounds from the 12-gauge shotgun and 13 rounds from the semiautomatic handgun.

“It is clear to us that he did a great deal of planning, just from the list of materials I just laid out,” Miller said. “It appears as though he intended to prepare for a lengthy siege.

“He came here prepared. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. It appears he did a lot of time in planning and intended to harm these kids and intended to harm himself.”


Intelligencer Journal staff writers Colby Itkowitz and Michael Yoder contributed to this report.