5 Amish girls killed, 5 critically wounded in shocking massacre; killer planned to molest young victims as he had 20 years before
By Cindy Stauffer, Janet Kelley, Ryan Robinson And Ad Crable
Updated Feb 20, 2007 12:19
The 32-year-old milk-truck driver also was still distraught over the death of his premature infant daughter nine years ago.
On Monday, he loaded himself down with weapons and supplies to molest and to kill: bullets, guns, lubricating jelly, eyebolts and tape, police said.
Then Roberts unloaded his monstrous rage and hatred of God and of himself on a group of Amish girls in a yellow schoolhouse in Bart Township.
He shot and killed five of the girls, wounded another five and finally killed himself.
There was no evidence that any of the victims was sexually assaulted.
“It’s very possible that he perhaps planned ... to victimize these children in many ways before he killed himself,” State Police Col. Jeffrey Miller said today.
Afterward, sisters lay together on the bloody schoolhouse floor. Police used the word “execute” to describe how Roberts held the gun to the heads of the children, some as young as 6 years old, and fired it.
Roberts meticulously planned his attack on the school, gathering supplies with a checklist and methodically gathering the children before ending their lives and his when police showed up outside the schoolhouse and pleaded with him to drop his weapons, Miller said.
“It was organized and pre-planned,” he said at a noon press conference.
Miller said Roberts’ family was completely shocked by the killings, which began after he dropped two of his three children at the school bus stop and his wife left for a prayer meeting.
His wife, Marie, discovered something was terribly wrong when she returned home and called her husband and then found a series of suicide notes.
The notes detailed Roberts’ grief over his daughter’s death nine years ago.
In the telephone conversation, Roberts also said he had molested the younger relatives, ages 3 and 5, 20 years ago, though police have not yet found any evidence to support his claim.
His suicide notes also said he was having dreams of “doing those things again.”
Today, as reporters from all over the world descended on the county and words of sympathy poured in from as far away as Australia, a stunned community dealt with the tragedy in the only way it knew.
Neighbors milked the cows for neighbors; families and friends put their arms around each other; and people talked to God in church services and vigils.
Some Amish schools closed today, but others continued their lessons, as parents sat with their children to quell their fears. In some public schools, security was heightened as other districts reassured parents of their children’s safety.
Emma Mae Zook, 20, the teacher at the yellow school, did the dishes in her Mine Road home this morning, pausing to talk to a reporter. A slight figure, her eyes were puffy and her feet bare. She seemed still in shock but said she will return to the classroom.
“Me and the children,” she said, “still need each other. I can’t just walk away.”
Carrying a gun, Roberts, a 32-year-old milk-truck driver, began his siege at the West Nickel Mines School by ordering all the boys out of the building. One little girl also slipped out, escaping with her brother. Four adults also were allowed to leave.
Then Roberts, described as a devoted father of three, gathered 10 girls in the room near a poster that said that visitors brightened the pupils’ days.
He barricaded the doors with boards. Some of the boys heard his hammer pounding in the nails as they fled through the fields.
He bound some of the girls’ feet and tied other girls together. Several of the girls had a little sister at the frightening scene.
As police tried to dial his cell phone, Roberts opened fire on the girls before he turned his gun on himself in the blood-soaked room.
When troopers burst in through the windows they found a horrific scene. One official said it looked like a war zone, with glass and debris everywhere.
Rescue workers soon were covered in blood as they tried to help the girls. One trooper held a child in his arms for an hour, until she died.
Three of the girls died during the shooting or shortly afterward. Two more girls — Lina Miller, 7, and her sister Mary Liz Miller, 8, died overnight at Christiana Hospital in Delaware and at Hershey Medical Center.
The girls who died Monday include: Marian S. Fisher, 13; Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; and Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, said a worker at the Furman Home for Funerals in Leola.
Police originally believed one of the three was older and a teacher’s aide, but they were mistaken about that, they said today.
Another five girls, ages 6, 8, 8, 11 and 13, are hospitalized, four in critical condition. Their identities were not known at press time.
Three girls are in critical condition at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where all of them had surgery Monday.
Two others are at Hershey Medical Center. The younger child is in critical condition. The older one is in serious condition and is communicating nonverbally with her parents, using eye movements, a hospital spokesman said today.
Roberts entered the schoolhouse just before 10 a.m., carrying what the teacher described as a “piece of iron.” It was a gun, but Zook, who is in her third year as a teacher, said she did not realize it at the time.
Roberts asked if anyone had seen anything like it along the road. Not realizing the coming danger, Zook asked the children the question, but no one had.
Then Roberts went to his truck and returned to the school. When he returned, Zook saw this time that he was carrying a gun.
The young teacher panicked. The school has no phone and she knew she needed help.
“I saw he was looking the other way,” she said. “I saw this was my chance to run, so I ran for help.”
She raced to a nearby farm, screaming. The boys soon followed.
Police arrived, after getting the 911 call. They asked Roberts to drop his weapons, and he called emergency dispatchers, telling them that if police did not leave within 10 seconds, he would start shooting.
Seconds later, he began firing.
Troopers burst into the schoolhouse, breaking through windows because the doors had been barricaded.
Miller said today that the troopers had one purpose: saving the children’s lives.
Witnesses said there was blood everywhere inside the school — on the ceiling, walls and floors. The girls were all lying in the front of the classroom, near the chalkboard.
Miller used the words “carnage’’ and “horrific’’ to describe the scene.
The entire time the gunman was in the school, Miller said, “We believe the children were quiet and compliant.’’
Afterward, there was some soft crying and moaning as the troopers rushed in to help.
One trooper, carrying a child with a traumatic head wound out of the schoolhouse, “just held her in his arms for approximately an hour as she died,’’ Miller said.
A makeshift triage center, with ambulance and medical personnel, was set up in the front yard of the school house, Miller said.
Miller emphasized that the young teacher should not be criticized for leaving the school. “Her actions may have saved some lives,’’ he added.
After the shooting, Zook said she went to some of the families of the dead and dying.
“None of us knew what to say,” the young teacher said quietly.
As for Roberts, “I pity him.”
The Amish community already has forgiven Roberts, as is their religious custom, members of the community said today. They also are comforted by their belief that the children who died went to heaven.
Still, folks naturally struggled with their emotions.
An elderly Amish woman walking along Mine Road early this morning barely held back tears.
“It was supposed to be,’’ she said of the children’s deaths. “That’s what we believe.’’
But she added, “It is hard.”
A Presbyterian minister who went to an Amish farm to help console families Monday said people were leaning on each other.
“The amazing thing about the Amish is that they help and support each other,’’ said the Rev. Dr. Richard Graugh of the Parkesburg Presbyterian Church. “I feel a sense of hope for these people in their great grief.”
About 150 members of the Amish community gathered Monday at the Levi King farm, about 200 yards from the schoolhouse, Graugh said.
One of the Kings’ granddaughters was among the girls who were shot.
Graugh said he talked with five of the boys who were in the school but were released by the gunman.
“They were throwing stones, hard, into the driveway. That was their method of dealing with it,’’ Graugh said.
“They talked about how afraid they were’’ during the entire episode, Graugh said. “They could hear the nailing of the planks’’ as the gunman boarded up the exits.
Later in the afternoon, Graugh said, he was asked to go down to the schoolhouse. On his way, he encountered a couple returning to the farm after identifying their dead child.
“They were beyond words,’’ Graugh said.
A neighbor spent the night shuttling food from homes and restaurants to the victims’ families.
Kim Longenecker, of Vintage Road, said she and her parents, Tim and Anita St. Arnaud, had been gathering food from restaurants in the area to take to the grieving families.
“The Amish are always the first to help everybody,’’ Longenecker said. “That’s what friends and neighbors are for.’’
White Oak Road, which runs in front of the school, was closed today.
State police Lt. A.J. Krawczel said special technicians were helping to clean the school before turning it over to the Amish community later today.
It was Krawczel’s belief that the Amish would board up the school until they decide what to do with the building.
Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro commended police for their dedication at the difficult scene.
The district attorney’s victim witness coordinator, Pamela Grosh, is working with the Keystone Crisis Intervention Team, made up of 200 volunteers from across the state who work with people in crime-related incidents.
Later this week, Totaro said, Grosh and the other team members plan to have a public meeting to help members of the community deal with “the impact of this senseless crime.’’
Joining Miller at the press conference today was Gov. Ed Rendell.
(Staff writers Bernard Harris, Anya Litvak, Robyn Meadows and Tim Mekeel contributed to this report.)
