As the Amish community laid Marian and three of her classmates to rest Thursday, details emerged of the grim moments inside West Nickel Mines School before Roberts opened fire, killing five girls.

Marian’s 11-year-old sister, Barbie, who was wounded in the attack, is now awake and telling her family what happened inside the classroom Monday morning, said Rita Rhoads, a midwife who has been in contact with the Fisher family.

Her family has relayed the story to community members.

Barbie told her family Roberts, who left a suicide note saying he hated God, asked the girls in the classroom to pray for him.

One of the girls then asked him, “Why don’t you pray for us?”

When the girls realized Roberts planned to kill them, Marian said, “Shoot me first,” Rhoads said.

Barbie said, “Shoot me next.”

“They were trying to offer themselves so the younger girls could be saved,” she said.

Their courageous effort failed.

Mary Liz Miller, one of the girls buried Thursday, was 8, and two others — Mary’s sister, Lena Z. Miller, and Naomi Rose Ebersol — were 7.

Twelve-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus will be buried today.

Three girls remain in critical condition. Another girl is awake and also talking, but her name was not released Thursday.

When the unnamed girl was told Marian had died, she said, “I lost my best friend,” according to Rhoads.

Rhoads delivered Marian and Naomi.

On Wednesday, Rhoads watched both families prepare their daughters for burial.

The women dressed their daughters all in white to represent the purity of heaven, according to Amish custom.

“It’s their last loving touch, their last chance to interact with their daughter,” Rhoads said.

After a private viewing inside the Ebersol home Thursday morning, a horse-drawn hearse carrying Naomi’s body led a procession of Amish buggies, which rolled past the home of her killer, to the hilltop cemetery at 11:40 a.m.

Naomi was the first of four buried at Bart Cemetery.

Cameras clicked as the procession of 37 horse and buggies trotted past almost 100 photographers and reporters lining the street.

The Amish adults inside the buggies remained stoic, staring straight ahead. The younger children, with their wide-eyed innocence, curiously surveyed the media mob.

The Amish religion forbids photography, literally obeying the second of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”

But when Roberts stormed the school, the international spotlight trained its gaze on the quiet Amish community.

While the media waited to capture photos of the funeral procession, an elderly Amish man leaning on his cane walked slowly past the cameras.

A television reporter leapt into his path, begging him to speak on camera for “just a second.”

He shook his head no, and after a few moments of pleading, she finally let him pass.

An Amish man inside his buggy who was not part of the funeral procession called out, “Show some respect.”

Inside Fisher’s Houseware and Fabrics, Katie King, 27, an Amish woman who works in the small shop on Georgetown Road, said all of the media attention has been daunting.

“I’m afraid it’s not something we’d expect,” she said. “It’s a solemn occasion.”

State police did not let the media near the Amish families’ farms, where the funerals were held, or cemetery. A 5-square-mile area of airspace over the community was closed Thursday and will be closed again today to prevent news helicopters from taking aerial photographs.

But police could not prevent the cluster of photographers from elbowing each other for the perfect shot when the first funeral procession, which lasted all of five minutes, passed on Georgetown Road.

In the second-to-last buggy in the procession sat Emma Mae Zook, the teacher who ran for help Monday when Roberts walked into her classroom with a gun.

While Zook called the police at a nearby farm, Roberts had already tied the 10 female students’ legs with plastic cable ties. Police speculate the 32-year-old Bart Township milk truck driver intended to sexually molest the girls, whose ages ranged from 6 to 13.

When police arrived at the school, Roberts “became disorganized” and opened fire, shooting the girls and then himself, according to police.

Emma, Marian and Barbie’s baby sister escaped the schoolhouse before the rampage began.

Emma, described as a “happy-go-lucky” little girl, hasn’t quite faced the reality of losing her sister, said King, who used to work at Fisher’s greenhouse.

“We need to let her know we’re glad she got out,” King said.

King visited the Fishers this week and said Emma was talkative.

The second girl laid to rest Thursday was Marian.

Amish funerals are by invitation only, and Rhoads did not ask to be invited.

According to Amish custom, Rhoads said, the girl’s body would have been laid out for viewing. The mother would reach out and touch the body and then ask younger children also to touch the dead girl’s hand or face.

Rhoads said mothers will say to the children, “See, it’s cold. She’s in heaven now.”

The ritual tries to help the younger children understand the person is gone and they should not expect to see their sister again.

At the cemetery, family and friends shovel the dirt onto the casket after it is lowered in the ground, finalizing the goodbye by closing the grave themselves, Rhoads said.

By the time of the final funeral procession for sisters Mary Liz, 8, and Lena Miller, 7, the media frenzy had calmed.

But it was the largest convoy of the three, with 47 buggies trailing the hearse that carried the girls’ bodies to the cemetery around 4:50 p.m.

A 6-year-old girl wounded in the shootings was taken off life support Tuesday and moved from a hospital to her family’s home. State police could not confirm Thursday whether the girl had died.

Leroy Zook, Emma Mae’s father, said he did not realize just how strong the community was until this week, when everyone came together to offer aid and comfort.

They’ll survive together.

“We support each other through prayer,” King said. “I think we’ll make it. Life will go on. It won’t be the same, but it will go on.”


Brett Hambright and Jennifer Todd contributed to this story.