Friday, under a steady, cold rain, 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus — killed by a gunman Monday at West Nickel Mines School in Bart Township — was laid to rest at Bart Cemetery.

The four other slaying victims — Marian S. Fisher, 13; sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Z. Miller, 7; and Naomi Rose Ebersol, 7 — were buried at the same cemetery Thursday.

Friday’s rain pelted a procession of nearly 50 buggies as it traveled south from Mine Road onto Georgetown Road about 12:45 p.m. Four state police troopers on horseback led the procession to the cemetery.

State police also guarded the girls’ funerals, held at private homes, both days. Friday, troopers and volunteer fire police stood at the entry to the Ivan Petersheim farm on Mine Road, where the funeral for Stoltzfus was held. Stoltzfus’ lifeless body was found Monday inside the school, a silk handkerchief clutched in her hand.

Roads leading to Bart Cemetery, which is on Quarry Road off Route 896, were closed most of the day.

The funeral procession reached the cemetery shortly after 1 p.m. Mourners, dressed in black suits and dresses, ascended the narrow road to the hilltop cemetery, which is surrounded by a white fence. The lingering rain seemed to get heavier.

Evelyn Vandament lives in the 1900 block of Mine Road and was a neighbor to some of the slain girls.

She said she had spent the past few days mourning with the Ebersol, Fisher and Stoltzfus families.

“The Nickel Mines School is right around the corner from my house, and I hope they burn it down,” Vandament said. “Those (students) couldn’t go back. That would bring up too many memories.”

A robe kept Vandament warm — the temperature hovered in the 50s — while she watched the carriages roll down Mine Road.

“We’ll get by; all of us will get by,” she said. “Will we come against (Marie Roberts, wife of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the killer) or (their) children? No. The majority of us aren’t like that.”

Through bloodshot eyes, Lloyd Welk watched a horse-drawn carriage carrying Stoltzfus’ body pass his Georgetown Road home on its way to the cemetery. Welk said he hadn’t been able to sleep for days as thoughts of the massacre troubled him.

The 73-year-old was a relative and next-door neighbor of Roberts, who killed the students and wounded five others before shooting himself in the head. Roberts was married to Welk’s granddaughter, Marie.

Welk said he gave Roberts a job and a home and loaned him a pickup truck.

Welk said he saw his granddaughter Thursday night for the first time since the massacre. They talked about how the death of the couple’s daughter, Elise Victoria, in 1997, sent “Charlie” in a downward spiral.

“(Marie) thinks ... (Elise Victoria) is what bothered him much more than anything else,” Welk said.

Roberts always struggled with the death, Welk said: “He was the only one who would carry the casket. He carried it out of the church and to the cemetery.

“Afterward, he held up well, but I think it was the years of buildup that drove him to do what he did.”

Welk said that on Wednesday he visited John S. and Linda Fisher, the parents of shooting victim Marian Fisher, at their home.

“As soon as I walked in, John came over and shook my hand,” Welk said. “We sat down, he pulled his arm around my shoulders and said there was no grudge, only forgiveness, and that he held nothing against us.”

Welk said he and Marie Roberts plan to visit the families of the slaying victims this weekend. The families have been customers of Welk’s milk-transport business for years, he said.

“There will be some tears and times when we’ll get choked up,” Welk said. “But I think when it’s all said and done, the friendship between us all will be stronger.” blog comments powered by Disqus