Funerals for slain Amish girls get under way. Processions pass gunman's home.
By Janet Kelley And Cindy Stauffer Lancaster New Era
Published: Oct 05, 2006 5:42 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA -
A shiny black horse-drawn buggy carrying the coffin of a little Amish girl led a procession past hundreds of television crews and news photographers this morning.
The procession of 34 gray, horse-drawn Amish buggies, plus vans and cars full of Amish and non-Amish friends and relatives, flanked in the beginning and end by state police troopers, took about 10 minutes to pass.
Reporters and camera crews from around the world gathered before dawn today at the police-designated media center along Route 896.
A hush fell over the crowd shortly after 11:30 a.m., when uniformed state troopers fell in line, about 20 feet apart, in front of the media, keeping them to the side of the road.
As the hearse passed this morning, a trooper along one side of the road removed his hat as the buggy carrying the young child’s body passed him.
The procession traveled down a gently sloping Route 896 through Georgetown toward the Bart Cemetery on Quarry Road.
They rode past homes and Amish farms. They rode past harvested cornfields and brightly colored chrysanthemums.
And it traveled past the home of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the man who unleashed his horrible anger Monday morning inside the Amish schoolhouse, shooting 10 little girls and then himself.
Four of the victims — including a pair of young sisters — were to be buried today after traditional Amish funeral services in their respective homes. The fifth is to be buried on Friday.
Before this morning’s funeral, four state troopers, dressed in black jackets and wearing black helmets and sunglasses, slowly rode their police horses two-by-two along the road, eyeing up the camera crews and photographers.
State police even monitored the crowd from above, flying an airplane overhead in a perfect blue, October sky.
A crisp, cool autumn breeze chilled the hundreds gathered along the funeral route.
Before the procession, a constant stream of buggy traffic headed in the opposite direction, traveling to the other funerals scheduled for later in the day. One Amish woman carried a small flower arrangement of pink rose buds and baby’s breath in her lap.
Occasionally, there was a snippet of normal life. A barefoot Amish girl on a scooter rode down the street. A UPS delivery man stopped at a nearby business.
But mostly, it was the horde of television and newspaper reporters that gathered along the roads to cover today’s events, snapping pictures of every Amish person or buggy that passed in front of the media gauntlet.
It was scene that was to be repeated twice again later today.
Later today, families were to bury three others.
Funeral services for 13-year-old Marian S. Fisher were scheduled for 1 p.m., to be followed by the 2 p.m. funeral of the Miller sisters, Mary Liz, 8, and Lena, 7.
The funeral for Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is scheduled for Friday morning.
The five girls were among 10 shot Monday morning inside the West Nickel Mines School, along White Oak Road in Bart Township.
Police said that at around 10 a.m., Roberts, 32, of Bart Township, entered the school and ordered the 15 boys and several adult women to leave at gunpoint.
He then barricaded the doors, tied up the 10 little girls and unleashed his horrible anger, shooting each child and, finally, himself.
When it was over, one girl and Roberts were dead at the scene.
Another child died in the schoolyard and three more, flown to area trauma centers, died within hours.
A sixth child — a 6-year-old girl — was removed from life support and returned to her parents Wednesday night to die at home, at the request of her family.
Four others remained hospitalized today. Two girls, ages 8 and 10, were in critical condition at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Two others, ages 12 and 13, were listed in serious condition — one at Children’s Hospital and the other at Hershey Medical Center.
In an effort to protect and insulate the Amish from the horde of reporters, photographers and television crews that have descended on Lancaster County, state police closed a two-square-mile area of roads around the victims’ farms and the cemetery where they were to be buried.
In addition, a five-square-mile area of airspace has been shut down over the community today and tomorrow to shelter the mourners from news helicopters and airplanes.
About 40 satellite trucks and television crews from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Harrisburg, plus 75 cars belonging to reporters, were crammed into the two small parking lots of the tiny Georgetown United Methodist Church this morning.
One member of the media apparently tried to sneak into the private funerals, state police said, by dressing as an Amish woman.
Troopers caught her, they said, because she was wearing a “pink-ish colored dress,’’ instead of the traditional black.
Among the area residents who came out of their homes to watch the funeral procession this morning was the grandfather of Roberts’ wife, Marie. He stood outside his home along the highway dressed in a suit.
Aimee Miller, who lives next to the Georgetown United Methodist Church, said she had to ask a state trooper this morning to move his car because he was blocking her driveway.
After getting her children to school, Mrs. Miller said, she had to show her driver’s license to authorities so that she could drive back to her house.
“I know you want to get the news but you’ve got the main story,’’ she said. “Everyone knows they want their privacy, they should give it to them.’’
A network of TV cables snaked through her yard, past her house and out to the street.
Another resident set up sawhorses in their driveway with two signs that seemed to sum up the feeling of local people:
“Our thoughts and prayers to all the families,’’ and “Private property. Keep out.’’
Across the street, another man said he chased a cameraman out of his driveway when he heard the man say, “Is this where we’re going to set up?’’
“I understand it, but it ain’t right,’’ he said. “They’re infringing. The media’s so ignorant they asked one woman if they could get on her roof and film the funerals.’’
A group of motorcyclists, identifying themselves as Vietnam veterans, drove en masse down Route 896, but did not stop.
Dick Rineer, 86, said he and his family has lived in his house along Route 896 for more than 50 years.
“They are good friends of ours,’’ Rineer said of his Amish neighbors, adding that he’s sad about the media attention they are enduring. “We know it’s their tradition not to have cameras.’’
As Rineer stood outside his home and talked, he waved to an Amish man who was walking his boys to school.
“They’re good boys,’’ Rineer said, explaining that the boys voluntarily came and mowed his lawn while he was recovering from heart surgery. “They just came and did it.’’
An Amish teenager, riding his scooter past Rineer’s house, was asked what he thought of all the media taking his picture.
“All the newspaper reporters? It’s not to my liking,’’ he said.
The pastor of the Georgetown church, the Rev. Michael Remel, who lives six doors away, approached members of the media and asked them to please not take closeup pictures of the Amish in the funeral procession.
Amid the media hub, which was focused today on the funerals, is the Roberts home, where the killer lived with his family.
When the media finally leaves town, Remel said, “We will try to get back to normal, but we need to realize what once was normal will never be again.’’
“The community needs to decide whether to draw together or withdraw from one another,.” he said. “My hope and prayer is that the community will draw together.’’
Remel added that he hopes people will remember Georgetown and this area for how people worked together to rebuild lives, rather than just the shooting.
The church has received many cards and about two dozen flower arrangements that will be distributed to the victims’ families, Remel said.
Looking across the cornfields and cows grazing near the church, Remel said he believes Mrs. Roberts and her children will be able to return to their home and their lives.
“I don’t think this community holds any malice toward Marie Roberts at all,’’ Remel said. “The community sees her and her family as victims also. It is a tragedy for all parties involved.’’
A friend of one of the Amish families said that Mrs. Roberts had been invited to attend one of the funerals today, but it was not known if she planned to do so.
The week started out as a typical Monday, with Roberts driving his milk truck to area farms in Bart Township, including the Fisher property, just south of the school.
The Fisher family would later lose their 13-year-old daughter, Marian, in the shooting.
After finishing his rounds at 3 a.m., Roberts went home, slept, took his two older children to the bus stop, left suicide notes for his family members and then left for the school.
State police said he had a handgun, a rifle and shotgun, several boards and assorted other items, including nails, tape, lubricating jelly and plastic ties to bind the children.
When the 20-year-old teacher, Emma Zook, saw Roberts get a gun from his truck, she and her mother, who was visiting the school, slipped out a side door. They ran to the nearest farm, about 200 yards away, screaming for the residents to call 911 for help. Police said the teacher’s actions prevented the situation from become even worse.
While state troopers rushed to the scene, Roberts was boarding up the doors and binding the legs of the 10 remaining girls inside the schoolhouse.
A dozen troopers surrounded the school, calling to Roberts to put down his gun and talk to them.
Instead, Roberts called his wife, Marie, telling her the police were there and he wasn’t coming home. In his phone call and suicide notes, Roberts talked of issues that have haunted him all his life.
He said he had molested two young relatives 20 years ago and was having dreams of doing it again. And, Roberts noted, he was angry at God for letting his infant daughter die hours after birth.
Roberts then called 911, threatening to shoot if the police didn’t leave.
Seconds later, troopers heard a quick succession of shots, ending with a loud shotgun blast out a window at police officers, and then one final shot.
Troopers, who never returned fire, smashed windows and climbed in, carrying the injured girls outside, where medial personnel waited.
One trooper carried tiny, 7-year-old Naomi Ebersol outside the school to the triage site. Medics unsuccessfully tried to revive her and the trooper held her in his arms until she died.
Officials clarified an earlier report, noting that the child suffered a number of pellet wounds from the shotgun, not numerous bullet wounds.
On Wednesday, Trooper Linette Quinn, a state police spokeswoman, said both of the women whom Roberts named as his victims — now in their mid-20s — have repeatedly told investigators they have no recollection of being sexually assaulted by Roberts.
Mental-health experts have explained that the victims may have been too young to remember, that Roberts just fantasized about such an assault or that he touched them in a way that meant something to him, but went unnoticed by the girls.
On Wednesday, troopers braced themselves for another problem when members of a radical Baptist church in Kansas announced that they planned to come and picket at the funerals.
Westboro Baptist Church members have protested the military funerals of American soldiers, saying the deaths were God’s punishment for American tolerance of homosexuals.
This summer, Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed legislation designed to keep the group at least 500 feet from funerals in Pennsylvania.
A number of other groups had volunteered to create a human blockade to prevent the Kansas protesters from getting close to the Amish funeral scene.
Rendell issued a public plea asking everyone to respect the Amish families’ privacy. Later in the day, the Westboro members announced they had dropped their plans in exchange for an offer of air time on a radio talk show.
(Staff writer Jane Holahan contributed to this report).
