Amish school assassin 'told wife he had molested children before'

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Horror: Gunman Charles Roberts is believed to have molested children before, and police chief Jeffrey B Miller holds up one of his 'suicide notes'. Click the image to see the letter in more detail

The father of three who shot dead five Amish schoolgirls had harboured a guilty sex secret for 20 years.

Charles Roberts, 32, confessed to his wife on the phone minutes before the slaughter that he had assaulted two young female relatives when he was 12.

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He said he had been tormented for the past two years by dreams of doing it again.

His intent when he burst into Georgetown Amish School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, armed to the teeth and equipped for a lengthy siege, was to act out those fantasies on the young classmates.

Instead, panicked by the arrival of police, he began executing them before turning the gun on himself.

His wife Marie, 28, was in hiding with their two young daughters and baby son.

In a statement expressing her bewilderment she said she did not recognise the man responsible for the bloodbath as her husband, who she knew as "loving, supportive and thoughtful" and an exceptional father.

Police said Roberts was also haunted by the death of his first-born daughter Elise Victoria, who lived for only 20 minutes after a premature birth in 1997.

He was "angry with himself and angry towards God", they said. As the stunned Amish community struggled to come to terms with the horror, details of the ordeal inside the schoolhouse began to emerge.

Roberts had chained the girls together in a line at the blackboard and barricaded the doors after sending the boys and adults away. There was no evidence he had sexually assaulted anyone.

"Have you seen anything like this?" he asked the terrified pupils, showing them his 9mm Springfield Arms semi-automatic pistol, from which he later fired 13 rounds before reloading and firing a bullet into his own skull.

Two more victims, aged nine and seven, died yesterday, taking the death toll to six including Roberts. Five girls aged six, eight, ten, 12 and 13 remained in hospital.

The dead were named as Naomi Rose Ebersole, seven; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; and sisters Mary Liz Miller, eight, and Lina Miller, seven. Their parents have no photographs to remember them by, because the Amish shun modern gadgetry such as cameras.

'Organised, pre-planned and forethought'

Roberts was not Amish and did not appear to be targeting the cult specifically, said Pennsylvania police commissioner Jeffrey Miller.

He had driven a truck which collected milk from their farms and had no criminal or psychiatric history.

But the police chief painted a chilling picture of how he spent days mustering weapons, tools and "restraint kits" comprising hooks, wire, tape and plastic ties to immobilise the children after storming their school in the hamlet of Nickel Mines.

He had ticked off each item on a checklist that was found in the cab of his truck. "Roberts' behaviour was organised, pre-planned and had forethought," said Miller.

"He was planning about six days in advance. He went equipped to fortify the school for enough time to accomplish what he had planned."

Roberts, son of Charles a retired policeman and Teresa, who works for a Christian theatre group, had been moody and withdrawn over the last few weeks but had lightened up in recent days, according to friends.

On the day of the killings he had finished his milk delivery run at 3am, helped his wife get their two eldest children Emily, seven, and Brice, five, ready for school, walking them to the bus stop himself at 8.45am while his wife attended church with a friend.

He then headed to the Amish school about a mile away. Police chief Miller said: "At 10.50am Roberts calls his wife and won't tell her where he is. Roberts stated to his wife, 'I'm not coming home, the police are here', then he states 'I molested some minor family members, female members that were three and four years old, 20 years ago'."

In a handwritten suicide note found at home by his wife, Roberts revealed "that he was having dreams of molesting again", added Miller.

"The note talks about the good memories together, the tragedy with Elise, it focuses on his life being changed forever... over the loss of Elise, his hatred toward himself, his hatred towards God as a result of that event, and he alludes to this other reason for this anger but he can't discuss it with her and it happened 20 years ago.

'Above all, please pray'

"In the call he said he's been having dreams for the past couple of years about doing what he did 20 years ago and in those dreams he wanted to do those things again. That's the last conversation he has with his wife."

Mrs Roberts has told police her husband took the loss of their child very badly. It had changed his life forever.

In a statement she said: "The man that did this today was not the Charlie I've been married to for almost ten years. My husband was loving, supportive and thoughtful - all the things you'd always want and more.

"He was an exceptional father. He took the kids to soccer practice and games, played ball in the backyard and took our seven-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I asked him to change a diaper.

"Our hearts are broken, our lives shattered and we grieve for the innocent lives that were lost. Above all, please pray. Pray for the families who lost children. Please pray too for our family and children."

Miller said Roberts had given his wife the names of the relatives concerned in the incident 20 years ago but they had not yet been interviewed by police.

The massacre weapon, purchased three years earlier in a local shop, was among a fearsome arsenal found with his body.

Roberts also went armed with a Browning 12-gauge shotgun, from which he fired at least three blasts, a Ruger bolt-action sports rifle, a stun gun, two cans of gunpowder, two knives, a black bag containing 600 rounds of ammunition, binoculars, wrenches, a hose, candles and torches.

"He wasn't agitated, but he was very serious about what he was doing, and methodical in how he separated students, allowed certain people to leave, and then began to bind the female students he had at the blackboard," said Miller.

"They were basically standing, bound to each other, their legs were bound together. They couldn't run away."

Roberts had released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, then barred the doors with desks and wood and secured them with nails.

The teacher he released ran to a farmhouse to raise the alarm and ten police officers arrived within minutes.

"It looks like he was acting on those dreams," said Miller. "But in the end he got interrupted."

 

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