Murder Visits an Amish School House

A funeral procession of horse-drawn buggies makes their way down Georgetown Road in Georgetown, Pa. Friday, Oct. 6, 2006, to bury Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, one of five girls killed Monday, in a shooting at an Amish school. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke - AP)

Anna Mae Stoltzfus, age 12.

Mary Liz Miller, age 8.

Lena Miller, age 7.

Lena and Mary Liz were sisters.

Three girls remained in critical condition, ranging in age from 8 to 11. On Thursday, the coroner said he was informed that the family of a gravely wounded 6-year-old girl had asked for her to be removed from life support so she could die at home with her loved ones.

A 13-year-girl shot in the back and the shoulder was expected to make a full recovery.

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The funerals began Thursday.

All roads to Nickel Mines were blocked by state police so the procession of horse-drawn, black-and-gray wagons could roll undisturbed across the rambling ribbon of blacktop leading to the Georgetown Amish cemetery. The funeral march was somber, and repeated three times, once for the sisters and once for each of the other girls.

Reporters, photographers and TV camera crews stood by, held back by police and barricades; a reluctant spokesman for the reclusive Amish had pleaded with the media to "not be involved in close-up gawking or picture taking."

In keeping with their tenet of forgiveness, Marie Roberts was invited to attend. It is unclear whether she did. The funeral marches went right by her house. An Amish man waved at Roberts relatives members standing in front.

The Roberts family also grieves _ for the children now dead and for the man they knew as "Charlie," a decent, God-fearing man who no longer exists.

A man who drove his family to church on Sundays. A man who bounced on the trampoline out back with his kids _ just an ordinary guy, the neighbors thought.

"What is there to say?" asked his grandmother, Teresa Neustadter. "He was a good grandson."

On Friday, the Amish buried the body of 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus in a cold, steely rain. Most of the media had gone home. Dressed in a handmade white dress and cap, placed in a handmade wooden coffin, her remains were lowered into a grave shoveled by Amish men.

In the late morning, the Amish mourners bowed their heads and raised their prayers, asking God to receive this girl into heaven, where one day they would see her again, in a world where violence has no place.

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Staff writers Mark Scolforo and Michael Rubinkam contributed from Pennsylvania to this report.