Amish School Shooter’s Widow Breaks Silence

Wife's account provides glimpse into shooter's mindset before his 2006 attack.
Published: September 29, 2013

I just came across this article that describes the behavior of Charles Roberts shortly before he stormed a one-room Amish school house, fatally shooting five girls and injuring another female student.

His wife, Amy Robach Monville, tells ABC News that her husband was even-tempered who experienced brief, periodic bouts of depression. On the morning of the 2006 shooting, Roberts saw his children off to school, kissed his wife and then left their house. Three hours later, he called Monville, telling her he was never coming home again and that he had left her a letter. In the note, Roberts wrote about the death of their first daughter in 1997 only minutes after being born.

In the years leading up to the tragedy, his wife asked him several times to talk with someone about his depression. He did not take her advice.

After tragedies like the 2006 Amish school house shooting, all of us look for signs that we might have missed beforehand indicating the perpetrator was going to act out. According Monville’s account at least, Roberts behavior in the months and years leading up to his “snapping” appears to be fairly common.

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This is just another example of the need for our society to have programs designed to help individuals with mental health issues. It also points to our need for appropriate campus security.

Read the full story.

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