Funerals for Amish school victims
By Peter Matthew,WNS Eastern US Correspondent
PENNSYLVANIA - Funerals for four of the five Amish girls killed in a schoolroom massacre on Monday have taken place in the US state of Pennsylvania. Hundreds of mourners gathered as the four, aged seven to 12, were laid to rest in the small town of Nickel Mines. Each girl was buried in a plain pine coffin. The fifth victim will be laid to rest on Friday. The girls were gunned down by a local man, Charles Roberts, who then killed himself. Five more girls were injured.
Doctors treating the survivors have reportedly taken one girl off a life-support machine and allowed her to be taken home to die. Roads into the village were closed off to maintain privacy during Thursday's funerals. The first girl to be buried was Naomi Rose Ebersole, seven, who was carried to Nickel Mines' hill top cemetery at the head of 32 horse-drawn coaches. Similar processions were later held for Marian Fisher, 13, and the Miller sisters, Lena, seven, and Mary Liz, eight. The funeral of Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is scheduled to take place on Friday.
The Anabaptist denomination eschews technology and preaches isolation from the modern world to varying degrees. Amish burial customs call for simple wooden caskets - and a girl is typically laid to rest in a white dress, cape and white prayer-covering on her head, the victims' funeral director said.
posted by wnsworld @ 9:21 AM
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