It has been more than six years since five Amish girls were killed and five girls were injured in the West Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in Lancaster County on October 2, 2006.
The shooter, Charles Roberts, then turned the gun on himself.
Now, for the first time, Roberts’ former wife is speaking out about that tragic day.
It’s a heartfelt account about the moments leading up to the shooting as well as the painful aftermath.
“To know that the man that walked down to the bus that morning and kissed his own kids and said that he loved them, was capable of hurting someone else’s children, was unfathomable, yet there was no way to say that it couldn’t happen because it just had,” said Marie Roberts Monville.
Monville shared her innermost thoughts in a video posted on YouTube. It’s a glimpse into her forthcoming book, “One light still shines: My Life Beyond the Shadow of the Amish SchoolHouse Shooting.”
She talks about the difficulty of having to explain to her three children what their father had done.
“I’m going to have to shatter their world and tell them something no parent would ever want to have to say,” she said. “And am I ever going to hear them laugh again?”
Monville also recounts the difficult road to rising above her shock and grief.
“I had never known a place of desperation like that,” she said. “I had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. There weren’t any real answers. I mean I was being looked on by the world to give some kind of answer, but for me there was no one to go back to except for the Lord.”
Monville’s book is set to be released in October.