Amish Grace

Amish Grace Movie (true story basis)

2011-11-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

The movie Amish Grace is an original Lifetime movie that is based on the Nickel Mines tragedy of Pennsylvania. The movie debuted on Lifetime Movie Network in 2010. There is also a book by the same name. The movie does stray somewhat from some of the facts, but most of what you see in the movie is true, especially the parts about the aftermath of the shooting and how the community reacted. Themes of forgiveness is also explored in the movie which must have been an issue with the real life Amish community there.

Murder in the Amish Community: School Shooting

2011-11-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Facts in the case of the Amish School Shooting at Nickel Mines
by Traciy Curry-Reyes

There is already a ton of information on the net right now about this story. So I will just give you a few places where you can do some extensive reading on the subject for now. I will say that when this happened back in 2006, it was the subject of many tabloid magazines, talk shows, new segments, and research. Things like this typically do not happen in the Amish community. The Amish people are known for their peaceful communities, so when this story broke it literally placed the Amish community in chaos. Upon reading the facts of what occurred during the real Amish school shooting event, you will be able to see the differences between the real story and some of the fictional and embellished parts of the story. Also, it is rumored that the company who published the book are the ones who had a hand in advising the producers instead of the authors of the book.

Here is a brief background sketch of the shooter Charles Carl Roberts IV

Charles Roberts worked as a milk truck driver. He offered services to the Amish community. In a last phone call to his wife Marie Roberts, he confessed that he was thinking of molesting some children as he had done about 20 years ago with two of his female family members who were very small children at the time. Many people that know him personally found it hard to believe that he could do something like this. He was known as a very mild mannered laid back type of person. He seemed to be a good dad... always very responsive when it came to his children. He was only 32 years old, and he had been married to his wife Marie Roberts for ten years. Marie Roberts said in a statement issued by the family after the shooting that her husband was always a loving and supportive man. Charles Carl Roberts committed suicide at the scene. At his funeral several people from the community attended. He was buried in an un-marked grave not far from the shooting occurred.

The story (this is a Wikipedia write up about the tragedy)

Fox 6 News Coverage of the event (here) There are several pictures

There was a little bit of an outrage about the making of the movie. Here is a brief article about the backlash from the Lifetime movie here.

Tidbits

There is a book about the movie called Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy.

The book has more factual information than the movie.

The school has been torn down. The school was rebuilt not from the original location.
In the real shooting, there were ten people shot in all. Five of the children died. Here are the names of the victims.

Naomi Rose Ebersol, age 7, died at the school
Marian Stoltzfus Fisher, age 13, died at the school
Anna Mae Stoltzfus, age 12, was dead on arrival at Lancaster General Hospital on the same day as the shooting
Lena Zook Miller, age 8, died the next day at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania
Mary Liz Miller, age 7, died the next day at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware

Old Amish Murder Cases

2011-11-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

Most murders that happen in Amish country usually make the newspapers due to the rarity of such events. Here are a few old Amish murder cases that have occurred.

1983 Lancaster County Pennsylvania

In 1982, Naomi Huyard was one of the first Amish people to be murdered in Lancaster County. On November 21 , 1952, Huyard was attacked and murdered by two young men, Ernest Lee Hoopengarner, 21, and Jimmy Lee Herr, age 19. On the night of the murder, Naoimi Huyard, 50, walked across the street to the home of her neighbors in order to store some boxes of frozen food. When she did not return, her family and neighbors notified police. A search ensued, and her body was found after three hours. She had been stabbed 16 times. She had also been violated. The Amish community was in shock and fearful that such a crime could happen in their communities. The Amish people had to deal with issues of forgiveness and sympathy much like the original story above. The two young men were convicted of murder. Jimmy Lee Herr was sentenced to death. Ernest Lee Hoopengarner, who police say was the person who actually committed the murder, pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.