Shooter May Have Intended to Molest Victims

Oct. 4, 2006 — -- Today, investigators are looking into how secrets could have tormented Charles Carl Roberts IV for so long without family knowing about it.

In the moments before he shot several young girls inside an Amish schoolroom Monday, Roberts called his wife and told her he had molested two young girls in his family 20 years ago.

In the suicide note he left for his wife, he wrote about "hate toward myself, hate towards God" and the pain caused by dreams of what he did two decades ago.

"Roberts mentioned in his suicide note that he was having dreams of molesting again," said State Police Commissioner Col. Jeffrey B. Miller.

Authorities don't believe Roberts sexually molested any of his victims in the schoolhouse before shooting them, but believe he may have intended to, pointing to items they uncovered in the milk truck he drove for work.

The items -- including flexible plastic ties, eye bolts, and lubricating jelly -- suggest he may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls before police closed in.

"It is very possible when he talks about doing the things he did 20 years ago, that he planned to victimize these children in many ways prior to executing them," Miller said.

Authorities have asked the family about the molestation claims as well as another issue haunting Roberts.

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In his suicide note to his wife, Roberts wrote about their first child, Elise, who was born premature and died 20 minutes after birth.

"Every time we do something fun, I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it," Roberts wrote in the note. "I go right back to anger."

Roberts also left notes for each of his three children, who are 6 years old and younger.

Family neighbor Paula Derby watched as Roberts put his children on the bus Monday morning, unaware it was the last time he would see his children.

"He kneeled on the ground and gave them hugs and kisses and told them to remember that Daddy loves them, and then they got back on the bus to go to school," Derby said.