Tragedy & Forgiveness; Hope – A Documentary

On October 2nd, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV, walked into a one-room Amish school house in Nickel Mines, PA, close to where he lived. There he shot and killed five young Amish girls and injured five more. Moments later he took his own life. The question of why will forever be unanswered. This is a story on what happened in the aftermath. A mother picks up the pieces after a son’s senseless mass murder spree and suicide and on the very same day as the tragic incident, the Amish community decided to forgive.

Zachary Roberts is the younger brother of Charles.  Over the last seven years his family has had to deal with the burden, grief and questions surrounding this unimaginable event. His mother, Terry Roberts, who had just recovered from cancer at the time of the incident, went through the worst imaginable nightmare for a mother. Yet somehow she found the strength to get through it, helped by the forgiveness from families of the victims and with the help and support from the community who suffered from her sons actions.

Understandably Zachary spent many years trying to remove himself from this horrific event.  But now he is taking a different approach by creating a film about the event which destroyed so many lives.  The film has a working title called Hope and describes how a mother picks up the pieces of a shattered life after her son’s murder spree and suicide.

The film is crowdunding on Indiegogo now, raising funds for a film which is needs support for additional footage and post production.  Zachary is working as the Director of Hope with Mexico86, a production company based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ultimately the film transgresses the enormous sadness of the tragedy to focus on the strength of faith and the power of forgiveness.  The survivors and families of the victims continue to engage and support Terri.  Now after seven years, she wants to use her experience to help others and to share the forgiveness and incredible support from the surrounding Amish community.

The initial footage was shot last year using $30,000 contributed to the project by the crew.   The organizers are dedicated to completing the film regardless of the amount raised.  They hope to have a full length feature completed by 2014.