Crews with backhoes and bulldozers today demolished the Pennsylvania school house where 10 Amish girls were gunned down last week as the deeply religious community tries to heal from the attack.
Only heaps of rubble remained after workers who arrived before dawn razed the West Nickel Mines School, where milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts shot the girls execution-style on October 2nd, killing five of them and then himself.
Five girls remain hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The site is expected to be seeded and left as pasture.
"The object was to get the school down and loaded and out of here very quickly," said Mike Hart, spokesman for the local Bart Township Fire Company that oversaw the demolition.
"This was a day of closure, but there will never be closure in our hearts," he added. "Every time we drive by that location, our heart will always be there."
As the sun began to rise, backhoes were breaking concrete and bulldozers pushed the remains of the building into piles. The debris was hauled by truck to a landfill.
"This community is so ready to try to get back to as near normal as possible," said Sam Fisher, the Amish manager of an auction house that has served as de facto headquarters for members of the world media who arrived to cover the story.
Fisher said his sons showed up at 4 a.m. to help remove the school's fencing for the demolition crew.
He said the school children who escaped without being shot have resumed their lessons at an undisclosed location. But he noted there's now a wrenching imbalance between the sexes, since all the boys were allowed to leave, and just one girl escaped, before the shooting started.
"They have one girl. All those boys and one girl," he said.
On a nearby street corner, mourners have left bouquets of flowers for the victims. Some have notes attached, including one, attached to a soft plush toy, saying: "You are in our prayers. We are so sorrowed. Visitors from Florida."