Killer was 'angry at life, angry at God'

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(CNN) -- As police searched for clues Tuesday to what could have sparked Charles Roberts' deadly shooting attack in an Amish schoolhouse, those who knew him asked themselves the same question.

Monday, Roberts walked into the one-room school in the Pennsylvania countryside carrying two guns. He let the boys and adults leave, tied up 10 girls and shot them, and then shot himself to death, according to police.

Three of the victims died at the scene and two more died in hospitals early Tuesday. (Full story)

"The man that did this today was not the Charlie I've been married to for almost 10 years," Roberts' widow, Marie, said in a statement Monday night. "My husband was loving, supportive and thoughtful -- all the things you'd always want and more."

State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said Roberts spoke to his wife by phone from the school shortly before he opened fire on the children and told her that "he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago."

Roberts would have been 11 or 12 at the time the apparent slight occurred.

Investigators also said they were looking into the possibility the attack may have been related to the death of one of Roberts' children, The Associated Press reported.

According to an obituary, Roberts and his wife lost a daughter shortly after she was born in 1997, the AP said.

Police said investigators who reviewed notes left by the gunman for his wife and children indicated he was "angry at life" and "angry at God." (Watch police official talk about gunman's motives, plans -- 4:16 )

Neighbors and family members told the AP they saw no indication of problems that would lead Roberts to open fire on a dozen young girls.

"Absolutely not," Lois Fiester, a relative of Roberts who was standing outside the family's modest ranch house, told the AP. "They're a fine Christian family. It's ironic and it's heartbreaking."

But neighbors told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Roberts was not as friendly as most in the close-knit community.

"He was standoffish," Morgan Erb, 15, told the newspaper. Erb used to baby-sit for two of the Roberts' children: Emily, 7, and Brice, 5; the family also has a baby boy, 1, The Inquirer reported.

"He was one that never said much to anybody," Dorothy Rineer, who lives across the street from the Roberts family, told The Inquirer.

"I don't believe any of his co-workers had any idea what was going on in his head," Miller told CNN on Tuesday. "I think after the fact, in hindsight, they observed some behavior last week where he seemed to be under some pressure and stress for a period of time, wasn't as outgoing, would stay in the truck, wouldn't get out and talk to them.

"And then getting closer to yesterday, he began to loosen up again, as if he had had a relief of some sort. And I believe, we believe, that that is related to him making a decision to actually do this and plan it out, and ultimately that gave him some sort of a sense of relief."

Authorities say Roberts had meticulously planned his rampage against young girls, loading a borrowed pickup truck with three guns, knives and lumber.

He also carried the plastic ties that he would later use to bind his victims before shooting them at point-blank range.

Roberts was not Amish, and he chose his victims not because of their beliefs but because they were convenient, Miller said. There was no security at the schoolhouse -- there is little need for it in Amish communities. (Watch how the Amish maintain their simple lifestyle -- 2:40)

Neighbors told The Inquirer that Roberts was not as outgoing as his wife, Marie. She was involved in Christian groups, and her home often was a congregating place for women organizing church activities, the newspaper said.

The Inquirer reported that Roberts' parents also are religious and that his mother, Teresa, works at Sight & Sound Theaters, a Christian organization that stages Bible plays in Strasburg. His father, Charles C. Roberts III, is retired from the Manor Township, Lancaster County, police force, the newspaper said.

Authorities said Roberts had no criminal record or history of mental problems.

What drove him to commit the massacre remained a mystery early Tuesday. If authorities knew of a motive, they weren't saying.

"This was something that was emanating from within him and his past," Miller told reporters.

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