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Friday, September 23, 2011

Crimson Stain Epilogue Update

     Early in 2010, Ed Gingerich's brothers Atlee and Joe, as well as their sons and Ed's boys, decided they wanted back into the old-order Brownhill Church and Bishop Rudy Shertler's good graces. The bishop agreed to accept the Gingerichs back into the fold, but under one condition. They would have to sever their ties with Ed. And this is what they did, leaving Ed alienated from his family and the Brownhill Amish community.

     In the summer of 2010, after being unable to find another Amish enclave that would take him, Ed moved in with his former attorney, George Schroeck and his wife on Miller Station Road outside of Cambridge Springs. Ed naturally felt alone and abandoned and slipped deeper into a depressed state. On Thursday, January 13, 2011, George, hoping to get Ed back on his medication to relieve his depression, took him to a local physician. The next day, Ed walked out to Schroeck's barn to feed the horse. Five hours later, Mrs. Schroeck went looking for him. She found Ed hanging from the end of a rope. Before taking his life, Ed had written, in the dust on a nearby bucket, "forgive me, please." It wasn't clear what Ed was asking forgiveness for--killing his wife Katie or killing himself. Perhaps he sought forgiveness for both.

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