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Shock hits Delmarr iafter slaying of sixDELMAR (APj — Shock, Fear and disbelief descended upon this small eastern Iowa community Sunday as it heard it was the site of a multiple killing.“When I first heard about it, I didn't believe it. No one could get killed in Delmar, \saidGene Gilbertone resident, whodeclined to give her name. Then a deputy came in and I asked him about it. He said he couldn't talk and I knew it wastrue.Police seeking to notify Bonnie Gilbert. 34, that her husband had committed suicide in Yale, S.D., found her and her five children shot to death in the family home.THE BIZARRE chain of events began Saturday 450 miles away in Yale when police there said Gene Gilbert, 28. committed suicide. Police went to the Gilberts’ rented home in the tiny eastern Iowa town and found the bodies.When word of the slayings first began to seep out, many residents were fearful. But as authorities began releasing details, including reports that the man believed to be the father and husband killed himselfin South Dakota, the fear turned to disbelief.They (the children) were nice little kids. You wouldn’t expect this to happen to them. It’s something you don’t think will happen In your nome town, said John Lawrence, superintendent of the Del wood Community School District.IADDING TO'the mystery surrounding the slayings was the reclusive nature of the family, which had Jived in town for less than a year.Many people who talked about their reactions declined to be identified: One customer at Brad’s said, “It seems like you never know when someone's going to knock on your door and then ... “Those who knew the family were hit hard by the deaths. Jackie Wentworth, 13, said she was best friends with the eldest Gilbert daughter, Dawn. Describing her friendship, she sobbed and occasionally held her face in her hands.“ITS TERRIBLE, it’s weird. It doesn’t feel like she’s gone,” Jackie said between 'sobs.But residents who didn’t know the family were equally shocked.’Tve lived here 15 years and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Jan Daehler, who operates a grocery store in town.“A friend called me and said she heardon her scanner that there were bodies inside. I didn't know what to think, ” he said.Ethel Wentworth said she hadn’t slept . since hearing of the slayings. “You just don’t know what the ’answers are in something like this,” she said. “She (Mrs. Gilbert) was a very good mother.”At Brad’s Bar, customers speculated on what might have caused the tragedy, speculation made difficult because no one seemed to know the Gilberts.“You never think something like that will happen in a small town,” one • customer said. “I don’t think anyone really knows what to think.”Gilbert was a “loving son and one of those kids that could face anything,” his mother said Sunday evening;His mother, Mrs. Evelyn Bacon, said she saw her son Friday night when he stopped briefly en route to Yale, and that there was nothing unusual about him traveling alone.He was sweet Gene when he was here (Friday night). It was a shock when Bonnie's mother called. I practically called her a liar, because I know Gene.” Gilbert was a native of Hitchcock who spent most of his school years in Huron in the 1960s.He married Bonnie Roltng in Canton in December 1977, and the couple lived in Canton, Colman and Madison before moving to Iowa two years later.These members of a Delmar family were found shot to death in their Delmar home late Saturday night. The father and husband, Gene Gilbert, 28, then apparently took his own life later in Yale, S.D. With their mother, Bonnie Gilbert, who isholding Rachelle, 1, are, from lef* Michelle Roling, II, Gene Jr. 2, Dawn Holing, 13. and Jason Roling, 8. The older children are from Mrs. Gilbert’s former marriage.AP Laserphoto
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