Mennonites Mourn 3 Sisters’ Deaths

Horse-drawn buggies, black vans and trucks with their chrome bumpers and hubcaps painted black were parked in the gravel driveway of the Oberholtzer farm on Tuesday. Men and boys in dark suits and white shirts gathered on the front lawn, comforting the family.

The deaths of three young sisters who suffocated after they apparently locked themselves in a homemade cedar chest while playing have drawn their tightknit Mennonite community together.

“It was like a shock wave,” said Luke Weaver, a family friend. “When you have deaths like this, a community’s plans, a family’s plans, everyone’s plans change immediately.”

Two-year-old Anne, 4-year-old Darlene and 6-year-old Karla, who died Monday, were “full of life, giggly, happy, normal little girls,” Weaver said.

Their mother, Shirley Oberholtzer, and two older daughters had been canning on their farm near Unity, about 130 miles northwest of Madison, said Sheriff Louis J. Rosandich. The mother noticed the girls were missing and found them inside the chest--about 3 feet long and 2 feet deep--in an upstairs bedroom. They were not breathing.

The first sheriff’s deputy to arrive instructed the girls’ mother on how to perform CPR, but the two were unable to revive the children, Rosandich said.

“You could see the shock,” said the sheriff, who arrived at the farm after the girls were taken to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

Rosandich said he was unsure how long the girls were trapped inside the chest, which could only be opened from the outside once it latched.

News of the deaths spread quickly through the Mennonite community of about 350 families. Church members gathered at the Oberholtzers’ neat, white farmhouse to mourn with the family.