Clarence, NY (WBEN) After last week's murder-suicide in Clarence and Newstead, a church the family attended is now establishing a fund to help the children now orphaned as a result.
The children of Erik and Mary Beth Bergum are without their parents after Erie County Sheriff's Deputies say Erik Bergum shot his wife, then his parents before shooting himself.
Pastor Pat Jones says the family was active at the church. "Our youth pastor and his wife had been very close to Mary Beth and the kids over the last several years, and they had been attending with us," says Jones. Jones adds Erik was on staff with the church just briefly for a few months. "He had been looking for additional work. And so he helped out for just a few months with staging and some things" about 5 or 6 years ago. He says he knew there were a lot of people that wanted to figure a way they could help, especially in care for the kids.
You can access the donation page here.
Jones says the generosity of the WNY community is evident. "We found out that around the same time or shortly afterwards, there was also two GoFundMe pages that were established on behalf of the kids," says Jones when he started the fund through the church. He says between those 2 GoFundMe pages and the church's funds, $87,000 had been raised as of Tuesday.
Jones says the proceeds will go toward all the care for the kids that will be passed on to those who will be responsible for them. "That will cover any immediate needs and then long term needs like college and everything else for them," notes Jones.
Funeral services are set for next Tuesday at 10am. Donations will be accepted for approximately two weeks.
