MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Two dedicated teachers, two cold-blooded killings, two school communities left searching for answers.

For Linda Lambesis and Mary Alicia Shanks, death came too soon. They were remembered Friday as loving mothers and lifelong educators whose loss will be felt far beyond their classrooms.

Police say both were victims of Christopher A. Williams, 27, who allegedly shot four people – two at an elementary school – during a rampage Thursday in Essex.

Lambesis, 57, was shot in the home she shared with daughter Andrea Lambesis, Williams’ former girlfriend. Shanks was killed in her second-grade classroom at Essex Elementary School, where Williams allegedly went looking for the younger Lambesis.

Lambesis, a divorced mother of two, was the type of teacher who lived for her students at St. Albans Town Educational Center and savored every step of their development.

Gail MacCallum, a former teaching colleague of Lambesis’, said each child was special to Lambesis.

“She used to take such delight in each little kid. You’d mention a name to her and she’d say “Oh, she has the cutest smile’ or “She has beautiful eyes’ or “This one loves My Little Pony.’

“She knew something about each and took a lot of pride and pleasure in them,” said MacCallum, whose husband, David, recently retired as principal of the school.

Lambesis left work at mid-morning Thursday, telling her boss she had something personal to deal with. “She told the principal she was having some domestic issues and wanted to go home and take care of them,” said Grunewald.

Parents of the children who were to be in her class this year have been invited into school to talk with counselors and prepare for telling the children that Mrs. Lambesis – who many already knew would be their teacher – won’t be in class when school opens.

“The kids already knew her,” said Grunewald. “At the end of school year, we let the kids know who they’re going to have.”

Shanks, 56, who was married and has two grown children, grew up as the oldest of seven children. Her mother died of lung cancer when she was in high school, and Shanks – who went by Alicia – ably filled the void, according to her brother, John Workman, 52.

“She stepped into that role of Mom. She was a teenager at the time, and she retained that matriarch position as we all grew up,” he said.

On the job, Shanks – who taught for more than 30 years – was known for her kindness and gentility.

“She was an outstanding teacher, very kind,” said Gene Sweetser, a former state lawmaker from Essex, whose daughter had her. “Kids were part of who she was.”

Said her brother: “There’s a little irony in the fact that she passed away in the world she loved so much – her schoolroom, her classroom.”