Kia Scherr said she feels compassion and love for the terrorist who killed her husband and daughter in India last week. Scherr, speaking at a news conference yesterday at the Synchronicity Foundation’s home in Nelson County, said the terrorists are “completely shrouded by fear. We must show love overpowers fear.“ Alan Scherr, 58, and 13-year-old Naomi Scherr were shot dead while on a pilgrimage to India with a group from the Synchronicity Foundation, a spiritual community near Faber about 20 miles south of Charlottesville. Four other members of the group were wounded.

Alan Scherr’s decades of commitment to spirituality and simple living earned him recognition as an inspiring teacher of astrology, self-awareness and meditation. Scherr, 58, described his life as a “challenging . . . solitary journey.“ That journey led him to Mumbai, India, where he and his daughter Naomi, 13, were among more than 150 people killed by terrorists in attacks that began Wednesday.

People have come from around the world to seek peace at the Synchronicity Foundation’s retreat center at Horseshoe Mountain. The foundation is a nonprofit spiritual organization founded in 1983.