Paula Merrill, SCN from Sisters of Charity of Nazareth on Vimeo. Police found two bodies in the home of Sister Paula Merrill, SCN, and Sister Margaret Held, OSF, in Durant, Mississippi.
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“Lynn and I grieve the loss of Sisters Paula Merrill and Margaret Held, who were found violently killed in their home in Durant, Mississippi, this morning”. Concerns have already been raised for the future of the Lexington Medical Clinic which the two nuns were instrumental in setting up and their work was vital to its operation. They served the poor so well.
The women’s bodies were found on Thursday morning after they failed to appear at a nearby clinic where they provided flu jabs, insulin and other medical care for children and adults who can not afford to pay for medicine.
“SCN President Susan Gatz asks that all ‘pray in gratitude for the precious lives of Sisters Paula and Margaret … they served the poor so well”.
“I think the community is going to be different after this. They absolutely loved the people in their community”, said the Bishop of Jackson, Joseph Kopacz.
“For somebody to come and do this disgusting act, we are all shocked”, he added. “Their vocation was helping the poor”, said the Rev. Greg Plata, who oversees a small Catholic church the sisters attended in the Mississippi Delta.
Several items recovered at the crime scene have been submitted to the state crime lab for processing, Strain said.
‘These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine, ‘ he told the Ledger.
Their vehicle, which was not outside their home, was later found abandoned just under a mile away from the sisters’ home.
Dr Abboud said the clinic provided about one quarter of all the medical care in the county.
The two nuns provided nearly all the care at the clinic and cultivated relationships with drug company representatives, who often left extra free samples, according to clinic manager Lisa Dew.
They helped provide medical care for families and individuals who couldn’t otherwise afford it. “It’s going to be rough”.
Authorities didn’t release a motive and it wasn’t clear if the nuns’ religious work had anything to do with the slayings.
The Roman Catholic community in MS is relatively small with some 108,000 following the faith in a population of nearly three million people.
The SCN statement said Merrill was born in MA, and moved to the south as a second-year novice with the order.
This 2015 photo provided by the School Sisters of St. Francis shows Sister Margaret Held.
The nuns were identified Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard said. She was from MA and joined the order in 1979.
She moved to MS in the 1980s.
The sisters were much loved by the doctors and residents in the area, he said.
“We do more social work than medicine sometimes”, Merrill told The Journey. “Sometimes patients are looking for a counselor”. “They walked up and down this neighborhood and laughed and talked”, neighbor Eloise Luckett said.
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Sam Sample, lay leader of St Thomas, said that the two nuns were keen gardeners and would create meals from the fruit and vegetables they grew.
