An officer went the women’s home around 10 a.m. Thursday for a wellness check after they did not report for work at the Lexington Medical Clinic near Durant. He was later released from prison and is now on probation.
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“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation”, Lt. Col. Jimmy Jordan, director of the State Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement.
Sanders was arrested Friday evening and is being held at an undisclosed location while he waits for a court appearance to be set.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March says Sanders has confessed to the killings during interrogation but gave no reason for the crimes.
Genette Pierce, who works at a home health and hospice business a few doors down from the clinic, said: “Their patients – all of them – they’re going to be lost without them right now”.
People who knew the nuns, known for their generosity and commitment to improving health care for the poor, have been grappling with why anyone would want to kill them.
David Merrill, speaking by telephone from Stoneham, Mass., says he heard about the arrest of Rodney Earl Sanders early Saturday morning.
Grace Simmons Fisher says Rodney Earl Sanders was convicted of a felony DUI in Attala County and sentenced on February 23, 2015.
The victims’ religious orders – the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and School Sisters of St. Francis – thanked investigators Saturday.
Both were nurse practitioners, dispensing flu shots, insulin and other medical care for those who could not afford it in the poorest county in the poorest U.S. state.
Forty-six-year-old Rodney Earl Sanders of Kosciusko, Mississippi, was charged Friday night with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68.
Merrill and Held were part of a group of 20 parishioners who met regularly for worship at St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Lexington, Mississippi, about 16km west of Durant.
The nuns’ stolen vehicle was found abandoned a mile from their home in Durant, and police said there were signs of a break-in.
“She doesn’t deserve to die like this, doing God’s work”, Morgan said, shaking his head. Look at Jesus on the cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do'”.
The bodies of Held and Merrill were found Thursday in their home in Durant, Mississippi.
Dr Elias Abboud, who worked with the sisters for years and helped build the clinic, said it provided about 25 percent of all medical care in the county.
Merrill’s sister Rosemarie, speaking by telephone from her Stoneham, Massachusetts, home, said her sister had been in MS helping the poor since 1981.
“The invitation to come to MS provided me with the setting in which I hoped to make a difference with my life”.
The nephew of a nun who was killed in MS says he’s thankful a suspect has been arrested so that no one else is at risk but that it does not bring closure to the grieving family.
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The two women were stabbed, coroner Dexter Howard said, but a cause of death won’t be determined until the autopsies are complete.
