Though evidence showed that the two women had been stabbed, a medical professional has yet to release the official cause of death for both of them.
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The Holmes County Crime Stoppers chapter had initially put up $2,500, so the total reward money is now $22,500.
He says the investigation is ongoing.
Rosemarie Merrill on Friday described her sister Paula and the second nun who was killed with her, Margaret Held, as generous women who would give you the shirt off their backs. Both women were 68.
The Kentucky-based order where one of two slain nuns belonged says the order is establishing a memorial fund to continue her work. For a time when she lived in Holly Springs, Mississippi she would ride around town on a moped.
More than 300 people came to a small church to say farewell to two nuns killed in their MS home.
The killings did more than shock people and plunge the county into mourning.
“Even now that we have a name, it’s still just all about the fact that as a family we’ve lost a beloved aunt and sister”, said David Merrill, nephew of Sister Paula Merrill.
Held grew up in Slinger, where she attended St. Peter’s Catholic School, said her cousin Irene Wolf. And as authorities sought the killer, many residents wondered how they will fill the hole the women’s deaths have left.
Jonell Payton, a Durant alderwoman, who lives a few doors from the nuns’ house, said they were “the most precious two people” and known for helping provide medicine for those who could not afford it. In their Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Vimeo video, one is struck by the endearing love, caring, and warmth the sisters and their supporters exuded daily.
She says Merrill went to Kentucky from August 17 until Monday to meet with others from Sisters of Charity.
Merrill said he agrees with the idea of forgiveness and that is something his aunt would want for whoever killed her but it’s not that easy. Authorities have not released information on how he was implicated or what his connection to Merrill and Held might have been.
Sanders was arrested late Friday in the deaths of two nuns whose bodies were found Thursday in their MS home.
“We mainly wanted to make sure everyone knew that this individual was off the streets”, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told the Daily News.
People acquainted with 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.
Authorities have said they found a auto that was missing from their home and towed it to a crime lab for analysis.
Merrill and Held lived and worked together for years and were close friends, said David Merrill.
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Father Greg Plata, who pastors at the church, told the The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson that?
