“They were both very driven”, David Merrill said.
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A blue Toyota Corrolla missing from the nuns’ driveway was found about a mile from their house but detectives said it was too early to know if the murders were resultant of a robbery gone wrong.
March said in a phone interview that Sanders has a history of robbery and theft.
Previous to the arrest of Sanders, who the police consider to be the man who murdered the two nuns, MS had posted a reward of $22,500 to whoever could provide information that would led to the arrest and conviction of whoever had murdered the two nuns.
He says the investigation is ongoing.
“A small town like this, it’s devastating our community”, Durant Assistant Police Chief James Lee told The Clarion-Ledger.
Meanwhile, in the poverty-stricken MS county where the two nuns were slain, forgiveness for their killer is hard to find, even if forgiveness is what the victims would have wanted.
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.
The sister of a nun who was killed in rural MS says her sister was called to “serve the underserved”.
Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill wake is scheduled for Sunday, August 28. He said her relatives in Stoneham are considering plans to hold a memorial service at a later date. 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 it will be used to “continue the legacy of Sister Paula, to minister to the poor”. “Because we are gospel women, please also pray for the perpetrators”.
Curtis called it a “beautiful visit”.
“Right now, I don’t see no forgiveness on my heart”, said Joe Morgan Jr., a 58-year-old former factory worker who has diabetes and was a patient of Merrill’s at the clinic where the two nuns worked.
Friends say two nuns who were found slain in their MS home “would do anything for anybody”. Sisters Paula Merrill and Margaret Held were both nurses who had spent about 30 years helping people in Mississippi. He faces two counts of capital murder for having slain the sisters last Thursday.
Sanders was arrested late Friday and is being held at an undisclosed location while he waits for an initial court appearance to be set.
“There is still much we do not know about the suspect and the circumstances that led to this brutal and senseless crime”, the School Sisters of St. Francis said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Colleagues at the clinic alerted police when the pair didn’t show up, and authorities arrived at their home in Durant to evidence of a break-in, and found their bodies.
The order Held belonged to – School Sisters of St. Francis – thanked law enforcement officers working on the case.
The bodies of Held and Sister Paul Merrill of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth were found Thursday in their MS home.
The clinic where the women worked served underinsured and uninsured people in the poorest county in the state.
The murder charges come after authorities told of finding the two 68 year old Durant, Holmes County, Mississippi, women in their home after reports of the two nurse practitioners not reporting to work.
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.
But the family still has to deal with the loss.
Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both nurse practitioners, moved to MS to provide health care in the state’s poorest regions.
Merrill said he agrees with the idea of forgiveness and that is something his aunt would want for whoever killed her but he’s not sure if he’s capable of completely forgiving.
Authorities in MS don’t anticipate any more arrests in the slayings of two nuns.
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Sisters Paula Merrill and Margaret Held were found stabbed to death earlier this week at their home, about 18 miles west of Kosciucko. Strain says he doesn’t know whether Sanders is represented by an attorney.
