DURANT, Miss. (AP) – More than 300 people came to a small church Sunday evening to say farewell to two nuns killed in their MS home, even though more than half had to watch the service called vigil for the deceased on a monitor outside.
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Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, has been charged with two counts of capital murder in connection with the killings, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said on Saturday. The county sheriff said Sanders confessed to the killings although many people are struggling to comprehend why anyone would want to take the two women’s lives.
The sheriff said police work and tips from the community led police to Sanders, and the investigation is ongoing.
Sanders appears to have been released from prison last December after serving nine months for a felony conviction for driving under the influence, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
He was also convicted of armed robbery in Holmes County, sentenced in 1986 and served six years, Ms Fisher said.
Dr. Elias Abboud, the physician who oversees the clinic, says he called the office manager after he saw there was an arrest made to check if Rodney Earl Sanders had been a patient at the clinic but he was not.
The women were found stabbed multiple times in their home Thursday and their auto was found a mile away.
A sheriff says the man arrested in the killing of two nuns confessed to authorities.
“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation”, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Jordan said in the statement.
Sanders is being held in a detention center while he awaits his first court appearance, police say.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said the autopsies would be done Friday on Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill.
Merrill’s nephew, David, said he was “thankful” Sanders is off the streets, but is not sure he is able to forgive him.
Although Sanders could face the death penalty if convicted, David Merrill said his aunt would have wanted to help Sanders and wouldn’t have wanted him put to death.
It’s unclear whether the nuns were aware of Sanders before they were killed.
Those who knew the two nuns described them as outgoing and compassionate.
The women gave flu shots, dispensed insulin and provided other medical care for children and adults – people who knew the nuns don’t know why anyone would kill them.
Authorities believe the killer took the victims’ vehicle, a blue Toyota Corolla, which was later found on an abandoned road less than a mile from their home.
The killings did more than shock people and plunge the county into mourning.
The sister of a nun who was killed in rural MS says her sister was called to “serve the underserved”.
The two women were stabbed, coroner Dexter Howard said, but a cause of death won’t be determined until the autopsies are complete.
Rosemarie Merrill says her sister moved to MS in 1981.
The nuns’ death leaves a gaping hole in what was already a strapped health care system.
Morgan went to Lexington Medical Clinic where the sisters worked as nurses on Friday in hopes of talking to grieving staff members, but a handwritten sign in the front door says the clinic is closed until Monday.
Held – impressionable and idealistic – was committed to ending racism and poverty, according to an interview she did earlier with her order’s magazine.
A former nun who knew Held said she had always been interested in working with the “poorest of the poor”.
“There is still much we do not know about the suspect and the circumstances that led to this brutal and senseless crime”, the order said in a statement.
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“The word “sister” has many meanings, and they fulfilled all of them”, he said.
