Investigators say the man arrested in the murder of two MS nuns-one with ties to Kentucky-admitted to the crime and could now face the death penalty. Strain, whose department includes the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, would neither confirm nor deny the confession.
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Held moved to MS in 1983, and had lived in Durant for 13 years, officials said.
“That course of action wouldn’t be what they would want”, Merrill said.
The nuns’ bodies were found Thursday after the women failed to show up for work in Lexington, about 10 miles from where they lived. The sheriff said the investigation is ongoing.
Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, has been charged with two counts of capital murder, according to a statement posted online by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Shortly after the women’s bodies were found, authorities said the motive for the killings remained unclear, adding that calling it a “robbery would be premature”.
“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation”, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Jordan said in a police statement.
Joe Morgan, who was a diabetes patient of Sister Merrill, said he can not forgive the perpetrator, even though he knows the nuns would have wished him to do so.
He had been on probation since September, Grace Simmons Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said. In 1986 he served six years in prison for an armed robbery in MS, and last year he was convicted of a felony DUI.
The Rev. Greg Plata, sacramental minister at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington where the wake is to be held, said he does not think people at the church knew Sanders.
A wake is scheduled to be held Sunday at the St. Thomas Church in Lexington where the women led Bible study.
Sanders was arrested Friday evening and is being held at an undisclosed location while he waits for a court appearance to be set.
“Right now there’s really still a long way to go”, Strain said.
Merrill’s nephew, David Merrill, speaking by telephone from Stoneham, Mass., said Saturday that the family was “thankful” for the arrest.
But the family still has to deal with the loss.
She said the loaf was split between The School Sisters of St. Francis, to which Held belonged, and Merrill’s order, the Sisters of Charity.
Strain said further details aren’t being released because there is still evidence being processed.
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David Merrill says he agrees with the idea of forgiveness and trying to forgive the person who killed his aunt and her fellow nun.
