Authorities would not say if they had a suspect for the attack in Durant.
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The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has increased the reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of the people/persons responsible for the death of two Durant nuns by $20,000. They were identified as Sister Paula Merrill, a nurse practitioner in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, a practitioner in Milwaukee. Their bodies were taken to a state crime laboratory for post-mortem examinations.
Police say the nuns were found dead Thursday morning in the community of Durant after failing to show up at a medical clinic in the region where they serve as nurse practitioners.
They raised money to help treat the poor and uninsured for free, the clinic’s owner, Dr. Elias Abboud, told the Clarion-Ledger.
Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, confirmed the deaths to PEOPLE.
Strain says police found the auto, apparently undamaged, about 6:45 p.m. Thursday.
Durant Police Chief John Haynes, left, and assistant Police Chief James Lee reassure Lexington Medical Clinic employees Lisa Dew, right, and Viola Turner, seated, that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was giving the home of two slain Catholic nuns who worked as nurses at the clinic a through crime scene investigation, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, in Durant.
Officials said Sister Paula Merrill was one of two nuns found dead inside their MS home. She was from MA and joined the order in 1979. It also shows her alongside her longtime colleague, Sister Margaret Held. “We simply do what we can wherever God places us”, she said.
“Could handle any emergencies with the greatest of ease and had a real empathy and compassion for the people she (Held) served”, Sister Stiefermann added.
Sisters Held and Merrill helped people, because that was what they loved to do.
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. She showed it through her work. “Sometimes patients are looking for a counsellor”.
After Hurricane Katrina left much of the town was without power for weeks, the sisters allowed people to come to their house to cook because they had a gas stove. “Father Plata is the priest at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington”.
“These ladies didn’t require any fanfare, any bells and whistles”.
Morgan says the nuns would’ve wanted him to forgive whoever killed them, but right now he doesn’t have any forgiveness.
Sister Margaret was a member of the School Sisters of St Francis based in Milwaukee, and its US Province Leadership team said members were “deeply shocked and grieved” by the killings.
They noted Sister Margaret had 49 years with the order and devoted herself to “living her ministry caring for and healing the poor”. They saw thousands of patients each year from around the impoverished Holmes County, Miss., area.
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth also ask for prayers in their statement: “Please keep the families and religious communities of Sisters Paula and Margaret in your prayers, as well as those who work at the medical clinic where the Sisters were in ministry and the clinic’s many clients, and those involved in the investigation”.
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“I think their absence is going to be felt for a long, long time”. “There’s a lot of people here who depended on them for their care and their medicines”.
