Authorities say they have charged a 46-year-old man in connection with the deaths of two nuns who were killed in Mississippi.
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The order of one of the nuns killed in MS issued a statement thanking the law enforcement officers working on the case.
The Catholic Diocese of Jackson announced Thursday that Stoneham native Sister Paula Merrill, 68, and Sister Margaret Held were found dead in their Durant, Mississippi, home after the two did not show up to the Lexington Medical Clinic, where they both worked.
Held will be buried in Wisconsin and Merrill will be buried at her congregation’s headquarters in Nazareth, Kentucky.
State Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain tells The Associated Press that as of Saturday, “investigators believe Sanders acted alone”.
Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki said whoever killed Held “robbed not only the School Sisters of St. Francis, but also the entire Church of a woman whose life was spent in service”.
Authorities did not release a cause of death, but the Rev. Greg Plata said police told him the nuns were stabbed.
Police initially said the nuns may have been victims of a break-in and vehicle theft. Their work, for instance insuring local residents with diabetes received regular insulin injections and giving flu shots, was key to keeping the county’s hard-pressed health system going and their death leaves a huge hole, officials said. “There’s something wrong with the world”. “Look at Jesus on the cross: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”‘.
A auto apparently taken from the nuns’ home was found Thursday night about one mile away from the crime scene. “Their vocation was helping the poor”, said Plata, who oversees a 35-member Catholic church the sisters attended.
And according to a nephew, David, Sister Merrill had been working with Sister Held for many years.
“The invitation to come to MS provided me with the setting in which I hoped to make a difference with my life”.
During an early part of her career, she helped bring a tuberculosis outbreak under control in the region, Dew said.
“These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine”. He said his aunt had worked with Held for many years.
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Santana reported from New Orleans.
