Man charged in murders of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, the nursing nuns of Mississippi

The two nuns ministered to patients in one of America's poorest pockets

Rodney Early Sanders (Mississippi Dept of Public Safety)

Two days after two nuns were found brutally murdered in one of the poorest corners of Mississippi, plunging the state into mourning, the authorities said they had taken a suspect into custody.

Rodney Early Sanders, 46, was charged with two counts of capital murder in the case after extensive interviews with detectives during Friday, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman, Warren Strain, said in a statement.

Both sixty eight years old, Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, were beloved practitioner nurses who worked in a clinic in Lexington, Mississippi, the largest town in Holmes County, which, with a population of just 18,000 is the poorest in the state.

Their shared home was also in Lexington. 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.

“This is a poor area, and they dignified those who are poor with outreach and respect for them,” said the Rev. Greg Plata, of the St. Thomas Catholic Church, addressing the loss to the community the death of the nuns will represent. ”They treated each person as a child of God.“

Those arguably feeling the greatest shock are the patients the nuns devoted their love on. The bodies of both women were discovered in a residence in Lexington on Thursday. While there has been no official word on the manner of their death, the Rev. Plata said he had been told by police that they had been stabbed.

The nuns’ car was reportedly stolen in the course of the crime and was later found by police one mile away from their home and abandoned. As they began their investigation, the Mississippi police offered a reward of $20,000 to anyone able to offer information on what had happened.

(The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth)

Briefly acknowledging that the arrest had been made late on Friday night, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Jodan said only that, “Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation”. Mr Sanders was said to be a resident of Kosciusko in neighbouring Attala County. "With the cooperation of the Durant and Kosciusko Police Departments, Holmes County Sheriff's Department and the Attorney General Office this heinous crime has been resolved," he added.

Rev. Greg Plata of the St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington (AP)

A wake for the two women will be held on Sunday at St. Thomas Church and a memorial Mass is scheduled Monday at the Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle in Jackson. The diocesan chancellor, Mary Woodward, said the service will be “an opportunity for the diocesan community and friends to celebrate the lives of these two remarkable women.”

Catholic leaders in the district are urging their congregations to find forgiveness for those who may have taken the lives of the women. “Forgiveness is at the heart of being a Christian,” the Rev. Plata contended. “Look at Jesus on the cross: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”'

But their bereft patients may not find forgiving that easy. “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 received care from Sister Merrill, adding whoever killed her should be executed. ”She doesn't deserve to die like this, doing God's work,“ he told the Associated Press. ”There's something wrong with the world.”

Contacted in Massachusetts, a sister of Mr Merrill said she had moved to Mississippi in 1981 determined to dedicate her life to helping the poor in one of America’s most deprived states. For years, she would be seen darting between small towns and farms on her moped getting medical care to those who needed it the most.

And according to a nephew, David, Sister Merrill had been working with Sister Held for many years. “We always considered Margaret just part of the family,” he said. “The word 'sister' has many meanings, and they fulfilled all of them.”