Two Catholic nuns have been murdered at the home they shared in Durant, which is north of Jackson City, in Mississippi, last night in what local police believe may have been a robbery that went horribly wrong.
Their bodies were found by a local police officer who had gone to check their house after colleagues reported them missing when they failed to show up for work.
Their car, which was not outside their home, was later found abandoned just under a mile away from the sisters' home.
Sister Paula Merrill, 68, a nurse practitioner with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, 68, a nurse practitioner with the School Sisters of St Francis in Milwaukee, both helped patients struggling to pay for their healthcare at nearby Lexington Medical Clinic. Although robbery is suspected to be the motive behind the attack, police have not ruled anything out at this stage.
Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, said that there were signs of a break-in at the nuns' home. Earlier media reports said that the nuns had been stabbed but police refused to confirm the cause of death. There was no evidence that the nuns had been shot, a police spokesman confirmed last night.
Merrill had worked in Mississippi for more than 30 years, according to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky. She was from Massachusetts and joined the order in 1979. Two years later, she moved to the South and found her calling in the Mississippi Delta community, according to a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
Tributes have been paid to the "two sweetest sisters you could imagine".
“These sisters have spent years of dedicated service here in Mississippi. They absolutely loved the people in their community", said the Bishop of Jackson, Joseph Kopacz. "We mourn with the people of Lexington and Durant and we pray for the Sisters of Charity, the School Sisters of St. Francis and the families left behind”, Kopacz added.
“These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine. It’s so senseless,” said Father Greg Plata, the parish priest at St Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington where the two sisters were members of the congregation
Sam Sample, lay leader of St Thomas, said that the two nuns were keen gardeners and would create meals from the fruit and vegetables they grew. After Hurricane Katrina left much of the town without power for weeks, the sisters allowed people to come to their house to cook because they had a gas stove.
"These ladies didn't require any fanfare, any bells and whistles. They would just keep their nose to the grindstone, doing what had to be done," he said.
Delbert Hosemann, the secretary of state for Mississippi, said in a statement: “Unbridled love and care for mankind has been met with unparalleled savagery. These faithful nuns worked tirelessly at the Lexington Medical Clinic to make the Holmes County community and Mississippi a better place to live. We hope justice will be swiftly served.”
President of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky Susan Gatz said that "the whole community had come together" and she asked that all, “pray in gratitude for the precious lives of Sisters Paula and Margaret … they served the poor so well. Because we are gospel women, please also pray for the perpetrators”.
The small congregation at St Thomas typically gathers on Thursday nights for Bible study and a meal. Sr Held was renowned locally for her skill at baking. "Name it, she could make it. It would melt in your mouth," said neighbour Patricia Wyatt-Weatherly.
The impact of the sisters' deaths may be immediate in one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in the US. Concerns have already been raised for the future of the Lexington Medical Clinic which the two nuns were instrumental in setting up and their work was vital to its operation.
Dr Elias Abboud, who worked with the sisters for years and agreed to help build the Lexington clinic because "you could feel their passion about serving the people, helping the poor", estimated that the clinic provided about 25 per cent of all the medical care in the county.
"I think the community is going to be different after this. You need somebody with that passion to love the people and work in the underserved area," Abboud said. "For somebody to come and do this horrible act, we are all shocked," he added.
"I think their absence is going to be felt for a long, long time. Holmes County, it's one of the poorest in the state," said Lisa Dew, who managed the Lexington Medical Clinic. "There's a lot of people here who depended on them for their care and their medicines. It's going to be rough."
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