Two nuns who worked as nurses and helped the poor in rural Mississippi were found killed in their home. Authorities recovered a car missing from the home and towed it to a crime lab for analysis. Police said the sisters were stabbed.
The nuns were Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68. Their bodies have been taken for autopsies. Sister Margaret Held belonged to the School Sisters of St. Francis.
They were both nurse practitioners, and were found Thursday August 25, 2016 in the morning.
"They were two of the sweetest, most gentle women you can imagine. Their vocation was helping the poor," said Rev. Plata, the pastor of the 35-member Catholic church the sisters attended.
There were signs of a break-in at the home. Sister Paula Merrill belonged to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Merrill worked in Mississippi for over 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. In a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Merrill explained, "We simply do what we can wherever God places us," St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington, was where the sisters were members. Held had 49 years with the her order and was involved by "living her ministry caring for and healing the poor." The two nuns were involved almost all the care at a clinic which helped the poor.
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