Shocking sad tragic news: the murder of two nuns who worked among the poor in Mississippi

Two nuns found murdered in Mississippi home in suspected robbery

Two nuns found murdered in Mississippi home in suspected robbery

BY Alfred Ng

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Two nuns were murdered in a Mississippi home after a suspected robbery gone wrong.
Durant police found the two nuns with stab wounds in a home where the two lived together during a welfare check on Thursday.
The nuns had such a great reputation for showing up to work at the Lexington Medical Clinic that their colleagues feared the worst when they were absent on Thursday.
“They have a history of being punctual as far as arriving at work, and they didn’t today,” Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain told the Daily News.

The two nuns had been working together in Mississippi for over 30 years.

(Sisters of Charity of Nazareth via Vimeo)

When police arrived, the nuns’ car was missing, along with signs of a break-in at the home, Maureen Smith, said a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson.
The two were nurse practitioners, identified as Sister Paul Merrill, with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, from the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee.
The two would work with the clinic in their ministry with the poor, providing healthcare for those who couldn't afford it, giving out books and school supplies to the needy.

Authorities are investigating the killings of two nuns in Holmes County who worked with the Lexington Medical Clinic. Sister Paula Merrill (pictured) a nurse with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, was found stabbed to death in a Mississippi home.

(Sisters of Charity of Nazareth)

"They were two of the sweetest, most gentle women you can imagine. Their vocation was helping the poor," Rev. Greg Plata, the pastor who oversaw the sisters' church said.
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Sister Held, 68, had been a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis for 49 years, traveling through Wisconsin, Mississippi and Nebraska before she was killed.
"We are deeply shocked and grieved by this terrible news. Sister Margaret has been a member of our community for 49 years and lived her ministry caring for and healing the poor," the School Sisters of St. Francis said in a statement to the Daily News.

Margaret Held, who lived with Sister Paul Merrill in a home in Durant, was also killed during the vicious attack.

(Courtesy of School Sisters of St. Francis)

The two had ministered together in Mississippi for over three decades before they were murdered. Held and Merrill had dedicated their lives to helping the poor, moving to Holmes County, where more than 40 percent of the population lives in poverty.
"This is one of the poorest counties in all of Mississippi," Held said in an interview with the Sisters of Charity.
It’s still unclear if the nuns’ religious work was a motive behind the double murder. Police are still investigating the scene and searching for the killer.
“I have an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach,” Durant assistant police chief James Lee said.