A Kosciusko man suspected in the slaying of two Durant nuns is now behind bars.
Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, has been charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said in a statement released late Friday night.
“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation,” MBI Director Lt. Colonel Jimmy Jordan said. “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.”
The bodies of both women were discovered Thursday after they failed to show up for work at a clinic in Lexington, about 10 miles from where they lived. Both women worked at the clinic, where they gave flu shots, dispensed insulin and provided other medical care for children and adults who could not afford it.
Their stolen car was found abandoned a mile from their home Thursday afternoon, and there were signs of a break-in, but police have not disclosed a motive. Reports say the women were stabbed to death, but no official cause of death has been released by officials.
Merrill was a nun with Kentucky-based Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, while Margaret Held was a member of the school Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sanders confessed to the killings but gave no reason, said Holmes County Sheriff Willie March, who was briefed by Durant police and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation officials who took part in Sanders’ interrogation. Sanders had been living about 15 miles east of the sisters’ Durant home.
Sanders is being held without bond after bail was denied during his initial court appearance in Durant city court. Capital murder is punishable by execution or life in prison.
He is being held at an undisclosed jail since his arrest late Friday.
Records from the Iowa Department of Corrections show Sanders was in prison from June 2004 to February 2011 on a conviction of second-degree robbery. He was also incarcerated in Iowa from August 1999 to August 2002 on a conviction of theft, and from April to October 1996 for two counts of third-offense drunken driving.
Sanders was on probation after a prison term for a felony drunken-driving conviction in Mississippi last year. He was also convicted of armed robbery in Holmes County, sentenced in 1986 and served six years.
