Man faces 2 capital murder charges in Mississippi nun deaths

"Sister Paula was an angel," says Joe Morgan Jr., of Lexington, Miss., Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, standing at a businesses adjacent to the Lexington Medical Clinic where he was a patient of Sister Paula Merrill, one of two nurse practitioners who were found slain Thursday in their Durant, Miss., home, a few miles away. Merrill and Sister Margaret Held, were known for their kindness and community involvement in the mostly rural Mississippi Delta towns. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) "Sister Paula was an angel," says Joe Morgan Jr., of Lexington, Miss., Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, standing at a businesses adjacent to the Lexington Medical Clinic where he was a patient of Sister Paula Merrill, one of two nurse practitioners who were found slain Thursday in their Durant, Miss., home, a few miles away. Merrill and Sister Margaret Held, were known for their kindness and community involvement in the mostly rural Mississippi Delta towns. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

By Associated Press August 27, 2016 5 min read

LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) – A man has been arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of two nuns who were slain in Mississippi, police said.

Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, was charged 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.

Their bodies were discovered Thursday after they failed to show up for work at a clinic in Lexington, Mississippi, about 10 miles from where they lived.

“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation,” Lt. Colonel Jimmy Jordan said in the statement.

Sanders was being held in an undisclosed detention center awaiting his initial court appearance.