Susp nabbed in murder of 2 Miss. nuns

A SUSPECT HAS been charged in the sadistic slayings of two nuns in their Mississippi home, authorities said. Rodney Sanders, 46 (inset), faces two counts of capital murder after his arrest Friday for the stabbings of Sisters Paula Merrill and Margaret Held.

The bodies of the two women — both 68 — were discovered Thursday after they failed to show up for work at a clinic in Lexington, Miss., about 10 miles from their home in the small town of Durant.

Sanders is believed to have acted alone, Mississippi Public Safety Department spokesman Warren Strain told the Daily News.

The grisly murders shocked the tiny Southern communities the nuns served. Merrill’s nephew David said his aunt would wish forgiveness for the killer. Merrill and Held were well-known in the povertystricken community where they worked for dedicating their lives to providing health care for the poor and disenfranchised.