Mass. nun slain in home invasion
Two victims worked in Mississippi clinic
A nun from Massachusetts who was slain in a double murder and robbery in Mississippi was a “saint” and a “fun-loving person” who felt called by God to serve the poor, her grieving Stoneham nephew told the Herald yesterday.
Sister Paula Merrill, 68, a nurse practitioner with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who grew up in Stoneham, was found dead along with Sister Margaret Held in their Durant, Miss., home yesterday.
“She’s been in the south for 30 years working with some of our nation’s poorest, providing health care to people who are neglected by our country,” said David V. Merrill, her nephew. “She didn’t wear religion on her sleeve. She wouldn’t lecture you about things you were doing. She showed it through her work. ... She was a silly, fun-loving person who had this great calling from God.”
It was too early to say how the nuns died, but it did not appear that they were shot, Durant Assistant Police Chief James Lee said. Their bodies were taken to a state crime lab for autopsies.
The women were found yesterday morning when they didn’t report to work at the Lexington Medical Clinic, about 10 miles away from their home in Durant, one of the poorest areas in the state.
“They were two of the sweetest, most gentle women you can imagine. Their vocation was helping the poor,” said the Rev. Greg Plata, who oversees a small Catholic church the sisters attended in the Mississippi Delta.
Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Miss., said there were signs of a break-in at the home and the nuns’ vehicle is missing.
Authorities didn’t release a motive and it wasn’t clear if the nuns’ religious work had anything to do with the slayings.
David Merrill said his aunt loved to knit and travel, but because she had taken a vow of poverty, her travel was limited. He said last year she joined him and her brother and sister to visit several sites in Europe.
“We visited all the holy sites, obviously,” he said. And, he added, they had a good time.
“She was a fun-loving nun,” he said.
Merrill moved to Mississippi in 1981 and believed her calling was to stay in the Deep South, according to a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
“We simply do what we can wherever God places us,” she said in the article.