The nephew of one of the two nuns killed in Mississippi says he is thankful someone has been arrested in the case.

Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, 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.

The bodies of both women 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.

'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.'

Merrill's nephew, David Merrill, said he learned about the arrest of Sanders early Saturday morning.

He says the family is 'thankful that he's off the streets,' but the family still has to deal with the loss.

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Arrested: Rodney Earl Sanders (above), 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, was charged in the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill. He faces two capital murder charges

Sisters Paula Merrill (left) and Margaret Held (right) were found dead inside their Mississippi home on Thursday by authorities

Merrill (pictured above) worked as a nurse and helped the poor in rural Mississippi. It's unclear how Sanders knew both of the nuns

Held (pictured above) also worked as a nurse and helped the poor in rural Mississippi. Police say there were signs of a break-in at the home and their car was missing

David Merrill says he agrees with the idea of forgiveness and trying to forgive the person who killed his aunt and her fellow nun.

But he says he's 'not as strong' as his aunt, and he's not sure if he's 'capable of completely forgiving.'

Authorities said Sanders was being held in an undisclosed detention center pending a court appearance.

State Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain tells The Associated Press that as of Saturday, 'investigators believe Sanders acted alone.'

Meanwhile, in the poverty-stricken Mississippi county where the two nuns were slain, forgiveness for their killer is hard to find, even if forgiveness is what the victims would have wanted.

Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill were nurse practitioners who dedicated their lives to providing health care to people in the poorest county in the state.

And as authorities sought the killer, many residents wondered how they will fill the hole the women's deaths have left.

Sisters Margaret Held (right) and Paula Merrill (left) were nurse practitioners who dedicated their lives to providing health care to people in the poorest county in the state

A memorial is placed outside the crime scene tape at the home in Durant where they were found dead Thursday

Crime scene tape lines the perimeter of the home in Durant where the two nuns died

'Right now, I don't see no forgiveness on my heart,' said Joe Morgan Jr., a 58-year-old former factory worker who has diabetes and was a patient of Merrill's at the clinic where the two nuns worked.

He said Merrill would want him to forgive whoever killed the women, but he hopes the perpetrator is arrested, convicted and executed.

'She doesn't deserve to die like this, doing God's work,' Morgan said, shaking his head. 'There's something wrong with the world.'

Both women worked at the clinic, where they gave flu shots, dispensed insulin and provided other medical care for children and adults who couldn't afford it.

Their stolen car was found abandoned a mile from their home, and there were signs of a break-in, but police haven't disclosed a motive.

A Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent takes a bag with evidence from the Durant home of two slain Catholic nuns who worked as nurses at the Lexington Medical Clinic on Thursday

Two Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents inspect a car in the garage of the Durant home of two slain Catholic nuns who worked as nurses at the Lexington Medical Clinic on Thursday

Authorities have not said how the women were killed, but the Rev. Greg Plata of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington, where the nuns had led Bible study for years, said police told him they were stabbed.

Plata said Saturday that he does not think people at the church knew.

The state posted a reward of $20,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

The clinic where two slain nuns worked says the man accused of killing them was not a patient there.

Dr. Elias Abboud, the physician who oversees the clinic, says he called the office manager after he saw there was an arrest made to check if Sanders had been a patient at the clinic but he was not.

Durant Police Chief John Haynes (left) and assistant Police Chief James Lee reassure Lexington Medical Clinic employees Lisa Dew (right) and Viola Turner (seated) that the investigation into the nunsdeath was going to be thorough

Abboud says the community and the patients will miss them.

Plata said both nuns' religious communities have asked that people pray for the killer or killers.

Asked about people's struggles to forgive, the priest said: 'Forgiveness is at the heart of being a Christian. Look at Jesus on the cross: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.''

On Friday, a handwritten sign on the front door of Lexington Medical Clinic said it was closed until Monday.

The clinic and the nuns' home in Durant are in Holmes County, population 18,000.

With 44 percent of its residents living in poverty, Holmes is the seventh-poorest county in America, according to the Census Bureau.

Joe Morgan Jr. (above) said 'Sister Paula was an angel.' The two women were known for their kindness and community involvement in the mostly rural Mississippi Delta towns

The slayings did more than shock people and plunge the county into mourning.

They leave a gaping hole in what was already a strapped health care system.

Abboud, who worked with the sisters for years and helped build the clinic, said it provided about 25 percent of all medical care in the county.

The two nuns cultivated relationships with drug company representatives, who often left extra free samples, according to clinic manager Lisa Dew.

'This is a poor area, and they dignified those who are poor with outreach and respect for them,' Plata said. 'They treated each person as a child of God.'

Merrill's sister Rosemarie, speaking by telephone from her Stoneham, Massachusetts, home, said her sister had been in Mississippi helping the poor since 1981 and had previously worked in Holly Springs, where she used to ride around on a moped and was instrumental in locating the source of a tuberculosis outbreak.

Margaret Held was part of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee (above, file photo)

Merrill was raised in the suburbs of Boston and came from a working-class family, her father a laborer and her mother a bookkeeper, her nephew David said.

He said his aunt had worked with Held for many years.

'We always considered Margaret just part of the family,' he said. 'The word 'sister' has many meanings, and they fulfilled all of them.'

Rosemarie Merrill said she doesn't know what will happen to the clinic now and worries about the effect on health care in Holmes County.

She said her sister and Held would often go into the clinic on Sundays after Mass or on their days off.

'It's just going to be a disaster,' she said.