Therese Apel

The Clarion-Ledger

Durant Assistant Police Chief James Lee said "all hands are on deck" Friday as police continued to search for whoever killed two 68-year-old nuns in Holmes County.

The nuns, who were stabbed, were the victims of what authorities have described as a brutal and personal crime. Although the women were stabbed, the cause of their deaths is pending autopsies.

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Sister Paula Merrill, a nurse practitioner with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, a nurse practitioner with the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, were found dead Thursday in their home on Castalian Springs Road in Durant, a town of roughly 2,600.

Meanwhile, a $2,500 Crime Stoppers reward was increased to $22,500 Friday by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Investigators hope the money will assist them in finding the killer, who was still on the loose Friday afternoon.

"A small town like this, it's devastating our community," Lee said. "People are concerned, but to our credit, it takes a tragedy to outline heroes. People from all denominations, all faiths, all races have pulled together in Durant and they're helping each other."

While the citizens deal with the fear and the sadness, the authorities deal with that as well as the details.

When asked how this case compares with others he's worked on, Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard said, "It's one of the worst I've seen."

Authorities said after both women failed to show up for work Thursday morning, an officer went to check on them and discovered their bodies around 10:04 a.m. Lee and other officers secured the scene and called for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to assist.

Howard was called to the scene by Durant Police Department at 11:02 a.m.

ORIGINAL STORY: 2 nuns fatally stabbed in Mississippi; missing car found

Howard said he can't release where the women were in the home when they were found, but he did say their bodies were not bound or tied in any way.

Police are mum on whether the women's work with the church could be related to the attack. Authorities have said robbery could be a motive given that the women worked at the Lexington Medical Clinic, where they treated thousands of patients a year, regardless of their ability to pay.

"There are a number of potential motives that have not been ruled out," MBI Spokesman Warren Strain said. "To say definitively that robbery is the motive would be premature."

Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said he can't remember anything like this in Holmes County.

"We've had a number of killings in Holmes County, but two people at the same time ..."

March said even as officers and deputies canvas the community for information, there's not a lot of street chatter about the crime and who the killer or killers might be.

"It's hard to say if it was one person or more than one," he said. "I almost want to say it's one because not too many people are talking about it. When it's one person, it's harder to track down than when it's two or three people."

Authorities are attempting to find any possible connections between the killer or killers and the victims.

"I think he knew them, and he's a local person," March said, adding that the violent nature of the crime doesn't mean that the intent was to kill the women.

"If they didn't give up what (the attacker) wanted, it could turn violent," he said.

A police department release includes a statement from Mayor Tasha Davis.

"Mayor Davis would like the citizens of Durant to rest assured our town is safe and will be provided information as it develops," the DPD release read.

Several items recovered at the crime scene have been submitted to the state crime lab for processing, Strain said.

"We want the public to call us with any information they have in regard to this, no matter how minuscule or large it is," said Lee. "Call Durant Police Department and ask for Chief Lee or Chief (John) Haynes."

Davis and Haynes stated in the release that they will establish a community outreach plan to inform citizens of a time and place for town meetings to keep the public updated on the status of the investigation.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Durant police at 662-653-6846 or Holmes County Crime Stoppers at 662-834-0099.

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Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.