NEWS

Man accused of killing nuns lived across the street

Therese Apel
The Clarion-Ledger

DURANT - The man accused of stabbing and killing two nuns last week inside their Holmes County home lived in a little metal shed across the street.

Rodney Earl Sanders lived so close to the victims that he could stand in the driveway that led to the shed and look straight across the street at the expansive, well-kept yard in front of the nuns' home.

Authorities said Sanders, who is now charged with capital murder in the slayings of  Sister Paula Merrill and Sister Margaret Held, both 68, had asked to mow the grass at their home a few days before their deaths, and they declined his offer. It's unclear whether there had ever been any interaction between them before that encounter.

Crime scene tape and a Crimestoppers sign are still fixtures in the yard of a home where two women were found dead in Durant on Thursday.

It's unclear how long Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, had been staying directly across Castalian Springs Boulevard from the nuns. He had family members that stayed in the home on the property, and authorities said the little brown shed in the backyard was his home, at least temporarily.

Merrill and Held were found dead by police officers, slain in their home on Thursday. Officials have confirmed that they were stabbed, but are holding off on saying whether that was the cause of death pending autopsy results.

There's no telling when that could come through, said Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard, who had just checked in with the crime lab Tuesday.

"I have cases at the crime lab, they can take a while. A guy died back in December and I still haven't gotten a call yet," he said, adding that he hopes they'll put a rush on this case.

Rape kits were submitted, Howard confirmed, which is not unusual in a lot of homicide cases. Howard wouldn't speak to whether there was evidence of any sexual crime.

The little brown metal shed has an air conditioner in the window that can be seen from the driveway. A figurine of a praying angel sits inside the screened-in porch, where nobody answered knocks at the door of the home on Tuesday.

The neighborhood is quiet. A woman at a home next door to where Sanders was staying said she hadn't seen him, but added that she didn't get out much. Otherwise the only activity on Tuesday came from cars driving down the street, slowing as they passed the home that is still fenced entirely by crime scene tape.

Sanders is married, and his wife Marie Sanders, who reportedly still lives in Kosciusko, broke down when addressing the family and friends of the nuns at the hearing on Monday in Durant city court.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say to y’all. I’m so sorry … I’m so sorry. I can’t take this. Oh my God,” Marie Sanders said.

As she sobbed, she was surrounded by people who loved the women her husband is accused of killing, and they comforted her.

The families of both women have said they don't want Sanders to face the death penalty, but that will be up to the district attorney.

Authorities have said that Sanders confessed to killing the women, though they say he has not told them why. It's not even clear if Sanders knew they were nuns.

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Iowa Department of Corrections records show that Sanders served seven years in prison from June 2004 to February 2011 for second-degree robbery, and from August 1999 to August 2002 for theft, and from April to October 1996 for two counts of third-offense drunken driving.

Sanders was convicted of armed robbery in Holmes County and served six years, starting in 1986, and was on probation for a felony drunk-driving conviction last year. It is unclear if he was employed anywhere.

Until Monday, various agencies have spoken somewhat freely about the incident, but this week they have locked down on releasing details. Authorities have said robbery could be a motive, but it's not the only possible motive they're examining.

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

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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