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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Nun Likely Killed by Blows
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
A preliminary medical examiner's report found that a 64-year-old Roman Catholic nun was most likely killed by blows from an attacker, but investigators ruled out the possibility of sexual assault, an FBI spokesman said Wednesday.
Nor was Sister Marguerite Bartz murdered in a hate crime, said Darrin Jones, FBI supervisory special agent in Albuquerque.
"We have no evidence that leads us to believe that she was targeted in any way because of her vocation, or that this was in any way an anti-Catholic issue," Jones said.
Bartz was found by a colleague Sunday in her convent at St. Berard Mission Church in Navajo, about 30 miles northwest of Gallup, after she failed to attend Mass. She was killed between Saturday night and midday Sunday, Jones said.
"Sister Bartz did suffer substantial trauma, likely as a result of a violent confrontation with her assailant or attacker," he said.
Jones did not rule out the possibility that the killer used a weapon. However, Bartz was not shot or stabbed, he said.
FBI agents and Navajo police focused their investigation Wednesday around Cottonwood, Ariz., where police found the 1995 Honda CR-V with New Jersey plates that Bartz had been driving.
The vehicle was found abandoned on a remote rural road near the Navajo Nation community about 20 miles west of Chinle, Ariz.
Police had made no arrests Wednesday. Jones declined to discuss possible suspects or other details of the investigation.
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