TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
It is believed to be the first time a priest has faced a murder trial for the death of a nun, and it’s happening in Toledo on Monday.
On a cold April morning in 1980, the day before Easter, an elderly nun was strangled and stabbed in the room next door to Mercy Hospital’s chapel.
Another nun found the body of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on the marble floor of the sacristy, where she had gone to prepare the chapel for Holy Saturday Mass.
The 71-year-old nun, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, had been strangled, then stabbed between 27 and 32 times in the chest and neck. Her undergarments had been pulled down over an ankle.