Suspect arrested in priest slayings
PUEBLO, Colo. - A man was arrested Thursday night in the slayings of two Roman Catholic priests whose stabbed bodies were found in a rectory, a trail of blood leading away from the door.
Douglas J. Comiskey, 20, was arrested for investigation of murder in the killings of the Rev. Tom Scheets and the Rev. Louis Stovik, police Chief Ruben Archuleta said.
He said physical evidence led investigators to Comiskey, but he would not elaborate. He also wouldn't comment on whether the suspect knew the victims or whether a weapon had been recovered. Police had not determined a motive, Archuleta said.
Comiskey was being held without bond and was expected to be formally charged in the next couple days, said police spokeswoman Charlene Graham.
Scheets, 65, pastor of St. Leander Catholic Church since 1990, and Stovik, 77, a retired priest who had lived at the rectory three years, were found dead in their home behind the church Wednesday evening.
A retired priest who lived a block away, the Rev. Bill Powers, found the men bleeding from their wounds in different rooms when he came to visit.
"It was a terrible, terrible shock," Powers said.
Deputy Coroner Kim Wittrup said earlier Thursday that both men had been stabbed, and Powers said Scheets apparently had been hit in the head as well.
Police said there was no sign of forced entry, but the priests may have put up a fight because whoever killed them may have been bleeding. A tracking dog was brought in to follow a trail of blood that led from the front door of the rectory.
"We've checked the hospitals but no one has turned up there so far," Wittrup said.
Pueblo Diocese Bishop Arthur Tafoya said Mass for the slain priests Thursday, and later told The Associated Press that he already has forgiven the killer, whomever it might be. "I have prayed for this man," he said.
The church, a Spanish-style blond brick structure with twin bell towers, is a focal point of the predominantly Hispanic, working-class neighborhood of modest bungalows on Pueblo's east side.
A city of 100,000 formerly dominated by the steel industry, Pueblo is located on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado about 120 miles south of Denver.
Weeping parishioners brought candles and flowers to an impromptu curbside shrine outside the yellow police tape that closed off the church. About 30 people knelt on the hot asphalt street in the summer heat reciting the rosary.
The shrine included a 3-foot-by-2-foot framed picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Penned on green paper swathing a rose was a single word: "Why?"
Thursday morning's newspaper, with headlines reporting the priests' slayings, lay opened on the sidewalk outside the rectory.
Residents and parishioners recalled how "Father Tom" walked around the blue-collar neighborhood in his leather jacket.
"He was a very giving person. He would have defended anybody. He had no enemies," said Robert Lopez, 24, who played the guitar at Saturday afternoon Mass at St. Leander and lives across the street from the church.
Ernest and Natividad Cordoba, who attended Sunday Mass at the church for nearly 40 years, recalled how Father Tom got to the hospital even before they did earlier this year when their son was dying.
Holding a handkerchief to her tear-streaked face, Mrs. Cordoba said, "It's a disgrace to take two good people from their place in life. I don't know what would be the best punishment."
Sadie Sanchez, 20, a Harvard junior who plays the organ and leads the choir at St. Leander during summer vacation, said she was practicing with the choir when the priests' bodies were found next door.
"No one heard their screams," she said, adding, "Anyone who knew them would never do anything like this."