No arrests in murder of reservation nun

NAVAJO, N.M. (KRQE) - Federal and tribal investigators are looking for witnesses and a missing car after a nun who spent 10 years at a mission church on the Navajo reservation was murdered over the weekend.

Sister Marguerite Bartz, 64, was found Sunday morning in her convent home in Navajo about 40 miles northwest of Gallup. A colleague found Bartz's body Sunday morning after going to check on her when she failed to appear for Mass.

Residents in the small community were distraught over the news of Bartz's death.

"The sister from the bingo was murdered," Kim Davis told KRQE News 13 through tear-filled eyes. "She played bingo over here and I knew her. She was a friend of ours."

The FBI said Bartz was killed Saturday night or Sunday morning. They are seeking information from anyone who may have seen her Halloween night.

Investigators are also looking for a vehicle Bartz had been using. It is described as a beige 2005 HONDA CR-V with New Jersey license plate NF24821.

Anyone with information on the crime or the car can contact the FBI at (505) 889-1300 or the Navajo Nation tribal police at 928-871-6111 or 928-871-6112

"Scary," Davis said. "Scary that there's a killer in our area, and it's such a small town."

"She was known to be a woman always passionate for justice and peace," the Diocese of Gallup said in a statement released Monday. "The life she lived would tell us that she would respond to this incident with a spirit of forgiveness towards whoever is responsible for these acts."

Bartz, born in 1945 in Plymouth, Wis., entered the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1966 from Beaumont, Texas, and professed final vows in 1974, according to the diocese.

She held a Bachelor of Arts degree from Xavier University in New Orleans and a master's degree in religious education from Loyola University, also in New Orleans.

For more than 40 years Bartz served in Dorchester, Mass., Lawtell, La., Guadalupe Indian Mission in Peña Blanca, St. Joseph in Laguna, St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, and since 1999 at St. Berard's in Navajo.

Sixteen members of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order founded 118 years ago by Saint Katherine Drexel, minister in the Diocese of Gallup.

Funeral services are pending.