Word: rother
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...largely by the testimony of one witness: Sister Ana Maria Gonzales Arias, a Mexican nun working as a missionary in Santiago Atitlán. Sister Gonzales was said to have told officials that she saw "various armed men" wearing hoods enter the church, where they were discovered by Father Rother apparently while they were "seeking to rob the church's money...
...reality, Sister Gonzales saw nothing. She was asleep in a nearby convent when the killing took place. There were only two eyewitnesses. One was Francisco Bocel Cumes, 18, a gardener, who was forced at gunpoint to lead the killers to Father Rother's sleeping quarters. The other was an American nurse named Bertha Sanchez, who was sleeping in a guest room in the rectory the night of the murder...
After the fatal shots were fired, Bocel Cumes ran to awaken Sister Gonzales and the other nuns. They all returned to Father Rother's sleeping quarters, where they found him lying in a pool of blood...
...mixed Indian and Spanish blood), considerably taller than the average full-blooded Indian, who spoke fluent Spanish. All of the arrested men are Indians who speak limited, heavily accented Spanish. Two of those arrested, Farmers Esteban Coche Leanda, 19, and Juna Quiju Caj, 25, actually were friends of Father Rother's. The third, Miguel Angel Mendoza Tecun, 32, is a well-known local merchant...
...Rother's family and friends in Oklahoma are convinced that he was not shot by the Indians. Says Archbishop Charles A. Salatka of Oklahoma City: "From what we are able to learn from our reliable ecclesiastical and other sources, I don't think that's the way it happened. Knowing Father Rother the way I do, I just don't think he would put his life on the line to prevent a robbery." Adds the slain priest's father, Franz: "They had to force their way into his bedroom...