WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and SportsSlain pastor remembered as loving woman of God
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - As many as 1,000 people packed a church Monday for a nearly three-hour service to celebrate the life of a pastor who was found slain inside her church in southwest Oklahoma and to remember her as a sweet, loving woman of God.
More than a dozen speakers, most who knew her and some who didn't, told mourners at Greater New Zion Baptist Church that Carol Daniels was not just a victim of a violent crime.
"Rain, sleet and snow - she was faithful to the word. Not very many pastors are that committed to their ministry," Elder Steve Taplin said of Daniels, who traveled 60 miles from Oklahoma City every Sunday to the Worthy Temple Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko.
Daniels didn't have a regular congregation and often, she and several others would be the only ones at the church. Still, Daniels would travel to the town and open the small church in case someone needed to pray or hear the word of God.
It was during her Aug. 23 trip, while preparing her sermon, that she was killed, authorities said. An Anadarko police officer found her inside the church after a minister she was supposed to meet became concerned when Daniels didn't answer the door.
According to a forensics expert who reviewed a preliminary autopsy report, Daniels suffered numerous gashes to her neck and throat, as well as stab wounds to her chest, back, stomach and hands. Her body was moved into an unnatural position after she was killed, investigators have said.
Daniels' brother, Ivan Henderson, told mourners to pray for three things.
"Pray so that we can forgive the person who did this," said Henderson, a minister who lives in Cleveland. "Pray that God gives favor to the police and the investigators, that God gives them strength."
Henderson also urged mourners to pray that the person or people who killed his sister be caught so they could not kill again.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. It has asked FBI experts in fields like behavioral science to help find the killer or killers.
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