SENECA – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the murder of a Catholic priest that occurred Thursday, April 3, in Seneca, Kansas.
A Kansas Bureau of Investigation statement said a 911 call was placed reporting shots fired at the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church rectory at 411 Pioneer St., in Seneca about 2:50 p.m April 4. At 2:55 p.m., deputies from the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office and officers from the Seneca Police Department arrived and discovered Father Arul Carasala, 57, of Seneca, outside the residence suffering from gunshot wounds.
Seneca EMS arrived and transported Father Carasala to the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital. Despite life-saving measures, he died at the hospital from his injuries.
Kansas Highway Patrol troopers responded and helped secure the scene. Shortly after, deputies from the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office and officers from the Seneca Police Department took Gary L. Hermesch, 66, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into custody. He was booked into the Nemaha County Jail on suspected first-degree murder. Hermesch was formerly charged on Friday. Bond was set at $1 million. Hermesch is being held in the Nemaha County Jail.
Carasala was popular among the local churchgoers and community, and came to the local parish in 2011.
Locals said Hermesch was raised in Seneca and graduated high school there in 1977. Reports as yet unconfirmed said Hermesch attended church services at Saints Peter and Paul last weekend. He was said to have gone back to Oklahoma but returned this week prior to Thursday’s shooting.
Father Carasala’s sermon at the March 29 mass was on the Catholic practice of reconciliation, illustrated by the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which a man’s son who has squandered his own inheritance and run upon hard times and destitution returns home and is welcomed by his father.
In Catholic doctrine, reconciliation, also known as penance or confession, is a sacrament where a person receives forgiveness for sins committed after baptism, through the priest acting as an agent of God, restoring their relationship with God and the Church.
The KBI release noted suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The KBI office in Topeka said the investigation is ongoing.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
