Evelyn Player filled her days volunteering at Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore, Maryland arriving early to greet worshipers and staying late to help the choir rehearse.
The 69-year-old retiree was at it again Tuesday morning, arriving just after sunrise to let in construction workers, not long before she was found stabbed to death in a church bathroom, police said.
“Who would want to hurt my mother?” asked Alethea Finch, crying on the porch of the East Baltimore home she shared with her mother. “How could someone hurt someone in such a sacred place? … My heart’s broken into a million pieces. I don’t understand why this happened.”
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said at a news conference the longtime church volunteer was found dead in the bathroom after being attacked. Finch identified the victim as her mother, a devoted member of Southern Baptist and retired office worker at the medical publishing company Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Police did not disclose anything about a possible motive or potential suspects.
Church administrator Diane Lashley said an employee found Player’s body and called police around 7:20 a.m. to the Broadway East neighborhood church.
Harrison and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott urged anyone with information on Player’s killing to come forward.
“We know for a fact people were around. Someone saw someone,” Harrison said. “We implore you to call us, we beg you you to call us right now. Not only so we can hold this person or persons accountable, but so we can also bring justice and calm and closure to this family.”
Scott called Player’s death “unspeakable” and “cowardly,” saying it’s a priority for the police department to solve the case. He made an impassioned plea for people to “man the hell up” and remember it could have been their grandmother killed.
“If you’re scared to say something to the police, say it to me. I’ll say it,” the Democratic mayor said.
The Rev. Donte L. Hickman, pastor of the 4,000-member Southern Baptist Church, said Player is the fourth or fifth generation of her family to attend the church, and that she has done so for more than 50 years. She would bring her daughter and grandson with her to services.
Hickman said he was dropping his son off at school when he got the call about her killing. He raced to comfort the family and find out what happened.
“It’s just unthinkable,” he said. “We pray that whoever the culprit is, is brought to justice. But we want them to know that our work and mission will continue.”
In addition to serving as church sexton, Player sang in the choir, dished up meals and helped in the church’s COVID vaccine and testing clinics, Hickman said. She had a reputation for keeping order in the church, so much so that congregants nicknamed her “The Sheriff.”
“She was everybody’s friend,” the pastor said. “You could always find her holding conversation with anybody that passed through the doors.”
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