3rd Killer of U.S. Churchwomen Freed

Still professing his innocence, a third national guardsman convicted of raping and killing four American churchwomen in El Salvador walked free from prison as church leaders worried that the truth in the case may never be known. Daniel Canales has admitted being at the murder scene but has insisted he did not participate. Canales said the guardsmen who committed the Dec. 2, 1980, murders “were executing orders of superiors.” Canales and two other former guardsmen freed a day ago served 17 years of their 30-year terms. They were released under a new law to ease prison overcrowding. Two others remain in prison. The five were convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Roman Catholic nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clark and Dorothy Kazel and lay worker Jean Donovan.