SENECA, Kan. — Prosecutors in Nemaha County, Kansas, have charged a 66-year-old Oklahoma man with first-degree murder in the Thursday shooting death of a priest.
Gary L. Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was charged just before 1 p.m. Friday with first-degree murder in the death of Father Arul Carasala.
Police in Seneca, Kansas, about two hours northwest of the Kansas City area, received a call just before 3 p.m. on a report of shots fired at the rectory of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
When officers arrived, they located Carasala suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Carasala was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died from his injuries.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigations says a suspect in the shooting, identified as Hermesch, turned himself into custody not long after the incident.
Hermesch appeared before a Nemaha County District Court judge just after 2 p.m. Friday.
Hermesch was appointed a public defender – Jason W. Belveal.
Judge Scott M. Anson set a preliminary hearing for 11:30 a.m. on April 15, 2025.
Online court records indicate Hermesch remains in custody at the Nemaha County Jail on a $1 million bond.
In a social media post Thursday, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas remembered Carasala as a “devoted and zealous pastor who faithfully served our Archdiocese for over twenty years.”
Carasala had served as the priest of the church in Seneca for the last 14 years.
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