A pastor who came alone to a small church in southwest Oklahoma every Sunday on the chance that that someone would join her to pray was found slain inside the weathered building, police said Monday, but who would want to kill her was a mystery.

Police found 61-year-old Carol Daniels of Oklahoma City dead about noon Sunday inside the Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko, housed in an A-frame building just a block from the police station in the town of about 6,600 people.

Trauma to Daniels' body indicated foul play, said Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Brown would not disclose details, including how, when or where Daniels died. An autopsy was to be done Monday.

Daniels was found after police were asked to check on her, Brown said, but declined to say who requested that police do so. Police in Anadarko, about 60 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, referred all questions about the case to the state police agency.

While the church did not have a regular congregation, Brown said, Daniels was there every Sunday in case people came in to pray or hear a sermon.

"She went with the expectation of someone wanting to seek the Lord," her mother, Charlesetta Dunlap said."She felt that if she was there it gave them the opportunity.

"As the Lord leads, so she would do."

Kevin Cheadle of Anadarko, who attends St. Paul United Methodist Church, said Daniels sometimes visited that church and spoke. He said the last time she did so was this past spring, when she delivered a sermon on the Holy Spirit.

"She seemed to be a real nice person," Cheadle said."She was real quiet, but she knew how to bring the Word and give a good message. She was a very Christian lady that loved the Lord, I know that."

But at Christ Holy Sanctified Church, Daniels' car was usually the only vehicle at the church, said Mitchell Pendarvis, who lives next door.

The church, some of its paint peeling and its screen door torn, is in an area that is part business and part residential. It overlooks an area that includes two vacant homes and an abandoned car wash. The church is near an alley where Pendarvis said men sometimes congregate and drink.

"They sit back there, some of them sleep there," he said.

Dunlap said the church wasn't in the best area.

"Maybe that was why she had a mind to go there," she said."She felt the Lord had her going."

Anadarko usually has two or three homicides a year, Brown said, with the most recent being about a month ago _ a beating death in which a suspect was caught. About a half-mile from the church is an area that has a higher-than-normal crime rate, Brown said, with crimes involving drug activity.

Dunlap said she was concerned about her daughter going into the building by herself.

"You'd be concerned about anybody going into an area sometime," she said."We didn't have any reason to really be fearful that we knew of, but being a mother, I was concerned."

Brown said detectives were seeking to talk to people who live near the church and do more extensive interviews with family and friends. Officials spoke on Sunday with several people who gathered around the building after word about the slaying spread.

Many of them wept and hugged each other. A makeshift memorial consisting of a teddy bear and flowers had been set up in front of the church by Monday afternoon.

Vic Bryan, the owner of the nearby Linda's Swap Shop, said he'd met Daniels just once, when she came to his antique business to introduce herself. He recalled her as"a pleasant lady" and said the area is usually quiet.

"We've had very little trouble over the years with anything, especially anything like this," he said.

Dunlap said police haven't shared any information with the family about any details of the investigation.

Daniels was a graduate of Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. She is survived by her adult daughter, Raina.

Dunlap said her daughter spent most of her time helping others, such as working with the AARP.

"She just loved people," Dunlap said.

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