Texas native, missionary among those killed in Joplin tornado

Brownsville, Texas, newspapers are reporting that a native of that community, Joplin resident Sharyl San Miguel Nelson, was among those killed by the tornado Sunday:

San Miguel Nelsen spent the first 14 years of her live in Brownsville. She did missionary work in Budapest, Hungary, before moving with her parents to Joplin, Mo. She met her husband Chad Nelsen in Joplin and lived and worked there.


"The town looks like a war zone. It is devastated," (her father) Terry Reed said in a telephone interview with the Brownsville Herald, from Joplin. He said Sharyl’s mother has been crying and is too emotional to talk.

"Her husband confirmed that she had been killed," Reed said.

The couple drove overnight from Pharr, Texas to Joplin to be with Sharyl’s husband and their children Maddy and Aaron. They still have not been able to recover her body, Reed said.