TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News
By JOE SIMNACHER jsimnacher@dallasnews.com
Staff Writer
Published: 07 January 2015
Patricia Ruth Hall “Trish” McLelland of Dallas devoted the last 21 years of her life to preventing predators from harming children.
The legal assistant started with a 1993 research assignment to build a database for a lawsuit against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. After that case was won, she continued to expand the list of church perpetrators, working evenings and weekends.
In 2004, the database was donated to BishopAccountability.org, making it available to the public. It has since grown to include data on priests around the world.
McLelland, 68, died Jan. 1 of natural causes at Grace Presbyterian Village.
A memorial will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Laurel Land Funeral Home, 6000 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway in Dallas.
“I don’t think it’s any exaggeration that the work she did certainly saved lives — it saved kids from being abused,” said Terry McKiernan, founder and president of BishopAccountability.org. “People use that database and find out that priest is now a counselor in a public school or something like that.”
McLelland was gentle and nice to everyone, but had a “steely determination to do the work she did,” McKiernan said.
“She was very, very focused on making sure that this terrible story that she had devoted her life to working on got told,” he said.
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