“CAREGIVER TURNED KILLER!” Ex-Nurse Gets Life for Killing 3, Trying to Kill 19 More in PA

A Pennsylvania nurse accused of killing three patients at skilled nursing facilities across the state and attempting to kill 19 others in her care pled guilty on Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison, according to a news release from Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry.

Heather Pressdee, a former nurse, was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for first-degree murder and 380 to 760 years for attempted murder, according to a press statement.

“The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care,” the judge stated. “This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm.”

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Pressdee pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, her lawyer Phillip DiLucente told CNN on Thursday. Pressdee was charged with knowingly providing lethal or potentially lethal dosages of medication to patients in five different care facilities between 2020 and 2023.

Pressdee administered the insulin to patients in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, and Westmoreland counties, according to the announcement. She was initially accused in May 2023 of homicide and attempted murder after two men died and a third was hospitalized, according to CNN. Pressdee has been detained since her May arrest.

In the criminal complaint filed against the former nurse, Henry’s office stated that Pressdee admitted to “harming, with the intent to kill” the 19 patients, who ranged in age from 43 to 104.

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According to the criminal complaint, she frequently administered insulin during the facilities’ low-staffed night shift hours while working the medicine cart.

“Pressdee often took steps to ensure her victims would expire before shift change so that they wouldn’t be sent to the hospital where her scheme could be discovered through medical testing such as C-peptide tests,” according to the complaint filed with the court.

“Numerous relatives of the victims” submitted impact statements this week in Butler County Court, according to the attorney general’s news release, sharing the “pain and anguish caused by learning their loved one’s death was not natural, but was caused by a criminal act.”