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The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced on Thursday, May 25, 2023, that former Quality Life Services nurse Heather Pressdee was detained for allegedly murdering two patients. According to Kiro7, Pressdee is accused of administering lethal doses of insulin to at least three patients, killing two of them. The 40-year-old has been charged with two counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder.
Trigger warning: This article mentions the homicide of people with severe medical conditions. Discretion is advised.
Upon being interrogated by the Pennsylvania authorities, Heather Pressdee reportedly said that she killed the patients because she pitied their "quality of life." The deceased patients were a 55-year-old non-verbal man with a severe medical condition and an 83-year-old in hospice care. Another 73-year-old victim, who survived the lethal dose of insulin, was in Covid isolation at the time of the attempted murder.
The timeline of the allegations against Heather Pressdee
According to WPXI, Heather Pressdee worked as the assistant director of nursing at Quality Life Services from May 23 to November 28, 2022. Investigators noted that prior to being hired by the organization, she had a history of abusing patience and staff at other healthcare facilities. This reportedly led to her being terminated from several jobs.
Law&Crime reported that the first incident happened in August 2022. Two hours after Heather Pressdee clocked out of work, Quality of Life Services staff discovered the 73-year-old hospice patient suffering from seizures, and low blood sugar.
This peaked the staff's suspicion, who noted that the victim had no recorded medical history of diabetes or seizures. The patient was transported to a hospital, where his blood sugar was brought back to normal by professionals.
Pressdee's second and third alleged victims were reportedly targeted on November 20, 2022. The two patients were discovered to be suffering from low blood sugar approximately three hours after Heather Pressdee's last shift.
They were transported to a hospital, where doctors suspected that they had been administered insulin. The 55-year-old patient died on December 4, 2022, while the 83-year-old patient was pronounced dead on December 25, 2022.
After her arrest, Pressdee agreed to talk to investigators. She also signed forms that permitted authorities to search her property and vehicles. In an interview, Pressdee reportedly told detectives that she saw her crime spree as being well-intentioned.
The criminal complaint said:
“(Pressdee) stated that she felt bad for their quality of life and she had hoped that they would just slip into a coma and pass away."
Pressdee is currently being held without bail at the Butler County Prison. Along with the murder and attempted murder charges, she also faces charges of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, and three counts of reckless endangerment.
