Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and Getty
- Aged care worker Heather Pressdee has been dubbed a ‘killer nurse’ following the death of 17 patients in her care
- The calculated killer administered a lethal amount of insulin to patients across a number of care facilities
- She was jailed more than 760 years for her heinous crimes
It was quiet as nurse Heather Pressdee walked the halls of the care facility where she worked.
The 40-year-old often took the night shift, enjoying the peace as residents slept.
Originally trained as a veterinary nurse, Heather had worked with animals of all shapes and sizes for 14 years.
But her job also came with a downside.
When pets at the end of their life were brought in, it was Heather’s job to euthanise them – a heartbreaking but often necessary part of the role.
Soon though, the job took its toll, and Heather decided to retrain as a registered nurse to help humans instead.
After completing a degree, Heather worked for several care homes over the next few years before moving to Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in January 2023.
Working as the unit manager, it was Heather’s job to oversee the licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants on her unit, as well as seeing to residents’ medical needs when required.
Only much like her former profession, working in aged care often ended in tragedy when residents passed on.
The losses seemed to impact Heather greatly.
After one resident, Irene Simons, passed away in March that year, Heather sent flowers and a card to the funeral home where Irene’s family were grieving.
In loving memory of Irene Elizabeth Simons. She will be missed. Love Heather, she wrote.
This wasn’t the first patient who’d passed while in her care and, sadly, it wasn’t to be her last.
Over the next few months, three more of Heather’s patients slipped away.
While it just seemed like a string of unfortunate events to most, some of Heather’s colleagues found the deaths suspicious.
Was it really a coincidence that Heather was in charge when these residents took their final breaths?
Some co-workers even went as far as to dub Heather the ‘killer nurse’.
Another patient, 43-year-old Nicholas Cymbol, died in May 2023.
His records showed that he died from an overdose of insulin, which had been administered by Heather.
Nicholas’ family were devastated.
But unbeknown to them, Heather’s conduct was already being investigated by detectives after the relatives of another former patient of hers had died at another facility.
What they uncovered was shocking.
Despite her outwardly caring demeanour, Heather was deeply unhappy.
She would openly complain about her distaste for her career, texting her mother about unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and would lament about wanting to harm them.
Her workmate’s also noticed Heather was unhappy and unfriendly.
This had led to her being fired or forced to resign from several local medical facilities before arriving at Sunnyview.
In May 2023, Heather Pressdee, 40, was arrested and charged with two counts of homicide, a count of attempted murder, a count of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, and three counts of reckless endangerment.
She’d been accused of administering lethal doses of unnecessary medication – insulin – at a previous workplace, Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility.
But that was only the beginning.
Pressdee confessed to trying to kill 19 others, aged between 43 and 100, across a number of facilities where she’d worked between 2020 and 2023.
Digging further, investigators uncovered her true depravity in the texts she sent to her mother, detailing her desire to kill patients and co-workers.
Writing about one of the patients who followed her around, Pressdee told her mother, I may kill this resident.
In another, Pressdee said of one of the residents who was yelling, I drugged him already and I don’t know how he is awake.
In May 2024, Heather Irene Pressdee, then 41, pleaded guilty to three counts of first degree murder and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder.
Prosecutors said that at least 17 patients who were cared for by Pressdee died.
Her guilty plea meant she avoided the death penalty, but a Butler County judge sentenced Pressdee to three life sentences for the first degree murder charges, and up to 760 years for criminal attempt to commit murder.
When asked why she carried out such heinous acts, Pressdee claimed she believed their deaths were a mercy killing.
‘I’m very sorry,’ Pressdee said in court. ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done.’
But no apology would heal the broken hearts of the loved ones who’d lost a family member to the twisted killer.
‘The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care,’ prosecution lawyer Michelle Henry said in a statement.
‘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.’
Melinda Brown, the sister of Nicholas Cymbol, labelled Pressdee as ‘pure evil’.
Elizabeth Simons Ozella, the daughter of victim Irene Simons, told WTAE she’ll ‘never forgive’ Pressdee for what she did.
‘We’re angry and hurt that she disguised herself as a caring nurse,’ she said.
‘She took someone from this earth that she had no right to take, and she played God when she didn’t have that right.’
