Aspiring Mexican singer and music producer Maria Mathus Tenorio, 25, decided to go on a solo adventure around the world to share her music. Sadly, the first country she set foot in was also the last.
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The first destination on her itinerary was Costa Rica, where, unfortunately, her body was found face down on the beach of El Carmen, in the popular surf resort of Santa Teresa del Cobano, just a week after she had started her journey, said the Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica.
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Aspiring Mexican singer and music producer Maria Mathus Tenorio, 25, decided to go on a solo adventure around the world to share her music. Sadly, the first country she set foot in was also the last.
The first destination on her itinerary was Costa Rica, where, unfortunately, her body was found face down on the beach of El Carmen, in the popular surf resort of Santa Teresa del Cobano, just a week after she had started her journey, said the Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica.
According to the police, Maria was with a British woman she had met while travelling when they were assaulted by two men who tried to rob them.
The British woman managed to escape and inform a security guard, asking for help. However, Mathus Tenorio was cornered and her attacker reportedly assaulted, raped, and then drowned Maria in the sea.
Official sources report that two suspects have been arrested for the crime, identified as Esquivel Cerdas, who is suspected of attacking the Mexican woman and Benavides Mendoza, who is accused of rape.
Maria posted a photo on Instagram before starting the trip with the message: "Today my trip starts after a long time wish to travel all around the planet alone.
Online image
According to the police, Maria was with a British woman she had met while travelling when they were assaulted by two men who tried to rob them.
Online image
The British woman managed to escape and inform a security guard, asking for help. However, Mathus Tenorio was cornered and her attacker reportedly assaulted, raped, and then drowned Maria in the sea.
Online image
Official sources report that two suspects have been arrested for the crime, identified as Esquivel Cerdas, who is suspected of attacking the Mexican woman and Benavides Mendoza, who is accused of rape.
Online image
Maria posted a photo on Instagram before starting the trip with the message: "Today my trip starts after a long time wish to travel all around the planet alone.
“The time has arrived to be full of nature. Costa Rica, pure life".
Online image
After the incident, hundreds of people, locals and foreigners participated in the “Marcha de Blanco” (Protest in White), in Santa Teresa, Cobano, Puntarenas, an event organized to pay tribute to María Trinidad Matus, which also had the purpose of raising awareness to battle insecurity and stop violence against women.
A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison.
Heather Pressdee, 41, was given three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars during a hearing in Butler, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh. She played a role in the deaths of at least 17 patients who lived in five health facilities in four counties between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said.
The victims ranged in age from 43 to 104. Coworkers often questioned Pressdee's conduct and said she frequently showed disdain for her patients and made derogatory comments about them, authorities said.
Pressdee, who could have faced a death sentence, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder. She initially was charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third. Further investigation led to dozens of more charges against her. During a February hearing in which she argued with her attorneys, she indicated that she wanted to plead guilty.
Pressdee said little as she entered her pleas, responding to most questions with a single word. When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, “Because I am guilty.”
The plea hearing was expected to last through Friday because several people wanted to give victim impact statements, officials said. Some who spoke in court Thursday told Pressdee that she had wrongly tried to play God, noting that although some of her victims were elderly or very ill, none were ready to die.
Pressdee didn't look at the speakers or react to their comments, even when one shouted an expletive at her that led the courtroom gallery to break out in applause, according to news reports.
Another speaker told the court: “She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified. ... “I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father.”
Prosecutors alleged that Pressdee, of Harrison, gave excessive amounts of insulin to patients, including some who weren't diabetic. She typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts, when staffing was low and the emergencies wouldn't prompt immediate hospitalization.
Her nursing license was suspended early last year, not long after the initial charges were filed.
According to court documents, Pressdee sent her mother texts between April 2022 and May 2023 in which she discussed her unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and spoke about potentially harming them. She also voiced similar complaints about people she encountered at restaurants and other places.
Pressdee had a history of being “disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated,” prosecutors said in court documents. Beginning in 2018, Pressdee held a number of jobs at western Pennsylvania nursing homes and facilities for short periods, according to the documents.
Other health care workers have been convicted of killing patients. Among them is William Davis, a Texas nurse who was convicted of capital murder in 2021 for injecting air into the arteries of four patients after they underwent heart surgery. He was sentenced to death but is appealing his conviction. Another nurse, Charles Cullen, killed at least 29 nursing home patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but some experts believe he may have killed many more.
This image provided by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office shows Heather Pressdee. The Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday, May 2, 2024 and sentenced to life in prison. (Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office via AP)
