Windsor nurse stabbed to death in hospital
WINDSOR— Hôtel- Dieu Grace hospital staff are reeling after a nurse was killed in a recovery room and a physician seriously injured, in what police are calling a murder/ attempted suicide here yesterday.
Lori Arlene Dupont, 36, of nearby Amherstburg, Ont., is dead of stab wounds and a staff physician — the suspect — remains unconscious and in intensive care at Hôtel- Dieu.
Details are sketchy at this point but police say it appears the yet-unnamed doctor attacked the nurse with a knife very soon after she started her shift in the recovery room at 8: 30 a. m. yesterday. The suspect immediately fled the hospital. Police suspect he overdosed on a drug but are awaiting toxicology results. He was found soon after the incident, comatose, near Windsor’s Caron St. pumping station.
At least one person witnessed part of the attack, police said, but, despite immediate medical treatment, Dupont died almost immediately from the multiple stab wounds.
Police say she was attacked without warning by the doctor. Investigators believe he may have brought a knife from outside the hospital.
“ The officer that looked at it, to his knowledge, it didn’t look like a hospital instrument, just like a regular knife” said Windsor Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton. The doctor was found about 45 minutes later near the Detroit River after a relative he contacted while fleeing called 911 to say the doctor was at Caron pumping station needing medical attention. Police and an ambulance crew arrived together. They found the doctor unconscious in his parked car with no visible signs of injury.
Afirst- degree murder charge is pending should the 50- year- old suspect recover. One account said he is an anesthesiologist.
Police have no confirmed motive for the attack but have stated the unconscious doctor is the only suspect in their homicide investigation. There is unconfirmed speculation from coworkers that the doctor and nurse may have been romantically involved at some point.
This is Windsor’s fourth murder this year.