Calgary woman badly beaten at posh resort

CALGARY — With the Prairies locked in a winter deep freeze last week, Sheila and Andrew Nabb snapped up a last- minute trip to an all- inclusive resort on sunsoaked Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The couple left chilly Calgary on Thursday and arrived at their five- star beachside accommodations, the Hotel Riu Emerald Bay resort in Mazatlan.

By Friday morning, something had gone horribly wrong.

At some point in the night, Sheila Nabb left her hotel room. She was found, knocked out and bloodied, inside a hotel elevator.

The 37- year- old office manager at Calgary’s Active Back to Health Centre had been brutally beaten. Several facial bones were shattered. Authorities in Mexico have so far provided few clues about what happened, and why.

Family and friends are reeling from the attack and say they have no idea why anyone would hurt Nabb.

“Why, we don’t know. No idea at all,” said her uncle, Robert Prosser, speaking from his Kingston, N. S., home.

“Sheila is probably the nicest person you could ever meet in your life. Everybody loved her.”

She is now in the intensive care unit at Mazatlan’s Hospital Sharp. Medical staff put her in an induced coma.

It could be a month before she is fit to return to Calgary for further treatment, said Prosser.

“They’re going to have to wire her jaw shut, put plates in where cheeks were and lots of reconstructive surgery.”

Nabb’s husband is at her side and her father- in- law has rushed to Mexico to help.

In Calgary, friends and co- workers say they are stunned by the attack.

The Nabbs were excited to leave on the last- minute, welldeserved vacation, said Dr. David Peterson, clinic director at the centre where Sheila worked the last three years.

“She is so well- loved and highly regarded by patients and staff alike,” said Peterson.

“You would be hard- pressed to find a nicer person than Sheila. She’s down- to- earth, sweet and very hard- working.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Sheila and Andrew during this devastating time.”

Nabb’s family is now focused on bringing her back home.

“That’s the main concern right now, to get her well enough and stable enough to get her to Calgary,” said her uncle.

A hotel worker who answered the phone said he had no information about what happened to Nabb.

The resort is equipped with surveillance cameras. Security guards patrol the hotel and guests are required to wear a bracelet that allows entrance, the worker said.

Nabb’s case comes on the heels of highly publicized incidents involving Canadians in Mexico, including the slaying of a Mexico- born B. C. student whose body was discovered on a beach in Oaxaca earlier this month.

In January 2011, a Penticton man was injured when he was caught in the crossfire of a gangland execution in Mazatlan.

Nabb’s uncle said the violence is troubling, especially considering the Calgarian was inside a secure luxury resort.

Tourists should think twice about visiting Mexico, Prosser said.