Posted on 09/26/2006 9:55:57 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Sept. 25, 2006 — It sounds like a plot straight out of a soap opera: A nurse crosses paths with a former schoolmate in a recovery room, and the patient winds up dead.
Was it an accident or was an old high school grudge a motive for murder?
Right now, investigators in Charlotte, N.C., think it may be the latter.
Looking at Olympic High School yearbooks from 1972 and 1973, it would appear that Sandra Baker and Sally Jordan had everything going for them.
Both were extremely pretty and moved in the same circles. They even reportedly dated the same young man.
But Baker was the queen bee — the popular head cheerleader — while Jordan remained in her shadow.
She didn't make the cheerleading squad and had to settle for the flag corps, a less prominent status.
The two women's paths didn't cross for 30 years, until Baker underwent a mini-facelift at a Charlotte, N.C. clinic.
Jordan, in a surprising twist of fate, was her nurse.
After her procedure, Baker was fine and talking in the recovery room.
Suddenly, she went into cardiac arrest.
Jordan, the nurse in the recovery room at the time, was cited for moving slowly, even continuing to eat a biscuit, instead of working to save Baker.
Still, the death was ruled an accident.
"There was an autopsy, and the medical examiner said it was an accidental poisoning," said Melissa Manware, a reporter for The Charlotte Observer.
Now, authorities have arrested Jordan for murder.
The suspected motive is a 30-year-old high school grudge between the former classmates, allegedly involving an old boyfriend.
"A nurse who worked with Sally and was interviewed on the case [said] that she was told that Sally was overheard saying that Sandra was the one who stole her boyfriend," Manware said.
Dr. Casey Jordan, a criminologist, says women have been known to hold grudges with catastrophic results.
"We have this saying that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and that's really come about because women can be extremely vindictive," Jordan said.
Authorities are not confirming there was a grudge between Baker and Jordan.
But that's not stopping Charlotte residents from watching the case with growing interest.
"Everybody has a grudge or had a beef with someone back in high school so I think people can identify with this story," Manware said. "They're very curious about it."
Some people never leave high school.....
She shouldn't have said that, especially if she was going to do anything bad. I find that to be a very weak motive for murder, but you never know. Some people are just nuts.
Truly creepy story. High school problems should be left in the past.
Boy! I really want my fate resting on this sort of double hearsay.If I were an investigator, I think I would be looking at the relationship of the purveyor of the hearsay and the accused ...
this brief article had nothing in it that points to murder .
....
Sally Jordan Hill, the accused on the left. Sally Jordan Hill, the deceased on the right.
More on this story: source:http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/15477059.htm?source=rss&channel=charlotte_news!
Three decades ago, Sandra Baker Joyner and Sally Jordan Hill were high school classmates. Five years ago, Joyner died after cosmetic surgery at a clinic where Hill worked.
On Friday, police charged Hill with murder.
Hill had administered Joyner's anesthesia during a mini-face-lift at the Center for Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery in Charlotte. Joyner, 45, stopped breathing in the recovery room and later died.
She had been given an excessive dose of a narcotic, which caused respiratory arrest.
The state Medical Examiner's Office ruled the April 2001 death an accidental poisoning. But Friday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said it was intentional.
Hill, 50, of Matthews was arrested Friday and charged in Joyner's death. Hill had worked as a certified nurse anesthetist, police said, and had been monitoring Joyner in recovery.
Detective Chuck Henson, who investigated the case, said the outpatient surgical procedure went well and that Joyner was talking when she was moved to the recovery room.
Moments later, she became unresponsive.
The center's staff performed a series of life-saving procedures, and Joyner was rushed to Mercy Hospital, Henson said. She died five days later, when doctors ended life support.
Sandra Baker, the deceased on the left; and Sally Jordan, the accused on the right, in their high school yearbook photos from 1972.
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