Marguerite “Peggy” Laskovich, an 80-year-old White/Caucasian female, died on January 21, 2023, after her stay at Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler Township, Pennsylvania became part of a much larger criminal investigation into former nurse Heather Pressdee. Marguerite had been admitted to the facility in the final stretch of her life, and what first appeared to family members as a decline inside a nursing home later became tied to allegations that Pressdee was using insulin as a weapon against vulnerable patients under her care.
According to reports on the civil lawsuit filed by Marguerite’s son, Keith Laskovich, her condition worsened rapidly while she was at Sunnyview. In the days before her death, her family allegedly saw signs that something was terribly wrong. The lawsuit claimed she appeared overmedicated and drugged, and two days before she died, Keith found her bloodied, with broken teeth and two black eyes. Pressdee reportedly said Marguerite had fallen, but the lawsuit alleged that the facility did not provide adequate intervention or transfer her to a hospital for treatment.
As Marguerite neared death, Pressdee allegedly contacted Keith and urged him to bring the family to Sunnyview because his mother was failing. With relatives gathered in the room, Pressdee gave Marguerite an injection, which Keith later came to believe was a lethal dose of short-acting insulin. Marguerite died a short time later. Later reporting and lawsuits connected her death to Pressdee’s alleged pattern of administering excessive insulin to residents, including people who did not need it.
Heather Irene Pressdee, a registered nurse from Natrona Heights, became the suspect in a sweeping investigation involving patients at several care facilities in western Pennsylvania. Authorities said she intentionally administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to 22 patients at facilities in Butler, Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties beginning in 2020. Seventeen of those patients died. Investigators and lawsuits described a disturbing pattern in which patients declined suddenly after contact with Pressdee, and coworkers reportedly raised concerns about her behavior, her comments about residents, and the frequency of deaths among people she treated.
Pressdee was first arrested in May 2023 in connection with deaths and injuries at Quality Life Services in Chicora. As the investigation expanded, prosecutors linked her to additional deaths, including patients at Sunnyview. She was accused of using her position as a nurse and caregiver to access medically fragile residents and inject them with insulin in amounts that could cause severe hypoglycemia, unconsciousness, medical collapse and death. Reports also described allegations that she made cruel or alarming remarks about residents, including comments that certain patients needed to die or did not deserve to live.
Marguerite’s family pursued civil action against Sunnyview, alleging negligence in hiring, supervising and retaining Pressdee despite a history of employment problems and alleged warning signs. Lawsuits connected to Sunnyview claimed Pressdee had moved through numerous healthcare facilities in a short period, sometimes being fired or forced to resign, yet was still placed in a position of authority over residents. The litigation alleged that management failed to adequately act on concerns from staff and failed to protect residents from Pressdee’s conduct.
In the criminal case, Pressdee ultimately pleaded guilty on May 2, 2024, to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder. She received three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional consecutive sentence of 380 to 760 years. The plea deal spared her from a potential death penalty trial, but ensured she would remain imprisoned for life. While the murder convictions were tied to three patients for whom prosecutors said they could prove the most direct legal connection, Marguerite’s death remained among the deaths publicly linked to Pressdee’s broader course of conduct and the civil claims against Sunnyview.
By the time Pressdee was sentenced, Marguerite’s death was no longer viewed as an isolated nursing-home tragedy. It had become part of a grim pattern in which families said their loved ones were entrusted to care facilities for help, only to be harmed by someone placed in charge of protecting them. Marguerite was remembered in her obituary as a Pittsburgh-born retiree, a former business and customer service worker, and an animal lover who had been active in dog breeding and conservation-related organizations. Her family’s lawsuit sought accountability not only for the injection believed to have ended her life, but for the alleged failures that allowed Pressdee to keep caring for vulnerable patients until more people were dead or injured.
