Prosecutors: Nurse May Have Sought Revenge

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."