Naman Shrestha
In 1994, a small town in California was shaken to its core after three horrific murders of elderly women surfaced within a short span of time. With the police trying their best to follow the leads, a fourth intended victim managed to survive the attack and helped them put an end to the brutal killings. It was only later discovered that a former nurse named Dana Sue Gray was responsible for a couple of the murders. The entire case is explored in a detailed manner in the episode titled ‘The Angel of Death’ of ‘Very Scary People,’ which also sheds light on the crimes from the perspective of other individuals directly or indirectly connected to the case.
Dana Sue Gray Aspired to Become a Nurse Since Her Teenage Years
Before Dana Sue Gray turned murderous and went on a killing spree in the Canyon Lake area, she was a labor and delivery nurse at Inland Valley Regional Medical Center. Born on December 6, 1957, in California, she was brought into the world by Beverly and Russell Armbrust. Ever since she witnessed her own mother getting treated and taken care of by nurses while she battled breast cancer, 14-year-old Dana had decided to become one herself. After losing her mother to cancer, she got involved in drugs and even got pregnant twice with a skydiving instructor, who made her terminate both her pregnancies.
After graduating from Newport Harbor High School, she earned her nursing degree in 1981. A few years later, she married Tom Gray, from whom she would get divorced after nearly six years, and became a nurse at the Inland Valley Regional Medical Center. Her desire to keep feeding herself drugs cost her her job, as on November 24, 1993, she was caught misappropriating several opiate painkillers. This was the turning point in her life. Less than three months later, she allegedly killed her first victim, Norma Davis, on Valentine’s Day of 1994 by strangling and stabbing her multiple times.
One of Dana’s Victims Survived and Helped the Police Apprehend Her
A couple of weeks later, on February 28, 1994, the authorities found the dead body of another elderly woman, June Roberts, who was also strangled and bludgeoned. After both murders, Dana stole the victims’ valuables and credit cards to go on a shopping spree. Next, she chose 58-year-old Dorinda Hawkins as her victim. She strangled the elderly woman with a telephone cord on March 10 at a Lake Elsinore antique store where she worked. Assuming that she had died, Dana stole some cash from her purse and the cash register to go shopping. However, Dorinda managed to survive and reported the incident to the police, providing them with a description of her attacker.
While the police began investigating, Dana took out her last victim, Dora Beebe, inside her Sun City condo on March 16. Just like her previous victims, she had strangled the 87-year-old woman and beaten her to death. She then proceeded to withdraw $1,700 from her bank account and went on a shopping spree. As the investigators connected the dots, they were led straight to Dana, whose house they searched, and found clues that linked her to her victims. After Dorinda positively identified the killer from a photo line-up, Dana Sue Gray was finally arrested and charged with the three murders on March 17, 1994, putting an end to her killing and shopping spree.
Dana Sue Gray is Living the Rest of Her Days at a California Prison Facility
Although Dana Sue Gray initially denied killing any of the three women, she eventually pleaded guilty in 1998 in exchange for not prosecuting her of Norma Davis’ murder and removing the possibility of the death penalty. All in all, she admitted to killing June Roberts and Dora Beebe and attempting to murder Dorinda Hawkins. Subsequently, on October 16, 1998, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. While she has been locked up in prison for more than two decades, she has studied for a degree in sociology and has been wanting to pursue a master’s degree as well.
Trying to redeem herself for her brutal crimes, she fights for the rights of her fellow female inmates. She also told the Independent, “It’s time for a rebranding. We have more to offer the community and want to help. We can change division, change people’s thoughts about committing crime. We could stop it from happening. It’s possible, I truly believe it. I think I would do a lot of good. And it’s not like I wouldn’t reach back and help the ones still inside. I would.”
On the other hand, she has raised her voice against trans women who did not get their gender surgery done in women’s prisons. During her time behind bars, she claimed that several of her inmates consider her to be a motherly figure. As of now, Dana Sue Gray is serving her sentence at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, claiming to have become a changed human being.
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