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Former Hospice Nurse In Ventura County Charged With Manslaughter, Drug Dealing

A former hospice nurse in Ventura County has been arrested on manslaughter, and drug dealing charges for the drug overdose death of a woman.

In July of 2015, Della Reese was found dead in a Ventura apartment from an overdose. Ventura Police and Ventura County Interagency Pharmaceutical Crimes Unit investigators began trying to determine the source of the drugs.

Detectives say they linked Sandra Rothweiler to the death. They say she had been a hospice nurse for Reese’s mother, and the nurse and the daughter became friends.

Following a long investigation, Ventura County prosecutors filed manslaughter, and drug dealing charges against the Oxnard woman, and she was arrested on the charges Friday. Detectives say Rothweiler was hoarding leftover drugs like morphine and Xanax from some of her hospice patients after they died.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.