Seattle nurse dies from burns in Puerto Rico attack

Kate Donahue, the popular Group Health nurse who suffered massive burns in a New Year's Day attack in Puerto Rico, died Thursday in a Miami hospital.

Donahue, 25, went into organ failure Thursday and then "slipped away," according to her aunt, Patrice Moore. She had been airlifted from Puerto Rico to the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Burn Center in critical condition Tuesday.

"She did go peacefully," Moore said. "She was still unconscious ... she was in no pain."

Donahue, of Seattle, died with her parents and brother talking to her by her side, though she could not respond, Moore said. With burns on more than 80 percent of her body, Donahue had been in a medically induced coma.

She died shortly before noon Seattle time Thursday, said Sandra Fiedler, the hospital's spokeswoman. "The Donahue family would like to thank everyone around the country for their outpouring of support and prayers," Fiedler said.

Donahue's death follows the death Tuesday of her fiancé, Jesus Sanchez, 28, of Seattle, and three others.

Several people were critically injured when Sanchez's uncle, Justino Sanchez Diaz, torched a celebratory family dinner. According to friends, the uncle had purportedly planned the gathering to mark the new year, two family members' birthdays and the couple's engagement. As the dinner got under way, he set the party ablaze with kerosene and a 20-pound propane tank, police said.

Donahue was in Puerto Rico with Sanchez to meet his family just weeks after their engagement.

"She was really excited to meet Jesus' family," said her friend Lisa Angeles, of Federal Way.

"Such a joy for life"

Group Health, where Donahue had worked as a licensed practical nurse for less than a year, is offering counseling to employees, spokesman Mike Foley said.

"We are devastated. Katie was one of our family members," said Shawn Boice, clinical operations manager for Family Health at Capitol Hill, in an internal message to employees.

Staff and leaders are discussing ways to "honor Kate's love of and commitment to nursing," the message read.

Kathy Smail, a registered nurse at a California hospital, knew Donahue from Santa Rosa Junior College's nursing program.

"She was just a vivacious young person and had such a joy for life and an enthusiasm for nursing, and it was really great to see," Smail said. "She was just a tremendous blessing, and the teachers loved her."

Smail said Donahue wanted to become a registered nurse like her mother, Michelle Donahue. The fact that she never made it that far was "a huge loss to the nursing profession," she said.

The grief caused by Donahue's death extends well beyond work. Rob McMurray, 25, lived with Donahue and Sanchez in Sanchez's Seattle condo and said he misses them "terribly."

McMurray moved in with Sanchez in June after he saw a Craigslist posting and before Sanchez and Donahue had started dating. Donahue later moved in, but not before Sanchez cleared it with McMurray — even though the condo belonged to Sanchez, McMurray said.

"He was so considerate," said McMurray, recalling a time when Sanchez offered to drive him to the airport at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

Angeles, a bartender at Chopstix in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne's neighborhood, agreed the two were "amazing" people. The couple frequented the dueling piano bar every Thursday night, and it was a Thursday in November when Sanchez proposed.

The bar will also hold a fundraiser at 6 p.m. Jan. 13, when the piano players will donate all of their tips, and Chopstix will donate a portion of its proceeds to an account Moore and Donahue's grandmother set up. That money will go toward funeral and transportation costs, or anything the families need, Angeles said.

Terrible scene

The attack "was like a horror movie," Viviana Bruno, a neighbor in the central Puerto Rican town of Florida, told The Associated Press.

The victims ran out of the house one by one, their hair and clothes burned off.

"Everyone came out yelling, 'He's crazy! He's crazy!' " Bruno, 31, said.

The first person out of the two-story home was Samuel Molina, who was celebrating his 32nd birthday, according to Primerahora.com, a Puerto Rican news source.

He ran across the street to his house, where Bruno and other neighbors laid him on the cool tile floor, opened a hose and poured water on him.

" 'Don't let me die,' he kept saying," Bruno recalled.

Molina was the first to die. Also dead are the suspect's elderly mother and teenage niece.

Police said that before the family gathered for dinner, Sanchez Diaz had doused the walls with gasoline and set canisters with fuel under furniture, including the dining-room table. As the group sat down to eat, he came out with a tank of propane gas, doused the people with kerosene and set them on fire with a homemade torch.

"It was something nobody expected," local police Lt. Francisco Rosado said. "We haven't even had five murders in the last decade."

Family members have not speculated on a motive, and police say Sanchez Diaz has kept silent and refused to eat since his arrest.

Florida's mayor, Jose Aragon Parga, said the community is still in shock.

"We have not had one violent death, and in one day, several people die," he said. "Nobody thought it could happen."

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

Olivia Bobrowsky: 206-464-3195 or obobrowsky@seattletimes.com