A nurse who was fatally stabbed in an Ontario hospital last weekend used to work at Whitehorse General Hospital.

Lori Dupont, 36, was working in the patient recovery room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ont., last Saturday morning.

At around 9 a.m., a 50-year-old anesthesiologist whom she had dated entered the recovery room carrying a double-edged military-style dagger.

There was another nurse and a clerk working in the area at the time.

'Everything happened so quickly,' Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton of the Windsor police told the Star this morning. 'The nurse that was in there heard her scream and looked over and saw what was happening.'

The nurse started treating Dupont immediately as Dr. Mark Daniel casually walked away, McNorton said.

The nurse is reported to have told Windsor police Daniel said nothing before stabbing Dupont.

Despite emergency attempts to save Dupont, she died quickly.

She was stabbed numerous times in the chest and back, and also had defensive wounds on her arms, McNorton said from his Windsor office.

The wounds were too severe, he explained, and the blood loss too great to save her.

After attacking Dupont, Daniel left the hospital and drove to a parking lot near the Detroit River. He fell unconscious in his car after an injection of unknown lethal drugs.

Before injecting the drugs, he phoned his ex-wife and told her he was suicidal.

She notified police, McNorton said, who had to break a window to get inside the car.

While police said they were going to charge Daniel with murder if he regained consciousness, he later died.

Dupont, a single mother with an eight-year-old daughter, had worked in the Windsor hospital for five years.

Before that, she had worked at Whitehorse General for about five years, according to Cathy Bradbury, who worked with Dupont while she lived in the territory until around 2000.

Dupont, who worked primarily with adults in the east wing of the hospital, was described as 'very well-respected' by her colleagues.

'She was very open-hearted, and her patients felt that,' Bradbury said.

When news that an Ontario nurse had been killed reached the territory earlier this week, people were shocked, Bradbury said.

'It was shocking and horrible,' she said. 'But it never occurred to me that I would know who she was.'

Dupont had been worried for her safety for months before she was killed. She had applied for a restraining order against Daniel and had hospital security guards escort her to her car.

According to police, however, Dupont could not get a court date before December.

Daniel was asked to take a leave of absence from the hospital but returned to work last June after a report from his psychiatrist saying he would be OK if he continued with counselling and treatment, Neil McEnvo , the hospital's president and CEO, told media this week.

'Did we do what we could do knowing what we did beforehand? I believe the answer is yes,' McEnvoy is reported to have told the National Post.

Bradbury said the nurses' association in the Yukon is planning a tribute or memorial for Dupont. It's too soon now, she said, to decide what form it will take. Suggestions include creating a fund in her name and putting a bench down by the Yukon River.

Dupont had a great love of the outdoors, Bradbury explained.

'We want to do something for the incredibly special person she was,' Bradbury told the Star. 'She had tremendous joy in her and she was warm and giving in ways that are really uncommon.'

Specifically, Bradbury remembered the support Dupont gave her when she became a foster parent without much time to prepare. Bradbury's foster child was about the same age as Dupont's daughter.

'She was the one person who would be there for me,' Bradbury said, adding that Dupont had cared for her little boy on numerous occasions.

Since the suspect is dead, McNorton said, the role of police is finished.

The coroner's office is still continuing to investigate, however, and has not yet decided if an inquest will be called.

The event has deeply affected the people of Windsor, McNorton said.

'This was an extremely traumatic event in our community, especially the medical community. The nurses were and still are in shock,' he said.

'It's a real tragedy.'