“Laredo 911, what’s the address of the emergency? ”
“It’s 1008 Sandalwood Drive, please. I’m scared she’s not breathing. ”
The caller was a man named Joel Paquette.
He told the dispatcher he’d found his wife, Maria, unresponsive on their bed. He said she’d been depressed and might have taken too many antidepressants. He was performing CPR when the first officer arrived. The neighborhood was usually quiet—kids played outside, there was a park nearby.
In September 2020, that calm shattered. Sergeant Luis Mata of the Laredo Police Department was called to the scene. His job was to investigate any unexpected death and rule out foul play. Nine times out of ten, there was no foul play.
But a thirty-year-old woman dying in her own home without warning raised questions. When the paramedics arrived, they continued trying to revive Maria. Joel hovered nearby, distraught. “I have two kids in the house, by the way,” he said.
“Can you give me a sheet? Just in case they wake up. I don’t want them to see that. ”
The medics couldn’t save her.
Maria was pronounced dead. Sergeant Mata approached Joel, offered his condolences, and began asking the standard questions. How did she die? Why did she die?
Joel wore scrubs, and he explained he was a nurse anesthetist. He and Maria were no longer living together, but they’d agreed to talk about their relationship after his shift. “We’re going through some problems,” Joel said. “I’ve been ignoring her.
She’s been super depressed. We had sex, we took a shower. I thought she was asleep. Then I found her like this.
”
He said Maria had been drinking and using pills to help her sleep. He gave the officer a bottle of Klonopin, claiming she’d taken some. But Sergeant Mata’s instincts kicked in. The shower Joel said he’d taken was completely dry.
There was a needle on the stairwell. Scattered nearby were syringe wrappers, the kind used in hospital settings. And on Maria’s arm, in the crease of her elbow, there was a single mark—the kind left by an IV or a needle. Why were there syringe wrappers in the home?
Why was the shower dry? Why was there a needle on the stairs? Something wasn’t adding up. Joel was taken to the station for further questioning.
He was hysterical, sobbing, insisting he loved his wife. But when Sergeant Mata asked him about the mark on Maria’s arm, Joel couldn’t explain it. “I feel like you’re not telling me something about that track mark,” Mata said. “What’s going on there?
”
“I don’t know,” Joel replied. “Did you kill Maria? ” Mata asked flatly. Joel seemed shocked.
“No, me? No, I loved her. I loved her. I would rather die than have my sons not have me than not have her.
”
With no evidence of wrongdoing, Joel was free to leave. Maria’s friends refused to accept the idea that she’d taken her own life. On the day she died, the detective’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Fifteen to twenty missed calls from friends who wanted to come forward.
Maria was loved. She was always happy, always encouraging, beautiful, smart, passionate. She loved her husband and her kids. She had a deep faith in God.
There was no sign that she was suicidal. When the team reviewed the case, they noticed something odd. Maria had several security cameras inside the home. One had been removed from the wall.
That was a red flag. Then they found Maria’s journal. It was filled with her love for God, her family, her trust in her husband. She believed that if you were good, you would not be harmed.
There was no suggestion of suicide. Sergeant Mata spoke to Joel’s former employer. Joel was bright, especially in pharmacology, yet he’d changed over time. He’d become obsessed with money, with becoming a millionaire, with his appearance.
He’d put blonde streaks in his hair, lost weight, gained muscle. He became aggressive, had confrontations with surgeons and physicians. It suggested he might be taking testosterone or anabolic steroids. Then came a bigger discovery: Joel had been having an affair with a nurse named Janet Arredondo.
He’d been caught texting on his phone while a patient flatlined during an emergency. He was fired. But he found work at another hospital and continued the affair. Maria eventually found out.
The investigation uncovered a video of Joel and Maria talking in a car. Maria was spilling her heart, begging to know what he wanted. Joel arrogantly ate his food, barely listening. “I have already forgiven you,” Maria said.
“You walk out that door, we’re getting a divorce. ”
He got mad, stormed out of the car, and slammed the door. Maria had filed for a divorce appointment with a local attorney. She was leaving him.
When she told Joel, he emailed her, saying he’d had time to think, that he wanted his marriage to work, that he wanted his family. He asked for one last heart-to-heart talk before she went to the attorney. The chief assistant district attorney believed that was a lie—just another example of Joel’s coercive control. When he felt he was losing control, he didn’t want that.
That wasn’t part of his plan. Sergeant Mata interviewed Janet Arredondo. She said Maria was depressed and refusing to let go of Joel. She said the reason Joel was still married was because Maria wouldn’t give him a divorce.
Then Mata told Janet that Maria was dead. Janet said she’d had a chance to talk to Maria two days before, and she wished she had. She described an incident when Maria came to Janet’s house. Janet didn’t open the door.
She called the police. The incident was recorded on her door camera. Maria had taken her sons to a Halloween pumpkin farm with Joel, but he cut the trip short, saying he had to go to work. Maria got suspicious and drove to Janet’s house.
She wanted to tell Janet she wouldn’t bother him anymore—Janet could have him—but she wanted them to be responsible and mature for the kids. The police body camera captured the interaction. When the officer called Maria to warn her about trespassing, Joel grabbed the phone. “Hey, I’m talking to you right now.
Hang up the phone. ”
He was in a rage. Then, when the officer called back, Joel’s demeanor flipped. He became calm, rational, cooperative.
The video also showed Janet texting Joel: “Hey, the police just heard you yelling. ”
Maria was officially warned not to return to Janet’s house. She said she understood, and the conversation ended. Within 24 to 48 hours, a lawyer called to say Janet wouldn’t be talking to police anymore.
The investigation was getting clearer: Janet had information she didn’t want them to know. Maria’s autopsy couldn’t determine a cause of death, so her blood was sent to the lab for toxicology. Meanwhile, Joel, as her next of kin, began making arrangements to have her cremated—almost immediately. Months passed.
The toxicology report was delayed. The investigation stalled. Then the results came back. There were zero traces of Klonopin in Maria’s body, contradicting everything Joel had told dispatchers, paramedics, and officers.
Instead, Maria was poisoned by a cocktail of drugs: ketamine, Versed, and propofol. The report also showed caffeine in her system. Maria’s friends mentioned she loved coffee. Investigators believed Joel brought her a coffee laced with sedatives.
Once she was unconscious, he injected her with propofol, which stops breathing. That was what killed her. This was flat-out murder. With this evidence, the team obtained a search warrant for Janet’s video surveillance.
But by the time they got there, most of Janet’s home video had been destroyed. The district attorney’s office made Janet a deal: if she was truthful and willing to testify, she would be immune from any charge except murder. Janet accepted. She told investigators that Joel said he met with Maria the night she died.
She became extremely upset. Joel told Maria, “Relax. Let me give you something to calm you down. ”
He went to the bathroom, came back, and injected Maria with a sedative.
“He told me he’d give her something to calm her down,” Janet said. “He came back. She was unconscious. He injected her.
”
She told them Joel had gotten rid of the needles and syringes. “Do you think it’s possible he killed his wife? ” the detective asked. “He did,” Janet said.
“He killed Maria. ”
It was the smoking gun. Police raced to arrest Joel, who was now staying with his parents. When his arrest was announced, Maria’s friends broke down crying.
There was hope for justice. Joel was charged with murder and tampering with evidence. During the nine-day trial, the prosecution showed the door cam footage—the last video of Maria alive. They showed how broken-hearted she was, how controlling Joel was, how he could switch from angry to calm in a second.
They showed the abusive dynamic of the relationship. The jury took less than two hours to reach a verdict. Guilty on both counts: murder and tampering. Joel was sentenced to life plus ten years.
Maria’s friends and family were left with the question of why. The motive, they believed, was to prevent the divorce and avoid losing financial resources. Money was power to Joel. He didn’t want Maria anymore, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either.
Some believed the testosterone abuse turned him into a monster. Others saw it as the inevitable outcome of a man who needed to control everything. Maria’s best friend still misses her every day. It’s hard when her son asks about her, or when they drive past familiar places, or when she looks at old pictures.
It’s a loss that can never be replaced.
