Virginia Bayless was an 84-year-old patient in the intensive care unit at Community Hospital of the Valleys in Perris when she died in the early morning of April 20, 1981. Admitted comatose after a stroke and a possible heart attack, she required close nursing care. Staff discovered Bayless unresponsive after a nearby patient, Henry Castro, suffered violent seizures and cardiac arrest; Bayless was pronounced dead at 1:38 a.m.

Toxicology on a blood sample found an extraordinarily high concentration of lidocaine, a powerful antiarrhythmic, despite no record in her chart or recollection from treating staff that the drug had been prescribed or given. Prosecutors later argued Bayless received more than 1,000 milligrams shortly before death, a dose described as massive and rapidly lethal; the defense pointed to gaps in documentation and suggested therapeutic administration might explain some findings. The case formed part of a wider investigation into a spike in suspicious patient deaths at the Perris hospital while nurse Robert Rubane Diaz worked nights.

Did anyone at Community Hospital of the Valleys remember Bayless or have information about her care in April 1981?