Canadian badly beaten in Mexican resort

Enlarge Image

Facebook photo Sheila Nabb, seen with her husband, Andrew, was badly beaten in a five-star resort in Mazatlan, Mexico.

CALGARY -- With the Prairies locked in a winter deep freeze last week, Sheila and Andrew Nabb snapped up a last-minute trip to an all-inclusive resort on sun-soaked Mexico's Pacific coast.

The couple left chilly Calgary on Thursday and arrived at their five-star beachside accommodations, the Hotel Riu Emerald Bay resort in Mazatlan.

By Friday morning, something went horribly wrong.

At some point in the night, Sheila Nabb had emerged from her hotel room. She was found, knocked out and bloodied, inside a hotel elevator.

The 37-year-old office manager at Calgary's Active Back to Health Centre was brutally beaten. Several facial bones were shattered. Authorities in Mexico have so far provided few clues about what happened and why.

Family and friends are reeling from the attack and say they have no idea why anyone would hurt Nabb.

"Why, we don't know. No idea at all," said her uncle, Robert Prosser, speaking from his Kingston, N.S., home.

"Sheila is probably the nicest person you could ever meet in your life. Everybody loved her."

She is now in the intensive care unit at Mazatlan's Hospital Sharp. Medical staff put her in an induced coma.

It could be a month before she is fit to return to Calgary for further treatment, said Prosser.

"They're going to have to wire her jaw shut, put plates in where cheeks were and lots of reconstructive surgery."

Nabb's husband is at her side and her father-in-law has rushed to Mexico.

In Calgary, friends and co-workers said they are stunned by the attack.

The Nabbs were excited to leave on the last-minute, well-deserved vacation, said Dr. David Peterson, clinic director at the centre where Sheila worked the last three years.

"She is so well-loved and highly regarded by patients and staff alike," said Peterson. "You would be hard-pressed to find a nicer person than Sheila."

Nabb's family is now focused on bringing her back home.

"That's the main concern right now, to get her well enough and stable enough to get her to Calgary," said her uncle.

A hotel worker who answered the phone said he had no information about what happened to Nabb.

The resort is equipped with surveillance cameras. Security guards patrol the hotel and guests are required to wear a bracelet that allows entrance, the worker said.

Local media reports in Mazatlan suggested the woman was found in a pool of blood inside the elevator and traces of blood were found in the hallway of her room, suggesting that's where she was attacked. However, that information couldn't be independently confirmed.

Nabb's case comes on the heels of highly publicized incidents involving Canadians in Mexico, including the slaying of a Mexico-born British Columbia student whose body was discovered on a beach in Oaxaca earlier this month.

Nabb's uncle said the violence is troubling, especially considering the Calgarian was inside a secure luxury resort. Tourists should think twice about visiting Mexico, he said.

"Stay out of Mexico. It seems to be getting worse and worse."

-- Postmedia News

Dangerous destination

Some Canadians killed in Mexico:

JAN. 16: Salid Abdulacis Sabas, a 35-year-old man of Iranian descent who carried Canadian identification, was shot dead in a shopping district in the city of Culiacan, in northwest Mexico.

JAN. 4: B.C. university student Ximena Osegueda, 39, was found buried on a beach in Oaxaca. She had been repeatedly stabbed and her body burned. Osegueda's boyfriend, Alejandro Alvarado, was also found dead nearby.

JAN. 3: Robin Wood, 57, of Salt Spring, B.C., was shot to death while attempting to fight off home invaders in the city of Melaque.

MAY 2011: Joel St. Tierre, 35, was shot in the head while visiting friends in Mexico City. He lived in Mexico, where he owned an air-conditioning factory.

MAY 2011: Len Schell, a 62-year-old from Penticton, B.C., was robbed and stabbed to death at his Puerto Vallarta home.

JULY 2011: Judy Bayli, 64, of Ottawa, was robbed and stabbed to death as she slept in her home in San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato state.

OCTOBER 2010: Ottawa-area businessman Daniel Dion, 51, was found dead and stuffed in the trunk of his torched rental car in southern Mexico. He owned a purse factory in Mexico and travelled there frequently.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 24, 2012 A7