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SAN GABRIEL VALLEY : Male Nurse Held in Death of Woman, 82

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A 52-year-old male nurse was arrested Wednesday afternoon on murder charges in the death five months ago of an 82-year-old Baldwin Park woman.

Robert Raymond Matas of Rosemead was held without bail after his arrest at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina. He is suspected of killing Stella Regina Cain, who had lived in a Rosemead trailer park with Matas’ father for the past three years, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

The death of Cain--who was frail, thin and unable to walk--appeared to be from natural causes, the spokesman said, but an autopsy revealed the presence of two unusual drugs in her body in sufficient amounts to cause death.

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Relatives told detectives that Matas had used the woman’s credit cards and checking account and had forged a signature to sell Cain’s Baldwin Park mobile home, the spokesman said.

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