Florida Nurse Arrested in Coworker Murder Case

A Florida nurse was arrested this week on charges of first-degree murder after investigators linked him to the brutal beating death of his married coworker and secret lover during a planned birthday rendezvous more than a year earlier. Rene J. Perez, 38, faces additional counts of using a deadly weapon and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the October 28, 2024, killing of Linda Campitelli, 35, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Perez was taken into custody in Miami on March 10, 2026, and ordered held without bond during an initial court appearance the following day.

Campitelli, a registered nurse and mother of two daughters, was found unresponsive and face down on Lyons Road near Wellington around 10:20 p.m. that night, deputies reported. Her body lay about 50 feet from her husband's Chevrolet Tahoe, which was still running with a punctured front tire caused by a metal screw. Blood stained the roadway, the vehicle's interior and its rear driver's side door handle, where investigators noted signs of an attempted cleanup. An autopsy by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Campitelli died from blunt force trauma to the...