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WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Just a few weeks ago, Elizabeth Wettlaufer gave away her beloved dog, Nashville, a spry Jack Russell terrier.

Her friends thought the move odd, but they now wonder if the 49-year-old nurse knew what was coming.

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On Tuesday, Wettlaufer was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of seniors in her care — seven of them at a nursing home just a 15-minute walk from her apartment in Woodstock, Ont.

As news broke about her charges, her friends gathered outside the apartment building, trying to piece it all together.

“She was a happy-go-lucky lady,” said Nancy Gilbert, who lived downstairs from Wettlaufer’s fifth-floor apartment. “It’s hard to believe, really, really hard to believe.”

She and Wettlaufer went out for dinner just a few weeks ago. During that meal, Wettlaufer told her she had just gotten out of a rehab facility in Toronto — it was the second such time, Gilbert said.