Marie Sanserico was the girlfriend for the Haitian gang leader Legba, until his "death", when she began keeping company with Sylvio Romulus. Legba later had Romulus killed for stealing from him, later kidnapping Marie after she revealed the location of a voodoo rite, which Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs attended, trying to find her. When Tubbs was brought to Legba's house, both he and Maria were injected with the toxin Tetrodotoxin, Tubbs, in his drugged state, thought Maria was killed by Legba, but later, when Legba was killed by Tubbs, she was found, barely alive and still under the effects of the toxin, on the freighter Blackbird.