(TW, suicide mentioned and victim blaming. Not to offend anyone with those tendencies, I support you fellas. <3)
Once a long time ago someone entered Maria forest to end their life by the hands of her as they were too afraid to do it themselves. Maria quickly found them and regarded them with interest and bemusement. They were scared of her yes but they were more afraid of dying, even though they wanted to. Maria had a problem, she did not know what to do with them. She didn't want to let them go but she was too curious to kill them yet. In the end she took them home and locked them in a room until she decided their fate will be.
Though at first she could careless, she listened to them vent about their life, about a past that was all too familiar sounding to her and eventually she softened up a little, just a little and they became like family to her. They had full range of her home and her forest as long as they did not leave the border.
However that was not to last as one day Maria found them dead in the garden. It was unknown if they were murdered or if they did it themselves. She thought they killed themselves. Maria was really angry about it and blamed them. After all she's done for them they go and do this! She burned their body and buried the bones in a unmarked grave hoping to just forget about them.
Today if you bring this up with her she will vehemently deny their existence, secretly still angry and in grief about it.