Betsie Gallardo went home to Indiana to live out her final days among familiar sites and friendly faces — far away from the Broward prison where she was serving a five-year sentence for battery on a police officer, but not far enough to escape the ravages of end-stage cancer.

Gallardo died Monday in her bedroom, surrounded by her parents and siblings, and having spent the past several weeks indulging in simple pleasures: a walk on the beach at sunset while in Florida, visits to friends, trips to the movie theater, meals at restaurants.

She was 27.

“Betsie passed in the best way that she possibly could have,” said Jessica Bussert, who adopted Gallardo 17 years ago while on a missionary trip to Haiti. “She was loved right there up to her last minute.”

Gallardo, who was born HIV-positive, was imprisoned for biting a Collier County sheriff’s deputy in August 2008.

Four months into her sentence at Broward Correctional Institution, doctors diagnosed Gallardo with gall bladder cancer, which then spread to her liver, lungs and ovaries.

Doctors deemed Gallardo incurable, and, shortly before Christmas Day, Bussert arrived in South Florida to wage a campaign to take her daughter home to die.

The Florida Parole Commission granted Gallardo a parole hearing for a conditional medical release on Jan. 5 — having denied her first request in October 2010.

The case attracted the attention of several Democratic state lawmakers, including Reps. Hazelle Rogers, Darryl Rouson and Daphne D. Campbell, all of whom attended Gallardo’s parole hearing.

The Collier County sheriff’s deputy bitten by Gallardo, who has so far tested negative for HIV, submitted a letter to the Florida Parole Commission stating that the incident had severely affected her quality of life, forcing her to endure medical treatments and anguish over possible infection.

The parole commission voted 2-1 to grant Gallardo a conditional medical release, and she spent a week in a Miami-Dade hospice under house arrest while Bussert arranged for Indiana prison officials to accept a transfer of custody.

Once in Indiana, Gallardo was allowed to remain at home, where Bussert cared for her.

Though thin and frail from cancer, Gallardo “was going 100 miles per hour” enjoying life in Indiana, Bussert said.

“When her gas tank was empty, she took to her bed the last couple of days,” Bussert said. “We all prayed with her and laughed with her and told stories.”

A memorial Mass for Gallardo will be held at St. Agnes Church in Nashville, Ind. at 2 p.m. Sunday. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Catholic Hospice of Miami or the Hospice of Bloomington Hospital in Indiana.