German nurse linked to deaths of 29 patients

Investigators have found evidence that a nurse who has admitted giving lethal injections to 16 elderly patients at a German hospital may have been responsible for another 13 deaths, prosecutors said today.

After autopsies on 42 former patients, prosecutor Herbert Pollert said his team had collected enough evidence to charge the unidentified 26-year-old nurse with the additional deaths.

The man, who remains in jail pending trial, now faces six counts of murder, 22 counts of manslaughter and one case of assisted suicide.

The deaths, at a hospital in the Bavarian town of Sonthofen, took place between March 2003 and July 2004. Seventeen female and 12 male patients aged between 40 and 94 died, Pollert said.

“He said he wanted to save the patients senseless suffering,” lead police investigator Albert Mueller said.

However, autopsy reports showed six of the victims were not seriously ill, and murder charges were filed in those cases, Pollert said. He added that his office was still considering upgrading some of the manslaughter charges to murder as well.