It was February 2015 when Niels Hoegel, 40, was jailed for two murders and several attempted murders of intensive-care patients at Delmenhorst hospital near the northern German city of Breme.

And the story that came out at the time is about as unique as they come.

Suspicions first rose more 10 years ago when a colleague witnessed Hoegel inject a patient at Delmenhorst hospital in 2005:

The patient survived and the healthcare worker was arrested and, in 2008, sentenced to seven and a half years in jail for attempted murder.

Amid the media publicity, a woman contacted police, voicing suspicion that her deceased mother had also fallen victim to the killer nurse.

The authorities exhumed several patients’ bodies and detected traces of the drug in five of them, declaring it either the definitive or possible contributing cause.

Jailed for life, the nurse was found guilty for killing the patients with lethal drug overdoses.

But that wasn’t the full story.

Issuing a statement on Monday morning, police revealed that investigators exhumed and analysed more bodies and found evidence of around 90 murders in total, reports The Guardian:

“The death toll is unique in the history of the German republic,” said the chief police investigator, Arne Schmidt, adding that Hoegel killed randomly and preyed especially on those in critical condition.

“[There was] evidence for at least 90 murders, and at least as many [suspected] cases again that can no longer be proven,” he told a press conference, declaring himself “speechless” at the outcome.

Back in 2015, Hoegel “admitted to injecting patients with a drug that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them and, when successful, shine as a saviour before his medical peers”.

While feeling euphoric when he managed to bring a patient back to life, he was devastated when he failed.

After police realised Hoegel’s murderous obsession, they launched a special forensic commission known as Kardio to look into other patient deaths:

Presenting their findings, police said more than 130 bodies had been exhumed and tested for traces of the deadly drug.

The cause of death in many more could not be determined because the remains were cremated, said the police chief of Oldenburg, Johann Kuehme.

Prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlemann said Hoegel had admitted to 30 cases in which he named patients he killed.

Clearly he must have felt devastated more often than not – although how will we ever know?

[source: theguardian]