Elizabeth Wettlaufer charged in nursing home deaths - Southwest Ontario

[Ron]

http://www.680news.com/2016/10/24/police-reveal-details-suspicious-deaths-southwestern-ontario/

[lostlinganer]

God rest their precious souls! 
Maybe some of these people were ready and wanting to die;  but then again, maybe none of them even thought of it.  We'll see where this goes~

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ont-nurse-faces-eight-counts-of-first-degree-murder-1.3130010

[jellybean]

These deaths were over a 7 year period.  Who brought it to the attention of the police in Sept of this year, was it a co-worker, a family member?

Why did it take so long for these deaths to be brought to the attention of law enforcement.  Were suspicions kept hush hush by the nursing homes?

jb

[Sap1]

Perhaps she chose the early Spring and Fall to commit her crimes? That is usually when more deaths in the very senior population occur  due to influenza and weakened systems and no one suspected she had a hand in the deaths. Her heinous deeds could have melded in with the flu season.
If she is indeed guilty, she really has put a huge damper on nursing care homes for seniors. It will not only affect the care homes/staff and the families of those she murdered, also many other families whose aging loved ones will be going into these homes, imo.
What a horrible tragedy!!
 

[Sap1]

I am wondering now how this could not have been caught earlier b/c drugs are counted and accounted for at the end of each shift. Should there be a discrepancy, no one leaves until errors are corrected.
eta: If she was the only one administering medications at night, she could have claimed she dropped meds on the floor and then discarded them to account for a shortage ... yet if that happened on a few occasions I'm surprised she wasn't caught earlier. It is mind boggling how long it took for someone to give a tip.

She had a trigger with her divorce after which the killings began.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/police-investigating-suspicious-deaths-linked-to-ontario-nursing-home/article32510299/

A registered nurse has been arrested on allegations that she used drugs to murder eight elderly patients in a string of deaths at long-term-care homes in Southwestern Ontario going back nearly a decade.

A day after her arrest, Elizabeth Wettlaufer, 49, of Woodstock, appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday morning and was remanded into custody. She has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, in what is potentially one of the worst cases of serial killing in Canadian history.


Police give details on nurse charged with murder of 8 nursing-home patients (The Globe and Mail)
The victims were administered drugs, said Detective Superintendent Dave Truax of Ontario Provincial Police.

He did not give more details, but he noted that drugs are stored and accessible in nursing homes.

The acts appear to have taken place during overnight shifts.

The indictment filed in court against Ms. Wettlaufer shows that on five occasions, she is alleged to have committed her offences on consecutive days predating the death of a victim.



The killings began two months after she started working at the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock in June, 2007.

Earlier that year, she had separated from her husband.

Woodstock Police Chief William Renton told reporters that the case started after his department received a detailed tip on Sept. 8 that a nurse was involved in eight slayings.Ms. Wettlaufer, who has been a registered nurse since June, 1995, resigned from the College of Nurses of Ontario on Sept. 30, the day after police received the tip about the case.

The college said her record did not show any disciplinary action against her.

Seven of the victims died at the Caressant home from 2007 to 2014. They have been identified as 84-year-old James Silcox, 84-year-old Maurice (Moe) Granat, 95-year-old Helen Matheson, 87-year-old Gladys Millard, 96-year-old Mary Zurawinski, 90-year-old Helen Young and 79-year-old Maureen Pickering.

[jellybean]

On her facebook page she had three cats.  Someone commented on them, and she replied that she still has the black one, but the other two passed away. They looked fine to me.

Even if I did not know, what we have learned today...
It still struck me in an odd way/
It had been suggested by someone being interviewed on cbc, that perhaps this nurse felt that she  was peforming a mercy killing, believing that these patients suffered long enough.


Interesting about "the detailed tip". Perhaps a coroner brought this to the attention of the police?  The bodies will not be exhumed, apparently.
jb

[jellybean]

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/10/25/ontario-nursing-home-murder-suspect-cuts-happy-figure-on-social-media.html

Ontario nursing home murder suspect talked God and sobriety on social media posts

[Sap1]

So sad and tragic all the way around.

JB, with mention of the cats, wasn't she a bit too old to be a budding SK?

[jellybean]

If found guilty, technically she would be a serial killer - to my mind the killings were all done the same way - and in the same type of environment, and to the same age group. 

Questions will be asked and hopefully answers will be given.
I wonder if she,  in a sick way,  felt that she was doing them a service by taking them out of their misery- (as she perceived it to be) or if she perceived these seniors as complainers and trouble makers, and created too much work?

In any event - the woman is "not well". imo

jb
ps A long time ago, a nurse in a hospital in Toronto did the same thing. It was the first big case of its kind.  I can't recall the details, but I believe it was children, in her case.  Not sure.
if it was children or not.

I think that the present lady in question probably "took care of the two cats" - as three were a nuisance. Chose to keep the BLACK CAT.
That's just me!!

jb

[jellybean]

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/former-ontario-nursing-home-worker-focus-of-multi-jurisdictional-death-investigation-company-says the nurse recently told her she had just gotten out of rehab, for the second time.

[Sap1]

Oh of course she will go down as a serial killer. I just wondered about the killing of the cats and whether it was recent ... from cats to humans like a budding serial killer.

Those snippets from National Post are creepy! How did anyone not see this coming? Especially after she posts her poems on the Net.

Rehab ... some reports claim she struggled with alcohol addiction.  I wonder if that is the reason she had so many places of employment after she left the nursing home.

On her FB she sported this T-shirt:

[RubyRose]

My first thought was that, due to the nature of her work, it could very well be mercy killings or at least what she perceived as mercy killings.  Whatever the motivation I don't think there is any question that she suffers from deep psychological problems.  Very tragic for everyone concerned.  She appeared to have so much potential to do good.  I doubt she started out that way.

[Have faith]

This is an interesting article which may explain the psychology behind this type of killer.  Pretty scary.

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/10/25/workers-often-have-delusions-of-being-a-hero-by-ending-suffering-michael-arntfield-says

[Sap1]

Interesting article HaveFaith. Thanks for that.

I've been thinking ... she had already terminated her RN's license by the time police apprehended her. The apprehension was rather quick after police received the detailed tip. Certainly too quick for a detailed and complete investigation on the 8 seniors deaths.

Did she herself give the tip since she may have felt her life spiraling out of control? Or for reasons of sudden remorse? Her prior jobs were lengthy but in later years she has been having several jobs in a short period of time. Some rehab figures in there too although there is no history in her records she had any disciplines.

[Ron]

I think the people at CAMH are the ones who alerted police.








CAMH staff alerted police about former nurse now charged in Woodstock killings


Staff at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) alerted police about information provided by the former nurse charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of eight nursing-home patients in southwestern Ontario, a source has confirmed to CBC News.

On Tuesday, police in Woodstock, Ont., announced that Elizabeth Tracy Mae Wettlaufer, 49, has been charged in connection with the deaths that occurred between August 2007 and August 2014. The victims were between 75 and 96 years old.

    Former nurse killed 8 elderly patients, police allege
    Who is Elizabeth Wettlaufer? What we know so far about accused in nursing-home deaths

Police would not say exactly how they died, except that seven of them received a fatal dose of a drug.

A source with knowledge of the investigation told CBC News on Wednesday that CAMH phoned Toronto police in September about information Wettlaufer provided about the deaths of patients.

Because the allegations did not involve any Toronto residents, the force alerted other police agencies.

A spokesperson for CAMH declined to comment early Wednesday afternoon.

Wettlaufer worked for Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Homes, which operates six facilities in southwestern Ontario. Seven residents died at the company's nursing home in Woodstock, Ont., a small community of about 37,000 residents 140 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

Wettlaufer also worked at the Meadow Park home in London, Ont., which is where the eighth resident died.

Caressant Care said Tuesday that Wettlaufer left the company two and a half years ago and that the company is "co-operating fully with police."

Meadow Park said Wettlaufer left its employment two years ago and also confirmed that it is co-operating with the police probe.
Nursing Home Probe 20161025

Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer, of Woodstock, Ont., is shown in this still image taken from video provided by Citynews Toronto in Woodstock on Oct. 25, 2016. (Citynews Toronto/Canadian Press)

Police identified the victims from the Woodstock home as:

    James Silcox, 84, who died Aug. 17, 2007.
    Maurice Granat, 84, who died Dec. 23, 2007.
    Gladys Millard, 87, who died Oct. 14, 2011.
    Helen Matheson, 95, who died Oct. 27, 2011.
    Mary Zurawinski, 96, who died Nov. 7, 2011.
    Helen Young, 90, who died July 14, 2013.
    Maureen Pickering, 79, who died March 28, 2014.

The victim from Meadow Park was identified as:

    Arpad Horvath, 75, who died Aug. 31, 2014.

According to her professional profile at the College of Nurses of Ontario website, Wettlaufer first registered as a nurse on June 8, 1995. She resigned on Sept. 30, 2016, one day after the OPP said their investigation began.

Wettlaufer is under investigation by the College and no longer entitled to practice, the governing body for nurses, practical nurses and nurse practitioners confirmed Tuesday.
Accused active online

On Tuesday, neighbours called news of the charges "shocking" and described Wettlaufer as friendly and unassuming.

"We would chat and have laughs," said Derek Gilbert, who lives in the same apartment building as Wettlaufer. "She seemed like an everyday, normal kind of person."

Wettlaufer was active on social media, posting pictures of her travels and her family on Facebook.
wdr-Elizabeth-Wettlaufer

Elizabeth Tracy Mae Wettlaufer is facing eight first-degree murder charges in the deaths of elderly patients in southwestern Ontario. (Bethe Wettlaufer/Facebook)

She also wrote several posts about her work as a nurse.
wdr-Elizabeth Wettlaufer-Facebook Post

This post appeared on a Facebook page Woodstock police confirmed to belong to Elizabeth Tracy Mae Wettlaufer, the woman facing eight first-degree murder charges.

She also appears to have contributed several poems to a site called allpoetry.com.

The profile name is bettyweston, but her own name is also attached to the poems, and the accompanying photo is one that appears on Wettlaufer's Facebook page.

Links to the poems are not currently working.

One poem titled Inevitable, written about five years ago, talks about taking a life:

She watches some life drain from the notch in his neck vein.

As it soothingly pools it smothers her pain.

Sweet stiletto so sharp craves another cut.

Obeying a call she moves to his gut.

Blade traces a line from navel to spine

grating on rib bones slicing intestine.

Another poem titled Working Happy, from about six years ago, focuses on her care for the elderly:

Maybe it's the rye or the time of night but my day was not so bad.

Filled with work and satisfaction and old people.

See I work with old people and I love their candidacy,

their points, their wrinkles, their frailties their refusing to eat anything but ice cream, even their smell.

With files from Alex Brockman

          
       http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/woodstock-nurse-investigation-1.3822235