A German male nurse jailed for life two years ago for killing two patients with lethal drug overdoses is now a suspect in at least 84 more murders.
Niels Hoegel, 40, was jailed in February 2015 for two murders of intensive-care patients at the Delmenhorst hospital near the northern city of Bremen.
Police said Monday that investigators exhuming and analysing more bodies had so far found evidence of ’84 more murders’, which would make him one of Germany’s worst ever serial killers.
Hoegel’s trial in Germany heard he wanted to win approval from colleagues by resuscitating patients so he gave them overdoses of a drug that shut down their cardiovascular systems.
Niels Hoegel covers his face with a pink case file as a police officer stands guard in a German court
Killer Hoegel attempts to hide his identity by arriving in court with the pink file held up over his face
A handcuffed Niels Hoegel covers his face and walks into court escorted by a police officer
He admitted during the trial he had triggered cardiac arrests in 90 patients, 30 of whom died.
He told the court he enjoyed the feeling of saving someone’s life.
Mr Kuehme said the investigators were also examining an unusually high number of patient deaths that occurred at a second hospital, in Oldenburg, where the nurse worked prior to Delmenhorst.
Prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann said: ‘We cannot say how many of the patients in Oldenburg were victims.’
The police and prosecutors said there was a ‘strong suspicion’ Hoegel had killed at least six patients at the Oldenburg hospital by injecting heart medication or toxic doses of potassium.
Several hundred additional files of deceased patients are being examined and managers at both hospitals are also being questioned to determine if they are criminally culpable for failing to notice the high number of deaths during the killer nurse’s shifts.