Elizabeth Wettlaufer

Elizabeth Wettlaufer
Born Elizabeth Mae Parker
(1967-06-10) June 10, 1967
Residence Woodstock, Ontario
Nationality Canadian
Other names Bethe Wettlaufer
Betty Weston
Education London Baptist Bible College
Conestoga College
Occupation Registered nurse
Criminal charge Murder
Attempted murder
Aggravated assault
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment
Criminal status In prison
Conviction(s) Murder
Attempted murder
Aggravated assault
Details
Victims 14
Span of crimes
 2007–2016
Country Canada
Location(s) Southwestern Ontario
Target(s) Elderly patients
Killed 8
Injured 6
Weapons Insulin injection
Date apprehended
 October 25, 2016

Elizabeth Tracy Mae Wettlaufer[1] (née Elizabeth Mae Parker; born June 10, 1967) is a convicted Canadian serial killer and former registered nurse who confessed to murdering eight senior citizens and attempting to murder six others in Southwestern Ontario between 2007 and 2016.[2]

Early life

Wettlaufer was raised in Woodstock, Ontario. Growing up in a staunchly Baptist household,[3] she went on to earn a bachelor's degree in religious education counselling from London Baptist Bible College after graduating from Huron Park Secondary School in the mid-1980s. She then studied nursing at Conestoga College.[4]

Murders and assaults

While she was a nurse at Caressant Care, a long-term care home in Woodstock, Wettlaufer began injecting some of the patients with insulin. In some cases, the amount was not enough to kill the patient; Wettlaufer was charged with, and confessed to, aggravated assault or attempted murder for those cases.

Wettlaufer's first assaults occurred sometime between June 25 and December 31, 2007. She confessed that she injected sisters Clotilde Adriano (age 87) and Albina Demedeiros (88) with insulin. While they later died, neither of their deaths was attributed to Wettlaufer. She confessed to two counts of aggravated assault in these matters.[5]

The first case in which Wettlaufer injected a patient with enough insulin to cause their death was on August 11, 2007, when she murdered James Silcox (84), a World War II veteran and father of six. Through March 2014, Wettlaufer also murdered the following patients at Caressant Care:

  • Maurice "Moe" Granat (84)
  • Gladys Millard (87)
  • Helen Matheson (95)
  • Mary Zurawinski (96)
  • Helen Young (90)
  • Maureen Pickering (79)

While at Caressant Care, Wettlaufer also injected Michael Priddle (63) and Wayne Hedges (57) "with intent to murder". She confessed to two counts of attempted murder in these cases. She left employment at Caressant Care in 2014, but in part-time work at other facilities and at patients' homes, she injected three more people with insulin:

  • Killed Arpad Horvath (75) at Meadow Park facility in London, Ontario
  • Injected Sandra Towler (77) "with intent to murder" at a retirement home in Paris, Ontario
  • Injected Beverly Bertram (68) "with intent to murder" at a private residence in Ingersoll, Ontario

Confession, arrest, and conviction

Wettlaufer entered an inpatient drug rehabilitation program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a psychiatric hospital in Toronto, on September 16, 2016.[3] She confessed to staff about killing and attempting to kill her patients, and CAMH staff notified the College of Nurses of Ontario and the Toronto Police Service of her confession.[4] She then personally emailed the College of Nurses to resign as a registered nurse because she had "deliberately harmed patients in [her] care and [was] now being investigated by the police for same", personally called an investigator from the College, and had CAMH staff fax a four-page handwritten confession.[3] Wettlaufer had confessed to killing patients several times prior to her confession at CAMH, including to a lawyer who advised her to keep it a secret, and was not reported to police.[6]

After providing police with a 2-hour-long confession, Wettlaufer was formally charged with the eight murders on October 25. After further investigation, she was also charged with four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault on January 13, 2017. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and confessed to all charges in court on June 1, 2017. On June 26, 2017, Wettlaufer was sentenced to eight concurrent life terms in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

In her confession, she admitted that she "knew the difference between right and wrong" but she was visited by "surges" she could not control. She said, "God or the devil or whatever, wanted me to do it." After one murder, she felt "the surging ... And then [heard her own] laughter afterwards, which was really, it was like a cackling from the pit of hell." She told police she had tried to stop killing, and she had told friends, a former partner and her pastor about the killings, but no one took her seriously.[7]

She was held at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.[8]

Responses from government and regulatory bodies

Provincial government

Yasir Naqvi, the Attorney General of Ontario, and Eric Hoskins, the province's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, jointly announced on the day of Wettlaufer's sentencing that the provincial government would commission a public inquiry into her case.[9] The full details of the inquiry were not given in the announcement, as the government had yet to determine the scope or an individual to lead the inquiry, with Naqvi and Hoskins instead saying that the inquiry would "get the answers we need to help ensure a tragedy such as this does not happen again."[10] The delay in establishing the inquiry was criticized by members of the opposition Progressive Conservative and New Democratic parties toward the end of July 2017, as no progress had seemingly been made since the announcement and the Legislative Assembly had risen for its summer recess.[11]

The Public Inquiry into the Safety and Security of Residents in the Long-Term Care Homes System was formally established by the provincial government on August 1, 2017.[12] Justice Eileen Gillese of the Court of Appeal for Ontario was appointed commissioner of the inquiry.[13] The inquiry will include interviews with victims' families and public consultations in the community as it investigates the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Wettlaufer's victims and gaps in legislative or policy frameworks that allowed her to continue working as a nurse.[14] The inquiry's lead counsel stated that "anyone from Wettlaufer to Premier Kathleen Wynne" may be called to testify before the inquiry based on the evidence that is uncovered.[15]

College of Nurses of Ontario

Wettlaufer was charged with professional misconduct by a disciplinary panel convened by the College of Nurses of Ontario on July 25, 2017.[16] Even though she had already been found guilty in a criminal trial and voluntarily surrendered her nursing license, the formal hearing was required by the College of Nurses to officially bar her from the profession.[17] Wettlaufer declined to participate in the hearing and was found guilty based on court documents from her criminal trial as well as her previous confession.[1] Her conduct was deemed "disgraceful and dishonourable" by the disciplinary panel and her nursing registration was formally revoked indefinitely, barring her from ever practicing nursing in Ontario again. The chair of the five-person disciplinary panel that heard Wettlaufer’s case said it was "the most egregious and disgraceful conduct this panel has ever considered".[18]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Wettlaufer's nursing registration revoked at discipline hearing". News & Announcements. College of Nurses of Ontario. July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ Dubinski, Kate (1 June 2017). "Ex-nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer felt 'red surge' before killing elderly patients". CBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Contenta, Sandro (June 12, 2017). "Nurses college under fire over Wettlaufer case". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Gillis, Wendy; Siekierska, Alicja; Goffin, Peter (October 29, 2016). "From caring nurse to accused serial killer: who is Elizabeth Wettlaufer?". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Timeline of events in case of former Ontario nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer". Global News. The Canadian Press. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  6. ↑ McQuigge, Michelle (June 2, 2017). "'If you ever do this again, we'll turn you in', pastor told killer nurse". Toronto Star. The Canadian Press. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  7. ↑ Fraser, Laura (June 2, 2017). "Here's what ex-nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer confessed about killing 8 patients". CBC News. Retrieved Apr 13, 2018.
  8. ↑ Flanagan, Ryan (2017-09-26). "Life in prison: Behind the barbed wire at Grand Valley Institution". CTV News. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  9. ↑ "Ontario to hold public inquiry into Elizabeth Wettlaufer nursing home murders". Global News. The Canadian Press. June 27, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  10. ↑ Ferguson, Rob (June 26, 2017). "Case of killer nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer to be subject of public inquiry". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ Bieman, Jennifer (July 21, 2017). "Elizabeth Wettlaufer: Critics impatient for details of province's killer nurse inquiry". London Free Press. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  12. ↑ "About the Inquiry". Public Inquiry into the Safety and Security of Residents in the Long-Term Care Homes System. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  13. ↑ Butler, Colin (August 1, 2017). "Ontario names Justice Eileen Gillese to lead Wettlaufer inquiry". CBC News. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  14. ↑ Lupton, Andrew (August 3, 2017). "Wettlaufer probe will include interview with families, public consultations". CBC News. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Wettlaufer could testify at inquiry; public hearings to start in 2018". CTV News Kitchener. August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  16. ↑ McIntosh, Emma (July 22, 2017). "Serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer faces College of Nurses disciplinary hearing July 25". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  17. ↑ Bieman, Jennifer (July 24, 2017). "Elizabeth Wettlaufer: Nurses' regulatory body will hold disciplinary hearing Tuesday for the local health-care serial killer". London Free Press. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Serial killer found guilty of professional misconduct by nursing college". National Post. The Canadian Press. July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
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