- The suspect would have killed 12 women and 3 men between 2021 and 2024.
- The doctor arrested in August, the prosecutors binding him at four deaths.
- 96 cases are still being studied, explains Spox of the prosecution.
A German doctor will be tried on Monday for killing 15 patients with fatal injections, in what investigators fear being the point of a deadly iceberg.
The 40 -year -old palliative care specialist, appointed by the German media under the name of Johannes M, is accused of having killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024 while working in Berlin.
He would have injected the victims, aged 25 to 94, with a deadly cocktail of sedatives and, in some cases, set fire to their homes in order to cover his crimes.
A colleague first raised the alarm of Johannes M Die newspaper.
He was arrested in August, the prosecutors initially binding him to four dead.
But the surveys launched a host of other suspicious cases and, in April, the prosecutors accused Johannes M of 15 murder leaders.
96 Other cases are still the subject of an investigation, said a prosecution spokesperson AFPIncluding the death of the mother-in-law of Johannes M.
She had suffered from cancer and died mysteriously the same weekend as Johannes M and his wife went to visit her in Poland at the beginning of 2024, according to the media.
Muscle relaxing
The suspect, nicknamed “Doctor Death” by the German media, would have been trained as radiologist and general practitioner before specializing in palliative care.
According to DieHe submitted a doctoral thesis in 2013 by examining the reasons for a series of murders in Frankfurt, who opened with the words “Why do people kill?”
Prosecutors say that in the 15 cases, Johannes administered me an anesthesia and a muscular relaxant to his patients … without their knowledge or consent “.
The relaxing “paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death in a few minutes”.
In five cases, Johannes would have set fire to the apartments of the victims after administering the injections.
On an occasion, he is accused of having murdered two patients on the same day.
On the morning of July 8, 2024, he would have killed a 75 -year -old man at his home in the Berlin district in Kreuzberg.
“A few hours later”, he would have struck again, killing a 76 -year -old woman in the neighboring district of Neukoelln.
Prosecutors say he sparked a fire in the woman’s apartment, but he came out.
“When he realized, he would have informed a parent of the woman and said that he was standing in front of his apartment and that no one answered the doorbell,” said prosecutors.
In another case, Johannes wrongly pretended to have already started resuscitation efforts “on a 56 -year -old victim, who was initially kept alive by rescuers but died three days later in the hospital.
“ No reason beyond death ”
Johannes M did not comment on the charges against him.
Prosecutors say he had “no reason beyond the murder” and seeks perpetuity sentence.
The case remembers that of the notorious German nurse Niels Hoegel, who was sentenced to life in 2019 for murder 85 patients.
Hoegel, considered a most prolific serial killer in Germany, assassinated patients hospitalized with fatal injections between 2000 and 2005, before he was finally taken by the law.
More recently, a 27 -year -old nurse was sentenced to perpetuity in 2023 for the murder of two patients by deliberately administering not registered drugs.
In March, another nurse was tried at Aix-l’Accue to have injected 26 patients with large doses of sedatives or pain relievers, resulting in nine deaths.
Last week, German police revealed that they were investigating another doctor suspected of having killed several mainly elderly patients.
Investigators “examine” the deaths linked to the doctor of the city of Pinneberg in northern Germany, just outside Hamburg, police and prosecutors said.
