Canadian nurse’s anger may be motive in 8 murders

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – A former nurse charged with killing eight elderly nursing home residents in Ontario may have confessed her crime by text to an acquaintance, Canadian media reported Thursday.

“She said, ‘I am responsible for the deaths of eight people,’” the acquaintance told the London Free Press on condition her identity not be disclosed.

The acquaintance did not believer her, but two weeks later Elizabeth Wettlaufer was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of residents at two nursing homes in Woodstock and London in the province of Ontario.

The alleged crimes took place between August 2007 and August 2014, with the victims between the ages of 75 and 96.

It may prove to be the first case of a health care serial killer in Canadian history, true crime author Michael Arntfield told CTV television news.

More disturbing facts about the case have come to light.

Three weeks before she was arrested Oct. 25, Woodstock police feared the 49-year-old former nurse would commit a “serious personal injury” and as a result obtained a peace bond -- a court-ordered directive -- that banned her from nursing homes.

Under the bond, she was also barred from possessing insulin. Police say that lethal doses of the drug, used in the treatment of people with diabetes, was what killed the nursing home residents, CTV News reported.

Family members of several victims said police told them the nurse killed people who “pissed Wettlaufer off”.

Wettlaufer was undergoing treatment in Toronto for narcotics addiction at the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health. She told someone at the facility of her involvement in the murders and staff called police, CTV News reported.

The tip from staff member last month was the first inkling police had of Wettlaufer as a murder suspect, the Toronto Star newspaper reported. She had resigned as a nurse in September and had not worked at nursing homes in more than two years.

Wettlaufer is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 2 via video.