Canada: Nurse gets life sentence for 8 murders

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – A former Canadian nurse who murdered eight elderly nursing home residents was sentenced Monday to life imprisonment without the chance for parole for 25 years.

Superior Court Judge Bruce Thomas called Elizabeth Wettlaufer, 50, a “shadow of death” that hung over the victims she was hired to care for, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.

Wettlaufer had pleaded guilty to eight counts of first degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. The crimes were committed at three nursing homes in southern Ontario between 2007 and 2016, CTV News reported.

She apologized in a brief address to the court.

“I am truly sorry for the people I injured and murdered,” she said. “Sorry is much too small a word.”

Wettlaufer killed the residents with lethal doses of insulin.

There is a chance she would never have been caught if she had not spoke of the crimes during her stay at a Toronto psychiatric hospital.

Police were told of the information last September and Wettlaufer was charged and confessed to police, saying she felt a “red surge” that overcame her as she readied to kill. She is one of the worst serial killers in Canadian history.

The fact that she killed and may have escaped justice was not lost on provincial authorities as the Ontario provincial government announced Monday it will hold a public inquiry as to how Wettlaufer was able to get away with the crimes.

Officials said it hopes the inquiry will prevent a similar tragedy in future.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976.