Nurse belongs to Canada charged with eight murders
A 49-year old nursing home worker in Ontario has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder crossing several years.
Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer of Woodstock, Ontario, appeared in court on Tuesday morning.
The victims were residents in two long-term care facilities where Ms Wettlaufer were between 75 and 96 years old and worked.
Authorities said seven of the victims were given a fatal dose of a drug.
The victims were all residents of Caressant Care in Woodstock and Meadow Park in London, Ontario and were five girls and three guys.
“The victims were administered a drug… there are obviously several drugs that are stored and are available in long-term care facilities,” Woodstock Police Chief William Renton said at a news conference.
The leader declined to comment on a possible motivation, but did add that researchers are confident they have identified all casualties.
Caressant spokesman Lee Griffi left their employment roughly two and a half years past and said the accused was a registered nurse.
“We greatly regret the additional despair and stress this is inflicting on the families involved,” Mr Griffi said in a written statement.
Woodstock is a car industry and agricultural town of some 37,000 people, about 128km (79 miles) west of Toronto.
In the residential neighbourhood where the Caressant Care facility is located, few individuals were seen coming and going.
Media were staked across from a nearby school, outside the property.
In the hall of the adjoining retirement home, a television could be heard playing with the news of the arrest of Ms Wettlaufer.
An employee at the facility, who wasn’t authorised to speak on the record, told a reporter that it was a shame a whole profession could be coloured by the actions of one person.
Ms Wettlaufer was also an employee at Christian Horizons, the long-term care facility confirmed.
A representative for the organisation, which wasn’t named in the police investigation, said she stopped working for them in 2007.
“Christian Horizons fully means to work with the authorities in their own investigation in this issue,” said chief executive Janet Noel-Annable in a statement.
