 "The 40-year-old is accused of taking the lives of 12 women and three men between a span of nearly three years, out of a disturbing 'lust' for killing. Image for Representation. Pixabay")
In what’s being called one of the most disturbing medical crime cases in recent German history, a palliative care doctor has been charged with the murder of 15 of his patients.
The 40-year-old is accused of taking the lives of 12 women and three men between a span of nearly three years, though prosecutors have said they believe that total could rise. They claim the suspect administered a lethal dose of sedatives out of a disturbing “lust” for killing.
Investigators say the doctor used a powerful relaxant that “paralysed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes.”
Here’s what we know about the case so far.
Killed patients, set apartments on fire
According to the Berlin prosecutor’s office, the doctor is accused of killing a total of 15 patients under the care of a nursing service between September 2021 and July 2024.
He allegedly gave his patients an anaesthetic induction drug, followed by a muscle relaxant to his patients without medical necessity or their knowledge and consent. The relaxant reportedly paralysed the respiratory muscles, causing the patients, aged between 25 and 94, to stop breathing and die within minutes.
But the horror doesn’t end there.
Prosecutors claim that on five occasions, the doctor set fire to the victims’ apartments in an attempt to cover up the murders.
One such case includes the death of an 87-year-old woman in Neukolln, a neighbouring district in Berlin, reports NBC News. He is alleged to have set fire to her apartment on June 11, 2024, but when the fire department arrived, paramedics were able to revive the woman at the scene, the prosecutor’s office said. She died a short time later at the hospital.
Weeks later, the man is alleged to have killed two people on the same day. On the morning of July 8, 2024, the doctor allegedly murdered a 75-year-old man in his Kreuzberg flat. Just a few hours later, he’s believed to have struck again—this time targeting a 76-year-old woman in Neukölln.
In that second case, the alleged attempt to destroy evidence failed. The fire he tried to set didn’t catch. “When he noticed this, he reportedly informed a relative of the woman, claiming that he was standing in front of her apartment and that no one had responded to his ringing,” they said.
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Doctor motivated by ‘act of killing’
The Berlin doctor was initially arrested in August, facing charges of manslaughter in connection with four patient deaths. But as investigations deepened, the scope and severity of the alleged crimes expanded significantly.
By November, prosecutors announced they were treating the deaths as murder and added four more victims to the list.
“The accused appears to have had no motive for killing the people other than the act of killing itself,” prosecutors said at the time. The suspect had nothing other than a “lust for murder”, they said.
The updated charge sheet, now covering 15 suspicious deaths, accuses the doctor of acting with “malice aforethought”, suggesting these killings were calculated and deliberate.
Prosecutors are not only seeking a “lifelong professional ban” but have also called for the suspect to be placed in preventive detention, given the nature of the crimes.
To fully understand the scale of his actions, a special investigative team was assembled. They identified a staggering 395 cases that needed to be re-examined. So far, 95 of those have shown initial signs of suspicious activity, prompting preliminary proceedings. Another 75 cases remain under review.
As part of the investigation, authorities have already carried out 12 exhumations, five of which relate directly to the victims in the charge sheet. Five more are expected to take place in the coming weeks.
Not the first case of its kind in Germany
This case has drawn comparisons to another shocking trial currently unfolding in Germany.
In the western city of Aachen, a nurse is on trial for allegedly killing nine patients in palliative care. Prosecutors say the nurse injected 26 patients with excessive doses of sedatives or painkillers. Nine of them died.
His motive? Prosecutors allege he wanted to lighten his workload during night shifts and viewed himself as the “master of life and death.”
Germany also remembers the chilling case of Niels Högel, a former nurse sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for murdering 85 patients. Högel admitted during his earlier trials that he deliberately induced cardiac arrest in patients because he liked the feeling of resuscitating them.
At the time of his sentencing, he was considered the deadliest serial killer in modern German history. The current case in Berlin now threatens to join those same disturbing ranks.
With input from agencies