A palliative care doctor in Berlin has been charged with murdering 15 patients by administering fatal drug combinations, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The 40-year-old physician is accused of killing 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024, using a mixture of anesthetics and muscle relaxants. In some cases, he allegedly set fire to the victims’ apartments to cover his tracks, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the doctor administered the drugs without the patients’ knowledge or consent. The muscle relaxant reportedly paralyzed the respiratory muscles, causing death within minutes.
The victims, all of whom were under his medical care, ranged in age from 25 to 94. An investigation is ongoing. On five occasions, prosecutors alleged that the suspect had "set fire to their apartments to cover up these killings."
On one occasion, the suspect is accused of having killed two patients on the same day. On the morning of July 8, 2024, he is alleged to have killed a 75-year-old man at his home in the central Berlin district of Kreuzberg.
"A few hours later," he is said to have struck again, killing a 76-year-old woman in the neighboring Neukoelln district. The suspect's alleged attempt to incinerate the crime scene "failed" when the fire did not catch, prosecutors said.
"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. Prosecutors wanted a "lifelong professional ban" and "preventative detention" to forestall any new murder attempts in the meantime, they said.
The suspect has been held in custody since his August arrest. The number of alleged killings has grown since his initial arrest. He had initially been accused of only four alleged murders.
