Serial Killer in Hospitals: How Science Finally Caught “Ange de la Mort
- Practicing the little-known profession of respiratory therapist at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center (california), is Efren Saldivar truly the "Angel of Death" that the American media made headlines...
- in 1998, suspecting the presence of a serial killer within the establishment, the Glendale police launched an investigation into suspicious deaths.
- Police suspected Saldivar of injecting patients with lethal doses of paralyzing agents using a syringe.
Practicing the little-known profession of respiratory therapist at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center (california), is Efren Saldivar truly the ”Angel of Death” that the American media made headlines of at the end of the 20th century? A special team led by Sergeant John McKillop, from the city’s robbery and homicide unit, was dispatched to determine if the 171 deaths that occurred in the hospital over two years were indeed natural, and encountered significant obstacles.
in 1998, suspecting the presence of a serial killer within the establishment, the Glendale police launched an investigation into suspicious deaths. A nurse had notably confided to an informant that one of the employees was “helping patients to die quickly”, as the Los Angeles Times wrote at the time. Efren Saldivar eventually admitted to committing murders within the hospital, before retracting his statement a few days later, as summarized in an article from Popular Mechanics.
A culprit but no proof
Police suspected Saldivar of injecting patients with lethal doses of paralyzing agents using a syringe. Lacking evidence, they were at an impasse. They therefore called on forensic pathologist Brian Andresen to help them search for these substances in the bodies of the victims. Finding traces of drugs in decaying corpses would not be easy, but it was their best chance, and perhaps their only one, to bring a presumed serial killer to justice.
Since the early 1980s,Brian Andresen had built a solid reputation in the field: no one else knew how to solve overdose cases as well as he did.
Okay, I will analyze the provided text according to the strict guidelines.
PHASE 1: ADVERSARIAL RESEARCH,FRESHNESS & BREAKING-NEWS CHECK
The text details the case of Efren Saldivar,a respiratory therapist convicted of murder in Los Angeles County. I will verify the claims made in the text.
* Efren Saldivar’s conviction: Confirmed. multiple sources corroborate Efren Saldivar’s conviction for multiple counts of murder and attempted murder related to patient deaths at Glendale Adventist medical Center. Los Angeles Times,