German Nurse Linked To 29 Deaths

Authorities have found evidence that a nurse who has admitted giving lethal injections to 16 elderly patients at a German hospital may have been responsible for another 13 deaths, prosecutors said Tuesday.

After autopsies on 42 former patients, lead prosecutor Herbert Pollert said his team had collected enough evidence to charge the unidentified 25-year-old nurse with the additional deaths.

The man, who remains in jail, now faces six counts of murder, 22 counts of manslaughter and one case of assisted suicide.

The deaths, at a hospital in the Bavarian town of Sonthofen, took place between March 2003 and July 2004. Prosecutors from the southern town of Kempten are investigating the deaths of a total of 81 patients from times when the nurse was on duty.

Investigators have said the man used a mixture of the sedative midazolam, the anesthetic etomidate, and the muscle relaxant lysthenon to kill the patients.

Police tracked down the nurse as they investigated reports that the drugs were missing and compared the times when patients died with the hours he worked. Investigators found unsealed vials at his apartment.

When he was arrested last July, the nurse admitted killing 10 patients aged 60 to 89, police said at the time. Police said he told them he could not bear to see the patients "wasting away."