Killer nurse sentenced to life behind bars
KILLER NURSE APOLOGIZES, AS THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES TELL OF THEIR PAIN, GUILT AND ANGER
Elizabeth Wettlaufer, the worst healthcare killer in Canadian history, finally spoke Monday. Before being sentenced to life behind bars for 14 crimes, including the murders of eight vulnerable patients in her care, the 50-year-old mass murderer addressed the court briefly after the loved ones of her victims spoke out.
“I caused tremendous pain, suffering and death,” said Wettlaufer, who was unemotional in the courtroom. “Sorry is too small a word. I hope that the families can find some peace and healing.”
Wettlaufer was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. By then she would be 75, and it was indicated she “may never be paroled.”
Justice Bruce Thomas told the families — and the surviving victims of Wettlaufer’s failed murder attempts — that they should be merciful with themselves in the aftermath of the crimes.
“It is a complete betrayal of trust when a caregiver does not prolong life, but terminates it,” he said. “But you cannot blame yourselves.”
Thomas described Wettlaufer’s “free run” on her nine-year killing spree, with no oversight or even an inkling she had committed such calculated murders.
“Without her confessions, I am convinced these offences would never have been brought to justice,” he said, calling Wettlaufer a “shadow of death that passed over them (the victims) on the night shift where she supervised.”
On Monday in statements to court, one after another, family and friends of victims, described overwhelming guilt, anger and profound sadness.
Sandy Millard, whose 87-year-old mother, Gladys Jean Millard, was murdered by Wettlaufer in 2011, told court about the depression she had fallen into. “Finding out she was killed by a huge injection of medication she did not need broke my heart,” she said.
Patricia Matheson glared at Wettlaufer as she read a statement by her husband, whose mother, Helen Matheson, was killed by the nurse in 2011. “I lost my mother for the second time. No funeral this time, just shock, followed by the question why,” Jon Matheson wrote.
“I placed my mother in a facility I researched never once considering she would be a victim of such a despicable act.
“I ask why, because she didn’t eat all the blueberry pie and ice cream?”
David Silcox, whose father, James Silcox, was murdered in 2007, wrote, “I simply feel guilty for not being able to protect my father as he had protected me.”
Debora Rivers said her grandmother, Mary Zarawinski, hated the nursing home when she first went there. There are a lot of old people here, she told her niece, even though Zarawinski was one of the oldest residents in the facility. “She made it nice for everybody there,” Rivers said outside court.
She also noted that Wettlaufer had described Zarawinski as “‘fun and feisty’ — and she was.”
“The woman lived to be 96 years old for God’s sake,” Rivers said. “We have no way of knowing how long her life might have been. We were pretty sure she was going to make it to 100 and so was she.”
Beverly Bertram, who is Wettlaufer’s sole living victim, wrote about the physical pain she was in after the nurse injected her with insulin with the intent to kill her.
“It is really hard to describe, but I knew I was dying,” she wrote in her statement. “I was doubled over in pain in my stomach ... Just such pain. My whole body hurt ... I thought I was screaming, but I was just moaning I guess.” Bertram wrote that she has become a recluse since the incident.
“I’m afraid of my own shadow. I was afraid she would come back and finish the job,” she said. “I truly think sometimes I’d be better off if she did her deed.”
Most chilling, perhaps, was the account of Sharon Young, the niece of victim Helen Young.
She said she recalled picking up her late aunt’s belongings at the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock and embracing Wettlaufer — the nurse she’d later learn had killed Helen.
“I’m left with the image of my aunt’s last painful hours and the image of hugging and thanking her killer,” Sharon Young said.
Wettlaufer used insulin trying — and in most cases succeeding — to kill vulnerable victims in her care at three Ontario long-term care facilities and a private home.
Her crimes began in 2007 and didn’t stop until she confessed to the killings at a psychiatric hospital in Toronto last fall.
In a lengthy video statement she gave to police last fall, she said she felt a “red surging” well up in her chest that was relieved after she completed a kill.
She believed she was an instrument of God at times, but also killed because some residents were too much work, too burdensome.
On Monday, Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi and Health Minister Eric Hoskins said a formal inquiry will be held into the circumstances of the deaths.