Killer nurse transferred to psychiatric hospital

Family members of some of Elizabeth Wettlaufer’s murder victims were shocked to learn she is now serving some of her time in a secure psychiatric hospital in Montreal.

A report from Global News in Ottawa said Daniel Silcox — son of James Silcox, 84, the first of Wettlaufer’s victims at Woodstock’s Caressant Care nursing home — had been trying for months to find out where Wettlaufer, 51, was transferred eight months ago. She began her life sentence, with no chance for parole for 25 years, in June 2017 after pleading guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault for her years-long deadly campaign of overdosing vulnerable people with insulin, most of them while working in nursing homes in Woodstock and London. Correctional Service Canada wouldn’t give Silcox the killer nurse’s specific location but, after CSC received a media inquiry, it called him to say Wettlaufer was at Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montreal, a hospital with a specific medical wing for female federal inmates.

Silcox’s renewed effort to find out was sparked by recent reports that Terri-Lynne McClintic, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of eight-year-old Woodstock schoolgirl Victoria Stafford, has been transferred to an Indigenous healing lodge. Outrage over McClintic’s move led to a vote in the House of Commons aimed at reversing Correctional Service Canada’s decision. The motion failed with the Liberals and New Democrats voting against it. Andrea Silcox, James Silcox’s daughter, said she didn’t know about Wettlaufer’s move to the hospital from prison. “I’m extremely angry they’ve done this, but not surprised,” she said Wednesday. She said she believes Wettlaufer has been manipulating the prison sentence to get to an easier place to serve her time. She agreed Wettlaufer needs psychiatric help, “but you can’t tell me the counsellors can’t come to the prison.” She has launched a lawsuit against Caressant Care for hiring Wettlaufer. Arpad Horvath Jr., whose father was Wettlaufer’s last murder victim after he was overdosed at London’s Meadow Park nursing home, didn’t know she was in a psychiatric hospital.

“She does need help, there’s no two ways about it,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me as long as she doesn’t get outside of there,” he said. “At least she’s not out on the street or under house arrest.”