Wettlaufer sent to psychiatric hospital

Families of nurse’s victims surprised

LONDON, ONT. • 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 Wednesday 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 Montréal, 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.

She said she believes Wettlaufer has been manipulating the prison sentence to get to an easier place to serve her time.

“That’s why she wanted to go to prison, because she knew her life would be so much better in prison,” she said.

Like the expectations behind the jailing of McClintic, Andrea Silcox said “we all expected our government, our legal system to keep (Wettlaufer) behind bars,” but Silcox says Wettlaufer is now living “a beautiful life,” away from a prison.

“She’s got it made and she’s not a stupid woman. We’re the stupid ones.”

Andrea Silcox agreed Wettlaufer needs psychiatric help, “but you can’t tell me the counsellors can’t come to the prison.”

Andrea Silcox has launched a lawsuit against Caressant Care for hiring Wettlaufer.