It is a case that shocks. A doctor (39) from the team of a Berlin nursing service is said to have killed four patients and set fires in their apartments to cover up the tracks. The police have been investigating since the summer. It is possible that there are more victims. Because now the investigators had a body dug up in a cemetery.
“There was an exhumation in connection with the case on October 8th,” said a Berlin spokesman Public Prosecutor’s Office the German Press Agency. The excavation took place in a cemetery in Neukölln. The spokesman did not provide any information about the gender of the dead man. But: This is not the first exhumation in this case.
The accused doctor has been in custody since the summer on suspicion of manslaughter and arson. After a series of fires in Neukölln and Treptow, in which four women between the ages of 72 and 94 died between June 11th and July 24th, the investigators who took a closer look at these cases quickly came to Johannes M.
Because the dead had one thing in common: they were all apparently cared for by a so-called palliative care doctor who worked for a nursing service that was responsible for these patients. Such doctors look after seriously ill and dying people.
Why did a Berlin doctor kill four dead patients?
Johannes M has remained silent so far. A motive is also unclear. Euthanasia does not appear to be an option. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the seriously ill patients were not even in an acute dying phase at the time of the crime. Robbery-murder also seems to be ruled out, as no valuables have disappeared from the apartments. There is also no evidence of killing on demand so far.
But there is suspicion that the four women were not the doctor’s only victims. This shows the re-exhumation of a corpse. It was previously known that only the remains of one of the four patients had been recovered and examined. A forensic medical examination should clarify what the women really died of.
And now again the excavation of a corpse in a Neukölln cemetery: “We are continuing to investigate whether there is evidence of further crimes,” said the spokesman for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office. According to the information, the results of the latest exhumation are not yet available. ■
