The suspected poisoner from the Nord Franche-Comté hospital in Trévenans (Territoire de Belfort) was finally heard by the gendarmes. His police custody, kept secret until now, took place on October 13. Information confirmed by the Belfort prosecutor’s office. During his hearing, Dominique, a 57-year-old nursing assistant, allegedly admitted to having regularly injected neuroleptic products into the bottles or plates of his work colleagues. But without giving, it seems, convincing explanations to the investigators on the motive of his acts. For example, would she have sought to gain recognition and recognition in contrast to the faltering states of form of her colleagues? Impossible to say for the moment.
In total, between seven and eight nurses or nursing assistants working like her in the night shift of the intensive care unit had been subject to episodes of intense fatigue marked by sudden fall asleep or speech difficulties. These symptoms occurred from 2015 until the day Dominique was caught in the act, with video to back it up, in June 2019.
At first, however, the questioning ensured that it was only a completely harmless holy water. “I didn’t do anything wrong, I never wanted to hurt anyone, it was holy water…”, she told Parisien-Today in France in early September 2020, a few days after the case was publicized. This line of defense, she had already exposed during her visit to members of the disciplinary committee of her hospital in the summer of 2019 following complaints filed by ten of her ex-colleagues. The nursing assistant was then excluded from the public service and a preliminary investigation had been opened for “administration of harmful substance” by Eric Plantier, public prosecutor of Belfort.
Exemption in the death of a colleague asleep at the wheel
But the analyzes carried out on the hair of several of its potential victims revealed the presence of at least two neuroleptic products. Products that Dominique, a dedicated caregiver involved in her work, could have at her leisure within the hospital. At the end of her custody on October 13, the 50-year-old was left free pending further checks.
According to our information, psychiatric expertises were carried out at the end of last year to try to probe the possible personal faults of Dominique. Will they shed light on the acts of poisoning of which she is suspected? The results, expected in the coming weeks, should give a decisive orientation for the rest of the procedure.
The investigation also made it possible to put it out of cause in the death of Rose which occurred at the end of a road accident in January 2019. This caregiver, employee of the same hospital, but attached to another service, had fallen asleep while driving her vehicle on her way home after a night of work. No trace of neuroleptic product could be detected on the victim. And the comparison of the schedules would have made it possible to establish that Dominique was not working that night.
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