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A Berlin palliative care physician has been officially charged with the murder of 15 patients, a case prosecutors called chilling and motivated by a “lust for killing.”
The 40-year-old suspect, named by German media as Johannes M., is charged with murdering 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024 by secretly giving them a lethal combination of sedatives and muscle relaxants. The drugs allegedly induced paralysis of the respiratory muscles, which resulted in death within minutes.
As per a report by the Berlin prosecutor’s office, the victims were aged between 25 and 94 years and were all in custody at the time of the purported crimes.
Cover-Ups and Arson Attempts
In a chilling turn of events, prosecutors say the suspect attempted to conceal his crimes on several occasions by starting fires in the apartments of the victims. On one such occasion on July 8, 2024, the doctor is accused of murdering a 75-year-old man in the Kreuzberg area and, hours later, a 76-year-old woman in the Neukoelln district. He allegedly tried to ignite a fire at the woman’s apartment building, but it did not take hold.
When the fire didn’t spread, the doctor reportedly told a victim’s relative that he had been concerned after she didn’t answer his doorbell.
On another occasion, detectives say he rang emergency services himself “in fear of being caught,” falsely reporting that he had begun resuscitation on a 56-year-old victim, who died in hospital.
A Growing List of Accusations
Since his arrest in August 2024, the charges against the doctor have gradually increased. Initially detained on suspicion of manslaughter in four cases, the probe widened in November to eight suspected murders. Authorities now have 15 confirmed victims, with additional cases being reviewed.
Prosecutors claim the murders were premeditated, committed with “malice aforethought” and without motive other than a personal urge to kill.
“The accused seems to have had no reason to murder the individuals other than the act of murder itself,” the prosecution added, explaining the suspect’s actions as motivated by a “lust for murder.”
A special investigative team is now scrutinizing a whopping 395 suspicious cases associated with the suspect’s working past. To date, 95 have been problematic, and 12 exhumations have already been conducted, five of which are directly connected with the victims named in the charges. Authorities intend to pursue a number more over the coming weeks.
Comparable Cases in Germany
This case is reminiscent of a similar trial also underway in Germany, where an Aachen nurse is accused of killing nine patients in palliative care by using too much in sedatives and painkillers. In this case, the prosecutors allege that the nurse committed the crimes in order to streamline his workload at night and imagined himself to be the “master of life and death.”
Prosecutors are demanding a lifelong professional exclusion for the Berlin physician and requesting his preventative detention for public safety.
