Who is ‘Doctor Death’, accused of killing patients with lethal injections in Germany? Trial begins for murders

A German doctor was put on trial on Monday (July 14) for allegedly killing 15 patients with lethal injections and playing "master of life and death" over patients under his care. The 40-year-old palliative care physician, identified by German media as Johannes M, is suspected of having killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024, while practicing in Berlin. The doctor is accused of having injected victims, who were between 25 and 94 years old, with lethal mixtures of sedatives and in other instances burning down their houses in an attempt to cover up his crimes.

The defendant had “visited his patients under the pretext of providing medical care”, state prosecutor Philipp Meyhoefer said at the beginning of the trial in the Berlin state court. Johannes M had planned "house calls, already with the intention of killing" and exploited his patients' faith in him as a physician, Meyhoefer explained further. "He acted with disregard for life... and behaved as the master of life and death."

A colleague initially raised concerns about Johannes M last July when he became suspicious that so many of his patients had died in fires, Die Zeit newspaper reported. He was arrested in August last year, as prosecutors initially charged him with four deaths. But further investigations revealed a multitude of other suspicious cases, and in April prosecutors indicted Johannes M. on 15 counts of murder.

Another 96 cases are under investigation, a spokesman for the prosecutors was quoted saying to AFP, including the death of Johannes M's mother-in-law. She had been ill with cancer and died under mysterious circumstances over the same weekend Johannes M and his wife traveled to see her in Poland early in 2024, according to media reports. The suspect allegedly qualified as a radiologist and an general practitioner before proceeding to specialise in palliative medicine.

According to Die Zeit, he submitted a doctoral thesis in 2013 examining the reasons for a string of murders in Frankfurt, which began with the question "Why do people kill?"

In the indictment against Johannes M, prosecutors said the physician had "injected his patients with an anaesthetic and a muscle relaxant. without their knowledge or consent.". The relaxant "paralysed the respiratory muscles, causing respiratory arrest and death within minutes".

‘No motive beyond killing’

Prosecutors said that he has "no motive beyond killing" and are calling for a life sentence. The case is reminiscent of that of infamous German nurse Niels Hoegel, who was sentenced to life in 2019 after being convicted of killing 85 patients.

Hoegel, who is believed to be modern Germany's most prolific serial killer, killed hospital patients through lethal injections between 2000 and 2005, before he was finally apprehended in the act.

In more recent times, a 27-year-old nurse received a life sentence in 2023 for killing two patients by intentionally giving them unprescribed medication. A nurse was tried last month in Aachen charged with injecting 26 patients with heavy doses of sedatives or painkillers, killing nine of them.

Last week, German police uncovered that they are investigating another suspected serial killer doctor who has allegedly killed several of their predominantly elderly patients. Police and prosecutors said investigators are "examining" deaths attributable to the physician in the northern German town of Pinneberg, on the outskirts of Hamburg.