WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Members of a southwestern Ontario community that is no stranger to tragedy expressed shock and outrage Tuesday after learning that a local nurse was accused of killing eight seniors in her care by using drugs.
Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer, 49, of Woodstock, Ont., was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths, which police said took place between 2007 and 2014.
“The victims were administered a drug,” said Det. Supt. Dave Truax of the Ontario Provincial Police. “We’re not in a position at this time to comment further on the specifics of the drug as it forms part of the evidence that is now before the courts.”
He would only say that a number of drugs were stored and accessible in nursing homes.
The victims have been identified as James Silcox, 84, Maurice Granat, 84, Gladys Millard, 87, Helen Matheson, 95, Mary Zurawinski, 96, Helen Young, 90, Maureen Pickering, 79, Arpad Horvath, 75.
Horvath’s daughter, Susan Horvath, said she felt something was amiss before her father died.
“I’d seen my dad and the condition he was in and he had a lot of fear — he had a lot of fear — and just things about him and everything I noticed on his body and stuff, I just had a feeling and I told mom,” she told radio station AM980 in London, Ont., on Tuesday. “And then when he passed on — and how he passed on — that’s when I knew: This is not right.”
Daniel Silcox, of Pontypool, Ont., said he found out about his father being among the alleged victims while listening to the radio Tuesday morning.
“We’re living my father’s death right now,” Silcox said. “It’s horrific.”
Silcox said police had told his sisters about an investigation and briefly interviewed one of them, but the family had no idea what it was about.
His father didn’t like living at the home, had broken his hip at the facility, but the family otherwise had no suspicions that his death might have been a murder, Silcox said.
“We don’t want him to become the poster boy of this tragedy but we would like the story out there: (He was) a wonderful man, a World War II vet, just the best father in the world.”
Arpad Horvath lived at a Meadow Park facility in London, Ont., while the other seven alleged victims lived at the Caressant Care Woodstock Long-Term Care Home in Woodstock, Ont.
Police said they believe Wettlaufer also worked at other long-term care facilities in the province. Investigators could not specify which facilities, nor would they speak to a motive.