Convicted murderer Orville Lynn Majors, who was serving 360 years at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, has died.

Majors was a nurse suspected of killing dozens of patients at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton by injecting them with potassium chloride. He was convicted in six deaths back in 1999.

This past Sunday, September 24, 2017, correctional officers were assisting with a medical pass for Majors. According to a press release, he was breathing heavily and becoming unresponsive.

A medical emergency was declared and correctional staff performed CPR and applied an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

Majors was transported to the Custody Hall where LaPorte County EMS continued CPR. Majors was pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Hospital in Michigan City by the LaPorte County Coroner.

Preliminary autopsy results show cardiac issues with death due to natural causes.

Majors, 56, of Linton, Indiana was serving a 360 year sentence for the six murder convictions, being served consecutively. His earliest projected release date had been July 1, 2177.</s>Convicted Indiana serial killer Orville Lynn Majors has died, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.

The 56-year-old native of Linton, Ind., was serving a 360-year sentence on six murder convictions.

Indiana State Prison correctional officers were assisting with a medical pass for Majors Sunday afternoon when he became unresponsive, according to a news release. Staff performed CPR and applied a defibrillator. LaPorte County EMS also performed CPR.

He was later pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Hospital in Michigan City, Ind.

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An autopsy conducted Monday revealed cardiac issues and determined he died of natural causes, according to the release.

Majors, a former licensed practical nurse, was found guilty in 1999 of the murder of six patients at the former Vermillion County Hospital whom he injected with heart-stopping drugs. Although Majors was convicted in six deaths, investigators compiled a list of more than 150 suspicious deaths at the hospital.

One nurse's review noted that Majors was working when 130 of 147 patients died over a 22-month period in the hospital's intensive care unit. More than a dozen bodies were exhumed during the 2 1/2-year investigation.

Some called him "The Angel of Death." During his sentencing, Judge Ernest Yelton called the murders "a paragon of evil."

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.</s>Orville Lynn Majors, who was convicted of killing six people while he was a nurse at a rural Indiana hospital, has died while serving a 360-year sentence, state prison officials said Monday.The 56-year-old Majors was having breathing problems and became unresponsive Sunday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Preliminary autopsy results show Majors had heart problems and died of natural causes, the department said.Majors was convicted in 1999 on murder charges that he gave lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients in the mid-1990s at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Indianapolis near the Indiana-Illinois state line. The jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict on a seventh murder count.He was suspected of causing dozens of more deaths.Prosecutors said Majors injected the patients with epinephrine and potassium chloride while he was a licensed practical nurse in the four-bed intensive care unit of the rural community's hospital.Prosecutors built their case around the fact that Majors was present, and often alone, when each patient died. They also presented as evidence vials of potassium chloride and syringes found by Indiana State Police investigators at a house where Majors once lived in.Statistical studies linked Majors to as many as 130 of 147 deaths at the hospital's ICU - many involving sudden respiratory failures - from May 1993 to March 1995, but Judge Ernest Yelton didn't allow the information to be used as evidence at Majors' trial.Yelton, who is now retired, said during the sentencing that Majors "was entrusted with these people's care. In response he committed diabolical acts that extinguished the frail lives of six people."On Monday, Yelton said he realized many other families believed Majors killed their relatives and that the case leaves unresolved grief in the rural county of about 16,000 residents."It cut a broad swath across Vermillion County and caused an incredible amount of pain and anguish," he said.Majors maintained his innocence and his defense attorneys presented medical experts and family doctors during his trial who said the seven patients he was charged with killing all died naturally.Survivors of about 80 patients who died while Majors was at the hospital in Clinton filed wrongful-death lawsuits, said Terre Haute attorney Eric Frey, who represented many of the families. Most of those were settled through a state compensation fund for patients, he said.Hospital administrators asked police to investigate in 1995 after another nurse's study found the ICU's death rate increased from 31 or less each year in the early 1990s to 120 in 1994. At least 15 bodies were exhumed over the next two years to test drug levels.Frey said he believed it was clear Majors was responsible for many of the deaths, even though prosecutors narrowed their focus to only the cases they believed had the strongest evidence that Majors gave his patients unauthorized and lethal injections."These were not normal deaths," Frey said Monday. "At least one day the whole unit died - all four people in the unit died."Yelton recalled that many relatives of patients who died attended Majors' trial even though he wasn't charged with killing their family members. Yelton said he knows many of those families wished they had certainty that Majors was involved in their loved ones' deaths."The fact that he was found guilty and the fact that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison, I feel confident did give them some ease and some relief," Yelton said.</s>MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WISH) — A serial killer dubbed the “Angel of Death” during his criminal investigation has died in prison, state officials announced Monday.

Orville Lynn Majors Jr. died Sunday, the Indiana State Prison said in a news release Monday. A preliminary autopsy showed cardiac issues with death due to natural causes.

A licensed practical nurse, Majors, 56, of Linton, was sentenced Oct. 17, 1999, to six consecutive 60-year prison terms in Clay County for performing lethal injections on six patients at the Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton. He injected the patients with potassium chloride in 1994 and 1995, according to media reports about the sentencing. A 400 percent increase in deaths at the hospital, many in the four-bed intensive care unit where Majors worked, initiated the investigation. Investigators believed Majors may have been responsible for more than 100 deaths from 1993 to 1995.

The investigation and trial brought national media attention to the small city of Linton.

His earliest projected release date had been July 1, 2177.

On Sunday, correctional officers were assisting with a medical pass for Majors, who was breathing heavily and became unresponsive, the release said. The prison staff performed CPR and applied an automated external defibrillator, and LaPorte County emergency medical responders later continued the CPR as he was taken to Franciscan Health Michigan City hospital, where the county coroner said Majors died at 5:11 p.m.
• Download the WISH-TV app for your iPhone/iPad in the App Store
• Download the WISH-TV app in the Google Play store</s>MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WANE) Orville Majors, the Indiana hospital worker sentenced to 360 years in prison for the killings of at least six patients, died at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City Sunday afternoon. He was 56.

Correction officers found Majors breathing heavy in his cell around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, and declared a medical emergency when he became unresponsive. The staff performed CPR on Majors and he was shocked with a defibrillator before he was transported to the Custody Hall where LaPorte County EMS continued CPR.

Majors was pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Hospital in Michigan City by the La Porte County Coroner just more than a half-hour later, at 5:11 p.m. on Sunday.

An autopsy showed Majors died of cardiac issues and his death was found to be of natural causes, the Indiana Department of Corrections said.

Nicknamed the “Angel of Death,” Majors was serving a 360-year sentence for the deaths of six elderly patients at Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, Indiana in 1994 and 1995. Majors, a registered nurse at the small hospital, injected the patients with potassium chloride.

The charges came out of what was Indiana’s greatest criminal investigations, launched after the hospital charted a 400 percent increase in its death rate – primarily in the intensive care unit Majors worked in.

While Majors was only convicted of six killings, investigators believed he may have committed more than 100 between 1993 and 1995.</s>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - State prison officials say Orville Lynn Majors, who was convicted of killing six people while a nurse at an Indiana hospital, has died.

Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Douglas Garrison says the 56-year-old Majors died Sunday. A prison system statement says Majors was having breathing problems and became unresponsive at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Prison officials say preliminary autopsy results show Majors had heart problems and died of natural causes.

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 1999, file photo, Orville Lynn Majors, right, is escorted into court in Brazil, Ind., for what might be the final day of defense testimony. A state prison official said that Majors, who was convicted in 1999 of killing six people while a nurse at an Indiana hospital and was serving a 360-year sentence, died Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, of natural causes at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. (AP Photo/Chuck Robinson, File)

Majors was serving a 360-year sentence. He was convicted in 1999 on charges he gave lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Indianapolis near the Indiana-Illinois state line.

This story has been corrected to show that Majors was pronounced dead at a hospital, not the prison.</s>State prison officials say Orville Lynn Majors, who was convicted of killing six people while a nurse at an Indiana hospital, has died.

Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Douglas Garrison says the 56-year-old Majors died Sunday. A prison system statement says Majors was having breathing problems and became unresponsive at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Prison officials say preliminary autopsy results show Majors had heart problems and died of natural causes.

Majors was serving a 360-year sentence. He was convicted in 1999 on charges he gave lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Indianapolis near the Indiana-Illinois state line.

This story has been corrected to show that Majors was pronounced dead at a hospital, not the prison.</s>(AP Photo/Chuck Robinson, File). CORRECTS SITE OF MAJORS' DEATH TO NEARBY HOSPITAL, NOT THE PRISON - FILE - In this Oct. 6, 1999, file photo, Orville Lynn Majors, right, is escorted into court in Brazil, Ind., for what might be the final day of defense...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Orville Lynn Majors, who was convicted of killing six people while he was a nurse at a rural Indiana hospital, has died while serving a 360-year sentence, state prison officials said Monday.

The 56-year-old Majors was having breathing problems and became unresponsive Sunday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Preliminary autopsy results show Majors had heart problems and died of natural causes, the department said.

Majors was convicted in 1999 on murder charges that he gave lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients in the mid-1990s at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Indianapolis near the Indiana-Illinois state line. The jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict on a seventh murder count.

He was suspected of causing dozens of more deaths.

Prosecutors said Majors injected the patients with epinephrine and potassium chloride while he was a licensed practical nurse in the intensive care unit of the rural community's hospital.

Prosecutors built their case around the fact that Majors was present, and often alone, when each patient died. They also presented as evidence vials of potassium chloride and syringes found by Indiana State Police investigators at a house where Majors once lived in.

Statistical studies linked Majors to as many as 130 of 147 deaths at the hospital's ICU - many involving sudden respiratory failures - from May 1993 to March 1995, but Judge Ernest Yelton didn't allow the information to be used as evidence at Majors' trial.

Yelton, who is now retired, said during the sentencing that Majors "committed diabolical acts that extinguished the frail lives of six people."

On Monday, Yelton said he realized many other families believed Majors killed their relatives and that the case leaves unresolved grief in the rural county of about 16,000 residents.

"It cut a broad swath across Vermillion County and caused an incredible amount of pain and anguish," he said.

Majors maintained his innocence and his defense attorneys presented medical experts and family doctors during his trial who said the seven patients he was charged with killing all died naturally.

Survivors of about 80 patients who died while Majors was at the hospital in Clinton filed wrongful-death lawsuits, said Terre Haute attorney Eric Frey, who represented many of the families. Most of those were settled through the state compensation fund for patients, he said.

This story has been corrected to show that Majors was pronounced dead at a hospital, not the prison.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A state prison official says Orville Lynn Majors, who was convicted of killing six people while a nurse at an Indiana hospital, has died.

Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Douglas Garrison says Majors died of natural causes Sunday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

Majors was convicted in 1999 on charges he gave lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients at the former Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Indianapolis near the Indiana-Illinois state line.</s>MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. – A Linton man serving a 360-year sentence for six murder convictions died in northern Indiana Sunday evening.

The Indiana State Prison says 56-year-old Orville Majors was breathing heavily and became unresponsive when correctional officers were assisting with a medical pass at 4:33 p.m.

A medical emergency was declared and the correctional staff performed CPR and applied an AED. Majors was transported to the Custody Hall, where EMS continued CPR.

The La Porte County Coroner pronounced the inmate dead at the Franciscan Health Hospital in Michigan City at 5:11 p.m.

The preliminary results of an autopsy performed on Monday “show cardiac issues with death due to natural causes.”
Indiana gerontophobe and prolific serial killer Orville Lynn Majors, believed to have committed as many as 130 nursing home murders between 1993 and 1995, dies in prison at the age of 56.