BERLIN — A German nurse serving a life sentence for murdering two of his patients is believed to have killed at least 86 people entrusted to his care, officials said Monday, in what they described as an imagination-defying series of crimes.

The nurse, identified as Niels Högel, was sentenced to life in prison in February 2015, after he confessed and a court in the northern town of Oldenburg found him guilty of administering overdoses of heart medication to some patients in an intensive care ward in Delmenhorst. He was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and causing bodily harm to patients and is serving his sentence.

During his trial, the former nurse had also confessed to intentionally inducing cardiac crises in 90 of his patients, 30 of whom he said had died. That prompted officials to launch an investigation into the deaths of some 130 of Mr. Högel’s former patients. The results were presented on Monday in Oldenburg.

At least 84 of the convicted killer’s former patients were found to have died after suffering from injections of five different forms of medication, Johan Kühme, the chief of police in Oldenburg told reporters.</s>German Nurse Suspected Of Murdering At Least 86 Patients In His Care

A German police investigation has found evidence that a former nurse murdered at least 86 people in his care.

"The realization of what we were able to learn is horrifying," Johan Kühme, chief of police in the northern German city of Oldenburg told news outlets, including the The New York Times. "It defies any scope of the imagination."

The nurse, Niels Högel, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. But during his trial, he said he had killed many others.

Högel admitted he had intentionally induced cardiac arrest in 90 of his patients by administering overdoses of heart medication. He said he enjoyed trying to revive his patients, the Times reports, but sometimes failed.

These admissions led police to launch an investigation into other times patients had died in his care.

"The special commission, launched in October 2014, combed through evidence that included more than 500 patient files," according to the Times. "It based its conclusions in part on toxicology tests on the remains of 134 possible victims, who were exhumed to see if they contained traces of the chemicals the nurse had confessed to using."

Police await toxicology reports in 41 cases. The actual number of those he killed may be greater still and never known, as the bodies of some of his former patients were cremated and could not be exhumed.

"The death toll is unique in the history of the German republic," said the chief police investigator, Arne Schmidt, according to The Guardian. There was "evidence for at least 90 murders, and at least as many [suspected] cases again that can no longer be proven," he said, adding that Högel had chosen his victims at random.

Högel's career as a nurse was ghastly throughout, as the Guardian reports:

"Police believe that the man whom the Bild newspaper is calling 'Germany's worst serial killer' carried out his first murder in February 2000, when he was still employed at a clinic in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, close to the Dutch border. "After killing at least another 35 patients, he moved in 2002 to a hospital in Delmenhorst near the north-western city of Bremen, where he resumed his grisly practice within a week of starting his new job. "Högel would inject patients' veins with a cardiovascular drug in order to orchestrate medical emergencies that would require him to step in and resuscitate them in the hospital's intensive care unit. "The nurse used five different drugs including ajmaline, sotalol, lidocaine, amiodarone and calcium chloride, police said on Monday. Overdoses can lead to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia and a drop in blood pressure, causing a rapid decline in an already ill patient."

Also troubling is that Högel's lethal practices went unreported by fellow hospital staff. Though others noticed that the number of deaths in the intensive care unit at Delmenhorst doubled during his time there, nothing was done.

In 2005, a colleague saw Högel injecting a patient with ajmaline, but management didn't do anything about it for two days, during which Högel killed his final patient. Six employees at the hospital at Delmenhorst are now charged with negligent manslaughter for their failure to act. An investigation into neglect at Oldenburg is ongoing.

"The murders could have been prevented," Kühme told the Guardian, noting that Högel was given a clean reference which allowed him to move to the Delmenhorst hospital and continue killing people. "People at the clinic in Oldenburg knew of the abnormalities."

Though Högel is already serving a life sentence, he is expected to be tried on additional charges based on the investigation's findings.</s>Johann Kühme, the chief of police in the German city of Oldenburg, held a press conference on Monday to announce that his investigative team now believed Niels Högel killed 84 more patients than previously thought. Högel has been convicted of two murders, and investigators say the number of his victims has reached at least 90
• German nurse suspected of murdering at least 90 patients</s>A male nurse convicted of murdering patients with overdoses is facing new charges that would make him Germany’s most prolific serial killer since the Second World War.

Niels Högel was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for murdering two patients in his care by deliberately administering them with overdoses.

Police said on Monday they now have evidence to charge him with the murder of another 84 patients — and they believe the actual number he killed could be even higher.

Prosecutors said the 40-year-old, who is currently serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 15 years, would face trial on the new charges some time in 2018.

Högel told his 2015 trial he had administered the lethal overdoses so he could show off his resuscitation skills by saving the patients.</s>German former male nurse Niels H hiding his face behind a folder. (AFP)</s>FRANKFURT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A German nurse jailed for murdering two patients is suspected of killing at least 84 other people, police said on Monday.

The man, identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, has "confessed in many of those cases", a police statement said, but could not remember all the details of his actions. If confirmed, the death toll would be among the worst ever compiled by a German serial killer.

In past hearings, Niels H. admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero, German broadcaster NDR said.

He was convicted of two charges of attempted murder and two counts of murder by an Oldenburg court in 2015.

Police said on Monday that they had investigated additional deaths at hospitals in the northern German cities of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst after exhuming the remains of 134 people with links to Niels H.

They said he had used five different drugs on the patients, including alkaloid ajmaline and arrhythmia drug sotalol, between 1999 and 2005.

Toxicological reports for 41 people have not been completed, which means the number of victims could rise, police said.

Prosecutors have also charged six people who worked with Niels H. at the Delmenhorst hospital on suspicion of failing to stop the killing even though they were aware of it.

Ten years ago, a German nurse was convicted of killing 28 elderly patients. He said he gave them lethal injections because he felt sorry for them. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In Britain, Dr. Harold Shipman was believed to have killed as many as 250 people, most of them elderly and middle-aged women who were his patients. Known as Dr. Death, Shipman was sentenced to 15 life terms in 2000; he died prison in 2004, apparently a suicide. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Larry King)</s>Police said on Monday that a German nurse who was jailed for murdering two patients, is suspected of killing 84 others.

Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuehme told journalists that the additional murder cases arose after investigations dug up the remains of 134 people with links to the man.

Kuehme said the number of victims could be even higher as some of the deceased had been cremated.

If convicted, the man identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, would be one of Germany’s most prolific serial killers.

German broadcaster, NDR, said in past hearings, he admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero.

The man, now aged 40, was convicted in the northern city of Oldenburg of two charges of attempted murder and two counts of murder in 2015.(Reuters/NAN)</s>A nurse who was convicted of killing patients in Germany with overdoses of heart medication is now believed to have killed at least 84 people - and investigators believe the true scale of the killings could be larger.

Niels Hoegel was convicted in 2015 of two murders and two attempted murders at a clinic in the northwestern town of Delmenhorst. But prosecutors have long said they believe he killed more people, last year putting the figure at 43 at least.

The crimes came to light after Hoegel was convicted of attempted murder in another case. Authorities subsequently investigated hundreds of deaths, exhuming bodies of former patients in Delmenhorst and nearby Oldenburg.

Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuehme said authorities have now unearthed evidence of 84 killings in addition to the ones for which Hoegel was convicted. The number of killings was likely higher because some victims were cremated, making it impossible to gather evidence, Kuehme added.

"Eighty-four killings ... leave us speechless," Kuehme told reporters. "And as if all that were not enough, we must realize that the real dimension of the killings by Niels H. is likely many times worse."</s>A German nurse currently serving a life sentence in prison for murdering six patients may have killed 84 more, making him one of the country’s worst ever serial killers, police and prosecutors said Monday.

Niels Hoegel, 40, was jailed in 2015 after being convicted of killing six people.

Authorities have subsequently investigated hundreds of deaths, which included exhuming bodies of former patients in the clinics where Hoegel worked in Delmenhorst and Oldenburg in northwest Germany.

Police told CNN they believe Hoegel killed 36 patients in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2001, and another 48 people from the hospital in Delmenhorst.

Police say the number of victims may be even higher but the final number may never be known as some possible victims were cremated.

In past hearings, Hoegel admitted to injecting patients with a drug that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them, French news agency AFP reported.

He said he felt euphoric when he managed to bring a patient back to life, and devastated when he failed, AFP said.

Johann Kuehme, the Oldenburg police chief, told journalists at a press conference Monday that the number of victims had left authorities “speechless.”

“The killings could have been prevented if the people responsible at the time — and I stress at the time — particularly at the Oldenburg clinic but also later on in Delmenhorst hadn’t hesitated to alert authorities, for example the state prosecution,” he said.</s>Police say nurse convicted of murdering patients by injecting them with deadly medication may have killed scores more.

A former German nurse serving a life sentence for murdering patients by injecting them with a deadly medication is suspected of killing 84 other people, according to police.

If convicted, the man identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, would be one of the worst serial killers in the country's criminal history.

A court order to exhume scores of former patients treated by the suspect found traces of the medication in 84 cases, Johann Kuehme the police chief in the northern German city of Oldenburg told a press conference on Monday.

Kuehme said police believe that the numbers of deaths could be even higher. However, many of the patients who died have since been cremated.

In past hearings, the nurse, now aged 40, admitted deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero, German media said.

'Murders could have been prevented'

An Oldenburg court sentenced H to life in prison in February 2015 on two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and causing bodily harm to patients.

During his trial in 2015, the former nurse also confessed to murdering more patients during his career.

His confession prompted police to establish a special commission to investigate the deaths at two clinics where he worked - in Oldenburg and the nearby town of Delmenhorst.

The commission has been analysing hundreds of medical records and has exhumed more than 100 bodies to test them for traces of drugs.

In June 2016, police and prosecutors concluded that the man had killed 33 patients at the clinic in Oldenburg and that he had done so out of a desire to win approval by taking heroic measures trying to resuscitate them.

He injected patients with a drug so that they suffered heart failure or a shut down their circulation systems.

Two former senior physicians and the head of station at the Delmenhorst clinic are also facing manslaughter charges in relation to the deaths of the patients.

Investigators said their probe into the events at Oldenburg clinic are still ongoing.

"The murders could have been prevented," said Kuehme, with investigators believing that those responsible at the time could have acted faster.

"The clinic in Oldenburg knew about the irregularities," said Kuehme.
Investigations concerning Niels Högel, a German nurse already convicted for murdering two of his patients, revealed that the number of people killed while in his care is significantly higher, reaching at least 84, with some estimates being even higher. This makes Högel the serial killer with the highest known victim count in modern German history.