Police: examination of exhumed body strengthens murder case against nurse

Deadly levels of morphine found in remains of 91-year-old

print this

Police suspect that a 26-year-old nurse, who has been held on suspicion of killing two mentally handicapped residents of the Ylinen rehabilitation centre in Ylöjärvi with overdoses of insulin last summer, might also have been behind the death of a 91-year-old woman at the Health Centre in the city of Nokia.
      Medical examiners found deadly levels of morphine in the woman's exhumed body.
      Police say that the suspect was involved in care for the woman in the last stages of her life.
      The death of the 91-year-old woman is one of the cases re-examined after suspicions were raised over deaths that had occurred under the watch of the suspected nurse. Five bodies were disinterred in September, and the investigations into the causes of death are still underway.
     
Police began to investigate the activities of the nurse after a young child who is a relative of hers suffered insulin poisoning at a summer cottage in Kuru. This led police to look more closely at the deaths of a 54-year-old man and a 79-year-old woman, who were mentally handicapped. The nurse, who was working at the Ylinen rehabilitation centre in Ylöjärvi, is suspected of killing them with overdoses of insulin.
      She is also under suspicion of trying to kill a 72-year mentally handicapped man in Ylinen.
      Police say that the deaths in Ylöjärvi and Nokia had no connection with the insulin-induced death of a 21-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who died at the Lehtimäki Institute in South Ostrobothnia in July. Two women who worked at the institute are suspected in the Lehtimäki case.
     
Analysis of the other bodies unearthed in Nokia revealed other substances as well, and Paavo Tuominen of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that so far, the 91-year-old woman is the only one in which it is clear that the deceased had a lethal dose.
      The morphine content in the blood of the 91-year-old was nearly four milligrams per litre. In her final days she was administered some morphine for pain, but the normal therapeutic dose for a pain patient is less than one thirtieth of the amount detected in the analysis.
      Erkki Vuori, a professor of forensic chemistry, notes that what constitutes a lethal dose of morphine depends on the patient and the conditions; just one milligramme per litre of blood would induce an exceptional toxic state.
     
Insulin was found in all of the exhumed bodies, even though only one of deceased had suffered from diabetes. It is not easy to determine if the insulin was injected, or if it was naturally occurring.
      Samples have been sent to a German doping laboratory with the purpose of ascertaining if it is possible to distinguish between the two types of insulin. The laboratory has experience in this, but it remains uncertain if samples from the deceased can yield reliable results.
      "It is a laboratory for the living", Tuominen points out.
      The nurse herself has denied any connection with the deaths. Tuominen says that the investigation has not yielded any sensible motive.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police investigating use of insulin in Lehtimäki death (7.9.2007)
  Police suspect homicide in insulin death of disabled person (6.9.2007)
  Bodies exhumed in connection with poisoning investigation (5.9.2007)
  Ylöjärvi poisoning suspicions alert authorities of need to check criminal backgrounds of workers (15.8.2007)
  Nurse remanded over suspected double murder (13.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat