Trial of a doctor accused of killing 15 patients and suffocating them with a lethal mixture of drugs
A trial has begun in Berlin for a German doctor specializing in palliative care, accused of killing 15 patients under his care by administering a lethal mix of drugs, and then setting fire to some of their homes to cover up the traces of his crimes. The public prosecutor has charged the 40-year-old doctor with "premeditated murder for base motives" and is seeking a life sentence, which usually means 15 years in Germany. The prosecution is also trying to prove "extremely serious guilt," which could lead to his detention after serving his sentence and a lifetime ban from practicing medicine.
At the opening of the sessions, Prosecutor Philip Mayhoefer stated that the doctor was arranging home visits with the intent to kill patients "without their knowledge or consent" using "a lethal mix of several medications," and emphasized that he "acted with disregard for life and behaved as if he were the master of death and life." It is believed that two of the crimes occurred on the same day in 2024. Investigations are still ongoing into dozens of other suspicious cases linked to the same doctor, who has been publicly identified as Johannes M. According to German privacy laws, he was arrested last August.
The accused worked in a mobile care service providing palliative care for terminally ill patients in their homes. His victims — 12 women and three men — ranged in age from 25 to 94 years old, and died between September 2021 and July 2024. It is believed that he was administering a sedative combined with a muscle relaxant that caused respiratory muscle paralysis and suffocated them within minutes, although all the victims were suffering from serious conditions, none of them were expected to die at that time.
The suspicions of one of his colleagues at work raised the case after noticing that at least five of Johannes M.'s patients had died in suspicious fires, prompting authorities to open a criminal investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Berlin announced that there are about 70 other deaths under investigation, including the death of the doctor's mother-in-law in Poland at the beginning of 2024, who was suffering from cancer. The accused refused to speak in court or undergo a psychological examination, and his motives remain unknown so far.
The trial is set to continue until late January 2026, with around 150 witnesses expected to be called, while 13 relatives of the victims have joined the lawsuit as civil claimants. The case recalls the case of German nurse Niels Högel, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 after being convicted of killing 85 patients by injecting them with lethal doses between 2000 and 2005, and Högel is considered the most dangerous serial killer in Germany since World War II.