A German doctor has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering 15 patients with lethal doses of sedatives, and authorities are investigating him for potentially dozens more deaths. The court in Berlin convicted the 41-year-old palliative care professional, identified only as Johannes M., of killing 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024.
Presiding judge Sylvia Busch stated that the conviction for 15 murders might only represent a fraction of his crimes, as prosecutors suspect him of killing more than 70 additional people. The judge characterized Johannes M. as a "serial killer" at the center of an "unfathomable" and "extraordinary" case. The court determined that his crimes carried a "particular gravity of guilt," resulting in the harshest possible sentence that significantly limits his chances of parole. He has also been banned from practicing medicine.
The court ruled that his motive was not compassion or a misguided sense of assisted dying, but rather a drive for power over his victims. Prosecutors described the doctor as having a "lust for murder," with "no other motive for killing these people than the act of killing itself." The victims, all under his medical care, ranged in age from 25 to 94.
According to the court's findings, he intentionally administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant, which paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes. In at least five instances, he allegedly attempted to set fire to the victims' apartments to conceal the killings. The court noted that one such attempt to incinerate a crime scene failed when the fire did not ignite.
Johannes M. confessed to having "killed people" and expressed despair over his actions, stating he now understood "the extent of the suffering" he had caused. The court detailed two specific instances of murder on July 8, 2024, where he killed a 75-year-old man at his home in Berlin's Kreuzberg district and a 76-year-old woman in the neighboring Neukölln district a few hours later.
Suspicions about Johannes M.'s activities were initially raised by care services, prompting a police investigation. He was arrested in August 2024 and remanded in custody. Investigators initially focused on four cases, but the number of suspicious deaths under scrutiny continued to increase. The case draws parallels to that of Niels Hoegel, a German nurse jailed for life in 2019 for murdering 85 patients, and another palliative care nurse sentenced to life in November for the murder of 10 patients and the attempted murder of 27 others.