Roger ANDERMATT

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Nurse - Angel of Death
Number of victims: 22 - 27
Date of murders: 1995 - 2001
Date of arrest: June 2001
Date of birth: 1969
Victims profile: Women between 66 and 95 (patients)
Method of murders: Lethal doses of medication / Smothering with plastic bags
Location: Sarnen, Switzerland
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on January 27, 2005

Swiss Nurse Is Sentenced for 22 Murders

By Reuters

28 January 2005

Zurich, Jan. 28 (Reuters) - A Swiss nurse has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering 22 nursing home patients over a six-year period.

The sentence, handed down by the Lucerne criminal court in central Switzerland and published on Friday, was longer than the 17 years demanded by the prosecutor.

The nurse, 36-year-old Roger Andermatt, killed the patients, most of them women between 66 and 95, with lethal injections or by smothering them with plastic bags at several nursing homes where he worked between 1995 and 2001.

He said he had acted from compassion for his ailing victims, because he wanted to end their suffering, and because he and his nursing colleagues were severely overburdened.

The prosecutor said Mr. Andermatt had cooperated with the investigation and even admitted further crimes for which there was no proof.

Mr. Andermatt, who will spend a minimum of 15 years in jail, was ordered to pay 75,000 Swiss francs, or $63,000, compensation to relatives of four of his victims and court costs of $161,000.

Life for Swiss "Angel of Death"

January 28, 2005

A Swiss male nurse has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering 22 of his patients in nursing homes.

Roger Andermatt, 36, was found guilty of killing them by lethal injection or suffocation, and of attempting to murder five other elderly patients.

Dubbed the Angel of Death by the local media, Andermatt said he had acted from compassion for his frail victims.

The Lucerne court also ordered him to pay SFr75,000 ($63,000) compensation to four victims' families.

The sentence, which also included SFr191,000 ($161,000) court costs, was higher than prosecutors had asked for.

A criminal investigation concluded last year that Andermatt had killed the patients at several nursing homes in central Switzerland between 1995 and 2001.

Most of his victims were aged between 66 and 95, many suffered from Alzheimer's disease and needed high levels of care.

Euthanasia rules

The investigation found that he had killed his patients by using tranquilisers or smothering them with a plastic bag or cloth.

Andermatt was arrested in June 2001 following a suspicious death in a nursing home in Lucerne. He confessed to nine deaths in that home alone.

He admitted responsibility for 27 killings in total, although he was only sentenced over the deaths of 22.

At least three of the deaths were formally classified as assisted suicides as the authorities said they could not establish whether his actions were the cause of death in those cases.

Lucerne officials issued a statement at the time of the investigation, saying: "The accused gave as his motive acting out of sympathy, compassion, empathy and salvation on the one hand and also cited total overload and relief for himself and the (nursing) team on the other hand."

Euthanasia is tolerated in a number of Swiss cantons, provided strict rules are followed.

Swiss nurse "did kill 24 people"

January 14, 2004

A criminal investigation in Switzerland has concluded that a male nurse did kill 24 elderly care home patients.

The man, dubbed the Angel of Death by Swiss media, has admitted carrying out the killings out of sympathy or pity.

Officials say he killed his alleged victims, aged between 66 and 95, with overdoses of drugs or by smothering them with plastic bags and towels.

The nurse, 34, who has not been formally named, will go on trial at the end of the year or early in 2005.

He was arrested in June 2001 following a suspicious death in a nursing home in Lucerne. He confessed to nine deaths in that home alone before admitting responsibility for a further 18 killings.

Three of the deaths have been formally classified as assisted suicides as the authorities said they could not establish whether his actions were the cause of death in those cases.

The victims, from five care homes in the region, were all elderly with Alzheimer's disease or in need of high levels of care.

'Total overload'

A statement by officials in Lucerne, where the deaths occurred between 1995 and 2001, said: "The accused gave as his motive acting out of sympathy, compassion, empathy and salvation on the one hand and also cited total overload and relief for himself and the (nursing) team on the other hand."

At the time of his arrest Swiss media identified the nurse as Roger Andermatt, a Swiss citizen who moved to Germany after his parents' divorce, but returned to Switzerland in 1990 and trained as a nurse assistant.

Euthanasia is tolerated in a number of Swiss cantons, provided strict rules are followed.

The report into the Swiss deaths come shortly after Britain's most prolific serial killer, former family doctor Harold Shipman, hanged himself in his prison cell.

He was jailed for murdering 15 patients but an official report concluded he killed at least 215 patients over a 23-year period.

Swiss nurse admits killing 27 patients

September 11, 2001

A Swiss nurse has confessed to killing 27 elderly patients, officials said on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old man, who Swiss media have identified as Roger Andermatt, initially admitted responsibility for the deaths of nine people, and has subsequently confessed to a further 18 killings.

The nurse, who has been dubbed the "Angel of Death", said he acted out of sympathy for the patients' suffering.

Twelve of the killings are reported to have taken place in a home for the elderly in the central district of Obwalden.

Additionally Andermatt is suspected in three attempted murders and three assisted suicides.

The victims, aged 66-95 were suffering from Alzheimer's disease or in need of high levels of care. Nine patients were killed with lethal doses of medication, eight patients were smothered with a plastic bag or a cloth, and 10 patients were killed using a combination of drugs and smothering.

Andermatt claimed to have killed out of pity, although he added that he and his nursing team, "felt totally overworked by the volume of care they had to provide to their patients."

Suspicious deaths

The nurse, who is from Lucerne district, was arrested in June after deaths in a nursing home aroused the suspicions of the authorities.

The man drugged his victims with painkillers, or suffocated them with a plastic bag or a pillow, according to a statement issued by the investigating magistrate and local police.

"As far as his motive goes, he is sticking to his previous comments that he acted out of sympathy, compassion, empathy and salvation of the people involved," said the magistrate, Orvo Nieminen.

"On the other hand, he also acknowledged that in several cases he had been overwhelmed by caring for the people involved. He added that in some cases he felt relieved, somehow liberated, after the person had died."

Mental health tests

The man is to undergo psychiatric tests before the investigation continues.

Police say all of the killings took place between September 1995 and June this year and were carried out in retirement homes in the Lucerne, Obwalden and Schwyz districts.

Euthanasia is tolerated in a number of Swiss cantons, provided strict rules are followed.

According to national law, active euthanasia is illegal but is not regarded as a crime if a doctor administers lethal drugs to a person close to a painful death for his own use.

Roger Andermatt (27)

On September 11, 2001, 32-year-old Swiss nurse, claiming he acted out of compassion, confessed to killing 27 elderly and ailing patients over a six-year period. The nurse, identified as Roger Andermatt, was arrested at the end of June after a suspicious death in a nursing home.

He subsequently admitted killing nine patients there. Suspecting the toll might be higher, police launched a full investigation into mysterious deaths in other homes where Andermatt worked. Under interrogation, Andermatt confessed to 18 other killings, including 12 in a home for invalids in the central Swiss town of Sarnen.

If the death toll is confirmed, Andermatt will become Switzerland's worst serial killer. Andermatt allegedly gave his victims an overdose of tranquilizers or smothered them with a folded plastic bag or a small piece of cloth over the mouth and nose. In some instances, the nurse claimed he first sedated the patients before suffocating them.

Andermatt insisted his motives were "sympathy, compassion and a desire to end the suffering of the patient." But he also confessed that in some cases he was simply overwhelmed by the stress of work. The government in Obwalden, the small state where Andermatt lived and where many of the murders took place, said it was in shock. "The government regards it as tragic that such a crime could happen in such well-known and trusted surroundings," it said.

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