Thompson was born in 1969 and worked in the intensive care unit of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Maryland.
Between 2002 and 2003 five patients in her care died: Harry Hancock, sixty-nine; Geraldine Baxter, sixty-eight; Lillian Vanzandt, eighty-three; Raymond McGivern, eighty-six; and Adele Kraft. The charge, and what she pleaded to, was that she had intentionally failed to provide care, not administering treatment, not responding to alarms, not intervening as their condition deteriorated, rather than that she had actively killed them.
She pleaded guilty on March 9, 2005 to five counts and was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment.
The sentence is the reason this entry needs stating carefully. Five patients died and the sentence was eighteen months, because what could be proved was omission rather than act, in patients who were critically ill and might have died anyway. Whether this belongs in an archive of serial killers is a fair question; it is here because the roster carries it, and the entry sets out exactly what was and was not established.
The accessible sourcing is Washington-area press reporting of the plea.