Nurse Accused of Murdering 8 Patients Wrote Creepy Poem

Elizabeth Wettlaufer accused of killing elderly patients in Canada
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2016 5:03 AM CDT
Nurse Accused of Murdering 8 Patients Wrote Creepy Poem
Woodstock Police Chief William Renton during a news conference in Woodstock, Ontario.   (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press via AP)

A 49-year-old nurse in Canada is accused of murdering eight of her nursing home patients, a crime string that would make her one of the nation's most prolific serial killers, reports the Globe and Mail. And in a decidedly creepy twist, the National Post reports that she once wrote a poem from the perspective of a serial killer. Police in Woodstock, Ontario, arrested Elizabeth Wettlaufer on Monday and accused her of killing eight patients between 2007 and 2014. The victims ranged in age from 75 to 96, with seven of them in one nursing home, the eighth in another. (CTV has details on the victims here.) Authorities say all were given a drug, but they're not providing specifics or speculating about a motive.

"We're living my father's death right now," says the son of one alleged victim. "It's horrific." Wettlaufer posted online as Bethe Wettlaufer, and the Post says she wrote poetry under the pseudonym of BettyWeston, once describing the "sharp thirst" of a serial killer. Her poem "Inevitable" has a line that reads, "Heart beats then sprays/as this next victim pays/her deft dagger's bill." Wettlaufer also posted on Facebook last year of being 365 days sober after a stint in rehab. "She just seemed like a single lady, going in and out with her dog and nothing seemed out of the ordinary," says a neighbor in her apartment building, per the London Free Press. Wettlaufer did, however, give away her beloved dog a few weeks ago, after police began investigating a tip about the killings. (Cops say this "polite" serial killer murdered at least five.)

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