Pod Insights Serial Killers & Murderous Minds The Angel of Death: Elizabeth Wettlaufer 2 About this episode For years, "Angel of Death" serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer flew under the radar. Because she made her murders look like death from natural causes, nobody suspected she was killing her elderly nursing patients. But a lifetime of shame and guilt was weighing on Elizabeth. And by 2016, that dam was about to burst. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House Original. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @crimehouse for more true crime content.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Vanessa Richardson? Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, there's another show I want to tell you about. It's called What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Plus, Connor's infectious energy that'll make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.
0:36 Speaker 01 This is Crime House.
0:43 Vanessa Richardson? As we grow older, we learn important lessons about life. Some of those lessons hit harder than others. Take getting sick after eating too many cookies versus being betrayed by someone close to you. But no matter how big or how small, they all play a part in shaping who we become. And one of the most valuable lessons we can learn is to trust our gut instinct, that feeling deep inside that alerts us to danger and helps us make big decisions. But not everyone has the ability to rely on their instincts.
1:22 Vanessa Richardson? For some people, like Elizabeth Wettlaufer, their inner compass is dulled by anger, drugs, or any number of things. And when Elizabeth realized she couldn't trust herself, it made her question everything in her life, including her own sanity.
1:54 Vanessa Richardson? The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate. And sometimes, the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable. When that... Happens, people wonder, how could someone do such a thing? Well, on this show, that's what we're going to try and answer. This is Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original. Every Monday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and violent offenders. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible.
2:37 Vanessa Richardson? Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. And to enhance your Mind of a Serial Killer listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. I'm Vanessa Richardson.
3:03 Tristin Engels? And I'm Dr. Tristin Engels. As Vanessa takes you through our subject stories, I'll be helping her dive into these killers' minds as we try to understand how someone could do such horrible things.
3:16 Vanessa Richardson? Before we get into the story, you should know it contains descriptions of murder and abuse. Listener discretion is advised. This is the second and final episode on Elizabeth Wettlaufer, a Canadian nurse and the country's only known Angel of Death serial killer, which refers to healthcare professionals who murder their patients. Elizabeth used the drugs at her disposal to kill eight of her elderly patients in southwestern Ontario between 2007 and 2014. Last week, we examined how Elizabeth's struggles with her sexuality and mental health led her down the dark path to becoming a serial killer.
4:00 Vanessa Richardson? In today's episode, we'll be exploring Elizabeth Wettlaufer's final murders, eventual capture by police, and, as always, asking the question, what makes a serial killer?
4:21 Vanessa Richardson? In our last episode, we took a deep dive into Elizabeth Wettlaufer's inner world. Because of her strict religious upbringing, Elizabeth spent years in the closet. At 39 years old, she finally embraced her sexuality, but struggled to find a life partner. That intense loneliness, coupled with her substance abuse and mental health issues, bubbled to the surface in dangerous ways. She took her anger out on the helpless patients in the nursing home where she worked, murdering six of them with insulin overdoses that couldn't be traced back to her. But the murders weighed on Elizabeth.
5:03 Vanessa Richardson? When we last left off, it was 2013, and 46-year-old Elizabeth had confessed for the third time, in this instance, to her pastor and his wife. By the time Elizabeth confided in them, it almost seemed like she wanted to get caught, if only to put an end to her uncontrollable rage.
5:25 Tristin Engels? For most people, when things feel unstable, our threshold for tolerance, our bandwidth emotionally wears thin, and we struggle with managing those feelings as it is. But for somebody with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, they already consistently feel a lot of intense emotions as it is. So, things can be very, very exciting, things can be extremely frustrating. They're feeling emotions more intensely than a normal person. So now we've got Elizabeth, who has a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, which
6:04 Tristin Engels? we can, I think, agree that she's not actively treating, in addition to a lot of instability in her life. So, those emotions are probably even more severe, those mood swings are probably even more intense, and she doesn't have appropriate emotional regulation tools or grounding tools.
6:24 Vanessa Richardson? So, for someone like Elizabeth, at this point in Do you think it's possible to emerge from that place of darkness?
6:32 Tristin Engels? I think so. I don't want to stigmatize the condition of borderline personality disorder because there are a lot of people who have been diagnosed with that who are in recovery. It's an active process because it's a personality disorder. It's characterological. It's something that requires them to work on every day. And a lot of them have made immense progress and are recovering from the extremes of the condition and are, you know, more stabilized. But I think we're talking about somebody who has a lot of other variables that are adding to the pathological picture here. And so whether or not she can have a place of recovery like this at this point,
7:15 Tristin Engels? I don't know that that's necessarily possible without a lot of routine and stability sort of pushed on her, whether that's in like a outpatient program or maybe even while incarcerated.
7:30 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth's pastor and his wife had promised to report her if she ever killed again, but with everything going wrong in her life, it was just a matter of time until Elizabeth needed to unleash her anger. In March 2014, five months after talking to her pastor, 46-year-old Elizabeth was at her nursing job at the Caressant Care Elder Facility. It was located in Woodstock, Ontario, the same small Canadian town where Elizabeth grew up. She was looking after one of her patients, 78-year-old Maureen Pickering. Maureen had dementia and required one-on-one nursing care because she could be aggressive toward other patients.
8:12 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth flitted about the room, chatting with Maureen and making sure the older woman was comfortable. As she bent down to check Maureen's vitals, the woman started shouting and flinging her body around. Elizabeth tried to calm Maureen down with a sedative shot, but it barely worked. As Maureen's screams echoed through the room, Elizabeth felt her blood boil and rage pump through her veins. And then Elizabeth heard the voice of God speak to her. It started as a whisper, but grew louder and louder, telling Elizabeth that Maureen was not well. The voice told Elizabeth to put Maureen out of her misery.
8:56 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth had been hearing this voice for seven years now. It was part of the reason she first checked herself into Woodstock Psychiatric Hospital in 2006, when she was 39 years old. While she was there, she'd been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and depression. But either the medications didn't help, or Elizabeth didn't take them, because the following year, her marriage fell apart, and she committed her first murder. Since then, Elizabeth had tried to ignore the voice, but now, she told herself she was powerless to disobey it. Of course, it's possible she just didn't want to tune it out. Either way, she obeyed it every time it popped into her head, and so far, six people had
9:41 Vanessa Richardson? died as a result. As Elizabeth stood from Maureen's bedside and began walking to the medicine fridge, that familiar wave of red that she felt before every murder washed over her. She remembered how she wasn't allowed to be herself, growing up, and how, once she did embrace her attraction to women, she still couldn't find anyone who loved her the way she loved them. All that anger boiled over, and before long, Elizabeth needed to take it out on someone who couldn't fight back. As if under a spell, Elizabeth loaded up a massive dose of insulin and marched back to Maureen's bedside.
10:25 Vanessa Richardson? She explained to Maureen she was giving the woman a vitamin shot, and stuck the needle in her arm.
10:31 Tristin Engels? So Elizabeth keeps asserting that she's got this voice that's telling her to harm others, and that she's getting messages that are from God. And you even said that she felt powerless to disobey it. So there's something to be said about a feeling powerless and trying to regain power. And one way that she is doing that is by preying upon vulnerable individuals, individuals who cannot fight back, who she has the ultimate power over. This woman, Maureen, also fits into the same pattern as the others, where she had this sort of opportunistic, impulsive decision to take their life, and that she was a bit
11:16 Tristin Engels? disorderly and highly agitated right before it happened. So I think that's worth noting also.
11:24 Vanessa Richardson? The next morning, Maureen was found unresponsive and rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was sitting in the comfort of her own home. Maureen's body had gone cold and clammy, and the doctor thought she'd suffered a stroke. He did what he could to stabilize her, then sent her back to Caressant, where she died several days later. The nursing home accepted the doctor's diagnosis, and there was no investigation into her death. Once again, Elizabeth was off the hook, but she was about to face some consequences.
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12:45 Vanessa Richardson? Soon after Elizabeth Wettlaufer killed Maureen Pickering in March 2014, she was administering medication to another patient at Caressant. Elizabeth gave them either the wrong dosage or the wrong medication, and another one of the nurses quickly noticed. Later that week, Elizabeth was called into the administrator's office. She'd run out of chances. After years of disarray and inappropriate behavior, this was the last straw, and she was fired from Caressant.
13:18 Tristin Engels? So in terms of a clinical setting, because of the nature of her job and the high risk that she has in her job, there has to be a lot of quality assurance that goes on, a lot of oversight. Because she's already been showing a pattern of behavior in which she's made wrong doses in the past or made medication errors. And these are not things that should ever be taken lightly because those errors could result in serious consequences, whether intentional or not. It's possible in this instance that Elizabeth did this accidentally because she was already internally preoccupied with the interest of thoughts that she's having, the instability in her life, the very severe range of emotions,
14:03 Tristin Engels? the lack of connection, and that she was sort of on autopilot at work and made a careless mistake. Or maybe it was kind of like a Freudian slip in a sense where she's already been doing this intentionally and then it now became a new automatic process rather than her being sort of mindful about what she's doing. But either way, it required the attention of the administrators long before this. She's been given several chances and there's a lot of reasons why that might be. But it was about time that somebody took action.
14:40 Vanessa Richardson? So regardless of what was behind the mistakes Elizabeth made at Kressent, she'd been through this before and she knew how to protect herself. She contacted the Ontario Nurses Association and, once again, they disputed her termination with Kressent. The union negotiated with the nursing home and convinced them to change Elizabeth's file to state that she voluntarily resigned. If that wasn't enough, the union got Kressent to pay Elizabeth a $2,000 settlement and provide her a reference letter. To cherry on top, Kressent also agreed to seal Elizabeth's employment file so that any future employers couldn't access her records.
15:24 Vanessa Richardson? Well, with her records sealed, an official reason for leaving Couricent listed as voluntary resignation, Elizabeth had no issue landing a new job. Just a month after getting fired from Couricent, she was hired at another local nursing home, Meadow Park Long Term Care. And it didn't take long for Elizabeth to start taking advantage of her new workplace. Almost right away, she started stealing morphine to use for herself, seemingly at work and at home. Her substance abuse issues and borderline personality disorder continued to snowball out of control. And within months of being
16:03 Vanessa Richardson? at Meadow Park, Elizabeth killed her next victim. Seventy-five-year-old Arpad Horvath, a married father of two who escaped communist Hungary, died after Elizabeth injected him with an overdose of insulin. Murdering Mr. Horvath may have given forty-seven-year-old Elizabeth a temporary sense of relief, but it wasn't enough to end the cycle of pain and chaos she was living in. When she wasn't at work, she was either at church or at home with her pets. She didn't have any friends. As far as I can tell, she wasn't really in touch with her family anymore. She basically lived in an echo chamber of her own thoughts and feelings, and it was
16:48 Vanessa Richardson? a scary place to be. Elizabeth was desperate for connection, for someone to understand her. She filled that void with alcohol and drugs, hoping to numb herself to her perceived reality that her life was meaningless.
17:05 Tristin Engels? Someone especially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder suffers from a chronic sense of emptiness because they are so fearful that they're going to be rejected or abandoned by others. And because it's a characterological issue, a lot of times they engage in patterns of behavior that sort of engineers the very thing they're afraid of happening. They're creating the alienation because of their behaviors. And so without having a sense of meaning or a sense of purpose in their life, when they're already struggling with this chronic sense of emptiness...
17:44 Tristin Engels? It can really put the emotional responses, those intense emotional responses that they have, sort of in full gear. And that's why we see a lot of comorbidity with substance abuse, because it does serve as a way of self-medicating something that they feel powerless over.
18:04 Vanessa Richardson? As Elizabeth continued to self-medicate and sink deeper into her delusions, her mental health only got worse. The voice commanding Elizabeth to kill followed her wherever she went. She prayed whenever she could, trying to convince God that she'd repented for her sins, begging Him to make the voice go away. But He didn't seem to listen. As time went on, the line between Elizabeth's fantasies and reality blurred beyond recognition. Before long, Elizabeth resigned from Meadow Park and checked herself into Woodstock's psychiatric hospital for the second time. The hospital was a welcome break
18:48 Vanessa Richardson? from the anxiety of her daily life. Instead of taking care of others, Elizabeth was the one being looked after. The calm, orderly environment allowed Elizabeth to take a backseat. And soon, the shouting voice fell to a whisper. After two weeks of treatment, Elizabeth seemed to feel more stable and decided she was ready to leave. But the truth was, she was just as dangerous as ever. And it wouldn't be long until she tried to strike again.
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20:04 Vanessa Richardson? Forty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Wedlowfer's two-week stay at Woodstock Psychiatric Hospital had given her the chance to slow down and reset. But after checking herself out of the facility, Elizabeth went right back into hyperdrive. For two years, Elizabeth worked constantly. In January 2015, she took a job at an agency called Lifeguard that rotated her through seven different clinics. Then, in July 2016, she took a second job with St. Elizabeth Healthcare, where she visited patients at home to administer medication.
20:43 Tristin Engels? I think this might be her method of finding meaning and purpose, or having some sort of routine in her life that doesn't keep her as isolated as she was. But it also gives her access to more people to victimize.
20:57 Vanessa Richardson? But even her overloaded work schedule wasn't enough to keep that rage at bay. During that time, she tried killing two more elderly patients. They survived the insulin overdoses Elizabeth gave them, but had no idea their nurse had tried to murder them. Once again, Elizabeth's life was spiraling out of control, but even she seemed to know where to draw the line. In the summer of 2016, St. Elizabeth Healthcare approached her with an opportunity to work with diabetic children administering their insulin. For maybe the first time ever, Elizabeth stopped to think.
21:39 Vanessa Richardson? No matter how hard she tried to get rid of the murderous voice in her head, it always seemed to linger, waiting for the next chance to attack. Elizabeth knew it would only be a matter of time until the voice directed its deadly desires toward the children in her care. And Elizabeth knew she didn't have the willpower to say no. Elderly patients were one thing. They were old and sick. Their quality of life was tolerable at best. But children, they were something else entirely. They had the rest of their lives to look forward to. And Elizabeth didn't want to take that away from them. So she resigned from St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
22:24 Tristin Engels? I think this really highlights that Elizabeth has insight into her mental health as well as her impulsivity. Because borderline personality disorder, as I've talked about before, with the intense emotional reactions and responses, they also have impulsive actions. And they act impulsively when they feel they've lost control over their emotions, which are already pretty severe as it is. She's recognizing this pattern she has. She has insight into her behavior, her mental health, her condition, enough so that she's willing to draw the line and resign somewhere. But she's still rationalizing this behavior with elderly patients
23:09 Tristin Engels? by saying that they're old and sick and that their quality of life was not so great. And that's still an issue. I don't believe this voice that she's hearing has anything to do with psychosis, but it's rather her own internal intrusive thoughts and her own internal voice. It's not auditory hallucinations. And I think a lot of people, when they hear the term, "I was hearing a voice", that they assign it meaning in terms of psychotic symptoms. And I don't see that that's the case here. I think what's happening here is the intrusive thoughts, is the ongoing struggle with controlling her emotions, which are predominantly rage-induced. And then not being able to control the impulsivity,
23:53 Tristin Engels? that's also a byproduct of the condition that she's not really treating as well as she could.
24:01 Vanessa Richardson? By September 2016, 49-year-old Elizabeth Wettlaufer had hit rock bottom. After realizing she couldn't trust herself not to hurt the children in her care, she had a rare moment of clarity. The last two years had been maybe the worst of her entire life. Her borderline personality disorder was unmanageable, and the constant drinking and drug use definitely didn't help. Even Elizabeth knew it had gotten to the point where she needed professional help. So she packed a bag and boarded the train from Woodstock to Toronto. She knew she wouldn't find the resources she needed in her small town. She'd already been to the psychiatric hospital twice,
24:44 Vanessa Richardson? and it clearly wasn't enough. Beyond that, Elizabeth didn't think she could find true healing in Woodstock. It held too many painful memories. Growing up in a church where she wasn't allowed to be herself, cycling through one failed relationship after another, worst of all, she was constantly reminded of all the people whose lives she'd ended. The morphine she stole from work temporarily helped her avoid thinking about what she'd done, but if she was really going to get better, it had to be in a new environment. So, once Elizabeth got to Toronto, she checked herself into the Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
25:26 Vanessa Richardson? As she slowly weaned off her addiction to painkillers, Elizabeth took stock of her life. She remembered the people who'd been the most important to her and was eager to rekindle some of the relationships she'd lost. And she soon reconnected with her childhood best friend, Glenn Hart. Glenn found out on Facebook that Elizabeth was at the Addiction Treatment Center and reached out to see if she was okay. Elizabeth was happy to fill him in with what was going on in her life. Elizabeth and Glenn had been by each other's side during one of the most difficult times of their lives. They leaned on one another as they navigated their sexual identities in the strict confines of the South Zora Baptist Church.
26:10 Vanessa Richardson? Glenn was there for her when no one else was, and they were bonded through their trauma in a way Elizabeth had never felt with anyone else. But there was still one piece of information, the biggest one, that she wasn't ready to share with him yet. After talking for a while, Elizabeth finally felt ready to share her greatest secret with Glenn. The truth she'd only shared with a select few. She told Glenn that God had failed her. She'd killed her patients, a lot of them, and the Lord hadn't stopped her. Glenn couldn't hide his shock. He knew Elizabeth had struggled with her mental health and impulse control, but this was
26:54 Vanessa Richardson? beyond anything he could have imagined. He thought she was helping people at work, not hurting them, and definitely not killing them. Glenn knew she'd been to different treatment centers and inpatient facilities for her issues. It was hard to believe they couldn't tell she was dangerous. He let it sink in. Elizabeth, the little girl he'd defended from bullies when they were kids, was a murderer. As Glenn tried to wrap his head around the horrifying secret she'd revealed, Elizabeth was having a very different experience at the treatment center. She was so nervous to tell Glenn about what she'd done, but after unloading onto him,
27:38 Vanessa Richardson? she felt lighter, like she could finally breathe. The floodgates had opened, and she was ready to rid herself of the guilt, once and for all. At the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Elizabeth was assigned a psychiatrist to help her through her treatment process. Around the time she told Glenn about her violent crimes, she also confided in this psychiatrist about the murders she'd committed.
28:07 Tristin Engels? I think Elizabeth, if she was going to tell anybody about the crimes she had been committing and truly feel free in having, freeing herself having made that confession, I think Glenn represents that, because Glenn is somebody that has known her since she was a little girl. He's somebody that she felt bonded to throughout their experience with their religion and that community. He's somebody that rescued her when she was being bullied for all the different reasons, because of her weight, because of her appearance, because of her eccentricities. He always stood by her.
28:49 Tristin Engels? He represents somebody somewhat of a secure attachment, somebody that accepted her way before anybody else did. So telling him is probably an epiphany moment for her because of what he likely represented to her. It makes her feel like she has to be accountable now. It's out there. It's really out there. So this was a very big turning moment for her. And once she tells Glenn, I think it forces her to be accountable in telling others.
29:20 Vanessa Richardson? Well, over the last nine years, Elizabeth had killed eight people and tried to kill at least six more. Whether or not she knew the consequences she had in store, she was finally ready to take responsibility for what she'd done. Her doctor asked Elizabeth for a handwritten statement and immediately reported Elizabeth to the police, and so did Glenn. On October 5th, 2016, about a month after checking herself into the treatment center, Elizabeth was discharged. She went to live with her parents, still free but under investigation while detectives got to work building a case.
30:04 Vanessa Richardson? It didn't take long for them to get what they needed. And a few weeks later, on October 24th, Elizabeth turned herself in for arrest. Officers handcuffed Elizabeth and led her to an interrogation room.
30:19 Vanessa Richardson? Now, you might expect that this confession was a lot like the others. In the past, Elizabeth was matter of fact when it came to sharing what she'd done. She felt guilty and she wanted to lessen the shame she had around her actions. But Elizabeth was much more strategic when she spoke to police. The first thing she told investigators was that she was addicted to drugs and had sought treatment for her substance abuse issues at different points in her life. So, right away, Elizabeth tried to position herself as a victim who wasn't in control of her actions. After that, she attempted to justify her behavior. She explained that the male patients she'd killed were acting inappropriately toward her
31:03 Vanessa Richardson? and the other female nurses. It's unclear if any of the staff at Couricent Care or Meadow Park substantiated these claims, but that didn't matter to Elizabeth. She stuck by her allegations and insisted that those elderly men deserved to die. When it came to the female patients she murdered, she explained that they were mercy killings. She said God had instructed her to end their lives and put them out of their misery. Elizabeth wanted the investigators to understand it wasn't her choice. She tried to explain the confusing series of events that would happen before and after she killed.
31:45 Vanessa Richardson? First, she would hear God speak to her, either in her head or somehow through her heart. It was His decision who to kill, not Elizabeth's. As God's voice grew louder, Elizabeth would feel what she called a "red surge" come over her. She told investigators it was like a wave of intense rage that steadily took over her body until she had no choice but to obey. The red surge, fully in control of her, Elizabeth would then load up an overdose of insulin and administer it to her victim. After inserting the needle, Elizabeth heard the voice in her head laugh as relief flooded her body.
32:31 Vanessa Richardson? By the time the patient was dead, Elizabeth was usually done with her shift and out of the hospital.
32:38 Tristin Engels? I think we're also seeing some elements of antisocial personality disorder here with Elizabeth in that she is trying to justify and rationalize her actions. Even though she's confessing, she recognizes that they're wrong morally in some ways. She's justifying it, saying that she was taking leniency, it was a mercy, and that God was telling her to do that. I think that that is a form of manipulation, but also it's what she's been raised to believe, that if you follow the word of God, you will always be in the right. So if she can justify to herself and to others that it was God directing her to do this, then she's not doing anything morally wrong.
33:22 Tristin Engels? Also, something interesting to note is that she kept emphasizing that it wasn't her choice, that she was doing something within God's, you know, direction that was not her choice, which is also very parallel to her experience regarding her sexuality, that it's not her choice that she's a lesbian. And so she followed the rule of God by, for as long as she could, by maintaining a heterosexual relationship and trying to stay clear of having lesbian relationships. So there's parallels here with how she was raised, what she was raised to believe in terms of religion, and she's using those teachings and weaponizing it to serve her own self-interest.
34:07 Vanessa Richardson? And after all that, investigators weren't swayed by Elizabeth's rambling justifications and twisted logic. After hours in the interrogation room, they moved her to a cell where she awaited trial for her crimes. With Elizabeth Wettlaufer behind bars, Ontario's elderly population was finally safe. But there was still a question mark hanging over the case. Considering Elizabeth's mental state, it wasn't clear if a judge would hold her accountable for her crimes or if, like so many times before, Canada's angel of death would escape without facing any consequences.
35:00 Vanessa Richardson? A day after turning herself in to police, on October 25, 2016, 49-year-old Elizabeth Wettlaufer was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. She remained in custody while investigators built a case against her. Police interviewed everyone who knew Elizabeth: past partners, former coworkers, friends, and family. They all said the same thing about her: Elizabeth never fit in. She was odd and did strange things, but she was never violent. Investigators also learned that Glenn Hart wasn't the first person she'd confessed to.
35:43 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth had told multiple other people about the murders over the years. With a clearer picture of who Elizabeth Wettlaufer was and the extent of her crimes, the Canadian authorities piled on the charges. On January 13 of the following year, she was charged with an additional four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. And despite all the justifications she'd made during her interrogation, Elizabeth did feel guilty about what she'd done. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and on June 1, 2017,
36:25 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth pleaded guilty to all the charges. The judge ruled that although Elizabeth did suffer from borderline personality disorder, she was fully aware of her actions. That meant she could distinguish right from wrong and would be held liable for her crimes.
36:43 Tristin Engels? This also supports that the voice that she was hearing telling her to do this was not a voice that was secondary to psychosis. Because if she was experiencing a severe mental disease or defect, such as psychosis, it would likely impair her ability to distinguish right from wrong. And she very much knew right from wrong. Wrong. She justified that it was morally right in her mind because the men she murdered were mistreating the other nurses, according to her, and that the rest were just, quote, mercy killings. That does not make somebody not guilty by reason of insanity. That's somebody who is definitely criminally responsible.
37:25 Vanessa Richardson? And she was given eight simultaneous life sentences, one for each person she killed. She also received additional years for the attempted murder and aggravated assault charges. Elizabeth will be eligible for parole in 2042, when she's 75. But her chances of being released and re-entering society are slim to none. Although she was deemed mentally stable enough to be charged for her crimes, the court did make a note of her borderline personality disorder. They also took into account that other psychiatrists had diagnosed her with antisocial personality disorder at some point. Given all that,
38:08 Vanessa Richardson? Elizabeth is serving her time at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, Quebec.
38:13 Tristin Engels? Individuals who have borderline personality disorder, by and large, do not go on to harm other people. The reality is they're more likely to harm themselves than they were ever to likely harm another. The issue here with Elizabeth is that her borderline personality disorder is comorbid with an antisocial personality disorder, which we brought up earlier in the episode. She had no remorse for her crimes. When she confessed, her confession was still centered around her and her victimization and how she was justifying what she was doing. When you have those two together, that paints a bigger picture as to what created a serial killer out of Elizabeth.
39:01 Vanessa Richardson? Although Elizabeth Wettlaufer was finally brought to justice, she wasn't the only one who had to answer for her actions. A few months after Elizabeth was arrested, the nursing director at Corescent Care, who first hired Elizabeth, either resigned or was fired. And Ontario, the province where Corescent is located, temporarily banned the facility from accepting new long-term care patients. In 2017, the Ontario Court of Appeals launched a public inquiry into Elizabeth's crimes, trying to figure out how she got away with murder for as long as she did, and if anyone else should be held responsible for allowing her to act.
39:44 Vanessa Richardson? When the report was released in July 2019, it explained that no single individual was responsible for enabling Elizabeth's crimes. It suggested that she was able to kill for so long because no one could even imagine someone doing such a thing.
40:02 Tristin Engels? I think it's safe to say that somebody who doesn't have the same pathology as Elizabeth would not be able to imagine that the deaths of the eight individuals in elderly care facilities were due to the actions of one person. Because of their age, because of the fact that they're like a vulnerable population, those investigations into their death were either not launched or not really looked into enough because of their age. So because of all of those factors, I don't think any one of us would stop and consider that there was one person responsible for the death of all of these elderly individuals
40:46 Tristin Engels? who are already in ailing health, suffering from maybe aggressive forms of dementia or other health issues. So with that in mind, I think in the very least, the first girlfriend, the ex-colleague, the pastor, they might have had a hard time believing that she was capable of doing something like this in light of all of the other mental health struggle she was having, they might have felt that these were just her intrusive thoughts talking. We know about the bystander effect, which came about when Kitty Genovese was yelling for help in an alleyway when she was being brutally murdered. People heard it, but people didn't call the police because they assumed someone else would. I think
41:30 Tristin Engels? maybe in this situation, the people she was confessing to felt if this truly was something that was going on, someone surely would notice and do something about it.
41:40 Vanessa Richardson? Ultimately, the judge who ordered the inquiry decided this was a systemic issue that could only be fixed through sweeping institutional changes. These included better education and training for nurses, improved medication management systems, and more staff at nursing homes. The judge also suggested more rigorous background checks for potential employees. Elizabeth Wettlaufer's story is a tragic avalanche of what if moments. What if her church was more accepting of her sexuality? What if she'd gotten the help she needed earlier? What if someone had stepped in to stop her? It's the perfect encapsulation
42:25 Vanessa Richardson? of what makes a serial killer. If Elizabeth Wettlaufer had found herself in a different situation, it's entirely possible she wouldn't have become a murderous angel of death. But tragically, we can only see this in hindsight. Elizabeth Wettlaufer is the ultimate reminder that sometimes, even when the signs are all there, you can't stop a monster until it's too late.
43:08 Vanessa Richardson? Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time as we discuss the life of another serial killer.
43:14 Tristin Engels? Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.
43:38 Vanessa Richardson? And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of Mind of a Serial Killer ad-free, along with early access to each thrilling two-part series and exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Monday.
43:58 Vanessa Richardson? Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios, is executive produced by Max Cutler. This episode of Mind of a Serial Killer was produced and directed by Ron Shapiro, written by Natalie Pritzowski, edited by Alex Benidorm, fact-checked by Claire Cronin, and included production assistance from Paul Lebaskin, Sarah Carroll, and Kristin Acevedo. Mind of a Serial Killer is hosted by Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels.
44:36 Speaker 05 Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from Love on the Spectrum. History is my thing, and I have been waiting my whole life for a show like this one.
44:45 Speaker 01 And I'm Carter Roy, and this is What the Fact. Every week, three facts, each one with a whole story behind it. The worst years anyone has ever lived through, the golden age of pirates, the movies that almost never got made, the discoveries that rewrote everything we thought we knew. Carter sets the scene, Connor brings the facts, the tangents, and the genuine belief that this is the most interesting subject in the world.
45:11 Speaker 05 It is. The wildest stuff is real.
45:14 Speaker 01 And the real stuff is wilder than you think.
45:17 Speaker 05 New episodes every Wednesday. Follow What the Fact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.
45:30 Tristin Engels? The police closed my sister's case in 2019. Last month, her killer commented on my post.
45:37 Speaker 06 On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves.
45:44 Tristin Engels? People post the things they'd never say out loud, anonymous, unfiltered, and completely real.
45:50 Speaker 06 And every Tuesday, on Crimes of Reddit, we read them out loud.
45:54 Tristin Engels? I'm Sabrina Deana-Roga from Two Girls, One Ghost.
45:57 Speaker 06 And I'm Alexis Linkletter from The First Degree.
46:00 Tristin Engels? Each week, one of us brings the most unhinged true crime stories the internet has to offer.
46:05 Speaker 06 And the other goes in completely blind. No prep, no spoilers, reacting in real time, same as you. And then we swap.
46:13 Tristin Engels? And we pull every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view.
46:16 Speaker 06 It's dark, it's messy, and the scariest part is that these are real stories, posted by real people.
46:23 Tristin Engels? New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit, available now wherever you get your podcasts.
46:30 Vanessa Richardson? If you're looking for your next podcast, check out What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.
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