Former hospital worker charged with murder decades after death of patient
Families of other alleged victims had previously tried to sue hospital for deaths
A former hospital worker has reportedly been charged with murder for the death of a patient two decades ago in Chillicothe, northern Missouri.
Police in Livingston County announced first-degree murder charges against Jennifer Anne Hall, 41, last week in connection with the death of Fern Franco in 2002, KCUR reported on Monday.
Livingston County police are still looking for the former hospital worker, who was fired as a respiratory therapist at the Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe days after Franco’s death.
Franco was allegedly one of nine people who died between 16 December 2001 and 18 May 2002 of cardiac collapse, although police said doctors and nurses viewed the deaths as “medically suspicious”.
Ms Hall, who denied any wrongdoing for the deaths in a 2015 interview with The Kansas City Star, allegedly had close proximity to all of the affected patients and had access to chemicals.
Doctors and nurses told police they suspected her responsibility because she also notified others of every cardiac arrest that occurred in the nine month time frame, KCUR reported of the probable cause statement.
Ms Hall also worked at Hedrick Medical Center while 18 suspicious medical emergencies were recorded, in addition to the nine deaths. At the time, the emergencies were thought to have been from suspected overdoses of succinylcholine or other drugs.
Chillicothe police pfficer Brian Schmidt said Franco was not prescribed medication including succinylcholine and morphine, which were found during a recent analysis of tissue samples. That led to the announcement of charges against Ms Hall, who might be using the name Semaboye.
“This isn’t lawyer talk — there aren’t facts in support of it because Ms Hall did not commit these acts,” said a former attorney for the woman, Matthew O’Connor. He added that the murder charge was based on “conjecture and speculation”.
Reports said Ms Hall was previously convicted for setting fire to Cass Medical Center in Harrisonville, Missouri, where she was hired as a respiratory therapist. She was acquitted at retrial following a brief time in prison.
Families of the victims had previously tried to sue the hospital, but in 2019 he Missouri Supreme Court threw out the lawsuits, ruling that the families had filed their actions after the statute of limitations had run out.
There are no limitations on filing homicide charges, however.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.