Elizabeth Wettlaufer

Early Life and Personal Struggles

Elizabeth Wettlaufer was born Elizabeth Tracy Mae Parker on June 10, 1967, to parents Doug and Hazel Parker in Zorra Township, a rural area near Woodstock, Ontario. Known as Bethe Parker in her youth, she attended Huron Park Secondary School. After high school, she earned a bachelor's degree in religious education counselling from London Baptist Bible College before studying nursing at Conestoga College. In October 1997, she married Daniel Wettlaufer, a long-haul truck driver she met at church, but the couple separated in January 2007 and divorced in 2008. Wettlaufer later stated that the stress and anger from the divorce played a role in her decision to begin killing. Following her divorce, she entered several same-sex relationships.

Throughout her adult life, Wettlaufer struggled with severe substance abuse, including alcoholism and opioid addiction, leading to two stints in rehabilitation programs. Staff at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto later diagnosed her with major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial adult behaviour. She confessed to stealing medications from a safe used for drugs belonging to deceased patients but claimed she was sober when she committed the murders. Wettlaufer also posted dark poetry online under the pen name Betty Weston. Her early career was marked by an incident in 1995, just months after registering with the College of Nurses of Ontario, when she was found dazed and disoriented at work after illicitly taking lorazepam, an anxiety medication, requiring hospitalization and leading to a college investigation.

Nursing Career and Deteriorating Conduct

Wettlaufer began working at the Caressant Care long-term care home in Woodstock in 2007, primarily on the night shift where she was mainly responsible for dispensing medication. Initially regarded as caring and professional by some co-workers, her conduct deteriorated rapidly due to her substance abuse, and she faced accusations of showing up to work drunk. She was suspended four times for medication-related errors and was finally fired in March 2014 over a serious incident in which she gave the wrong medication, insulin prescribed for another patient, to a resident. Following her termination from Caressant Care, Wettlaufer's ability to hold a job became increasingly unstable, and she was hired by the Meadow Park Care Center in London but lost that position after checking herself into a drug rehab facility in the Niagara Region. She then took various temporary jobs at other care homes, admitting to a neighbour she was fired from one for stealing medication and from another for a medication error while high that nearly resulted in a patient's death.

Despite these red flags, her nursing licence remained active because the College of Nurses of Ontario was notified of her 2014 firing from Caressant Care but decided not to conduct a formal investigation at that time. This regulatory inaction allowed her to continue working in the care system where she would commit further crimes until she resigned in September 2016. The college's later disciplinary hearing revealed that its first formal notice of her criminal activity came on September 29, 2016. This notice came from her psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health after her confession. The college was told by the Crown attorney to pause its own investigation to allow the police probe to proceed.

The Crimes: Murders and Assaults

Elizabeth Wettlaufer's crimes spanned from 2007 to 2016 and involved the deliberate injection of insulin, a diabetes medication that can cause coma or death in excessive doses and is difficult to detect post-mortem. Her first assaults occurred sometime between June 25 and December 31, 2007, when she injected sisters Clotilde Adriano, 87, and Albina Demedeiros, 88, with non-fatal doses of insulin at Caressant Care. Both women later died in 2008 and 2010 respectively, but their deaths were not initially attributed to her actions, for which she was later charged with two counts of aggravated assault. Wettlaufer committed her first murder on August 11, 2007, administering a lethal dose of insulin to 84-year-old James Silcox, a World War II veteran and father of six. From 2007 until her firing in March 2014, she murdered seven more residents at Caressant Care, with her final murder at that facility being 79-year-old Maureen Pickering just days before her termination.

Wettlaufer also attempted to murder two other Caressant Care residents, Michael Priddle, 63, and Wayne Hedges, 57, by injecting them with insulin with intent to kill. After leaving Caressant Care, she continued her crimes while working part-time at other facilities and in private homes. In London, she murdered 75-year-old Arpad Horvath at the Meadow Park facility. In Paris, Ontario, she injected 77-year-old Sandra Towler with intent to murder at a retirement home, and in Ingersoll, she did the same to 68-year-old Beverly Bertram at a private residence. In total, her criminal actions encompassed 14 victims across multiple jurisdictions.

• Murders at Caressant Care, Woodstock: James Silcox (84, Aug 2007), Maurice 'Moe' Granat (84, 2007), Gladys Millard (87, 2011), Helen Matheson (95, 2011), Mary Zurawinski (96, 2011), Helen Young (90, 2013), Maureen Pickering (79, 2014).
• Murder at Meadow Park, London: Arpad Horvath (75).
• Attempted Murders: Michael Priddle (63), Wayne Hedges (57), Sandra Towler (77), Beverly Bertram (68).
• Aggravated Assaults: Clotilde Adriano (87), Albina Demedeiros (88).

Confession, Arrest, and Legal Proceedings

The crimes came to light on September 16, 2016, when Wettlaufer, struggling with her addictions, checked herself into an inpatient program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. There, she confessed to staff that she had killed and attempted to kill patients, leading CAMH to notify the College of Nurses of Ontario and the Toronto Police Service. Wettlaufer then emailed the CNO on September 30 to resign, stating she had deliberately harmed patients in her care and was now being investigated by police, and she personally called a college intake investigator to detail her actions. CAMH staff faxed a four-page handwritten confession to authorities, and Wettlaufer had previously confessed her crimes to a lawyer, friends, a former partner, and her pastor, but none had reported her to the police. After providing Woodstock police with a detailed, two-hour videotaped confession, she was formally charged with eight counts of first-degree murder on October 25, 2016.

Further police investigation led to additional charges on January 13, 2017: four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. On June 1, 2017, Wettlaufer waived her right to a preliminary hearing and pleaded guilty to all 14 charges in an Ontario court. In her confessions to police and CAMH staff, she described experiencing a red surge from her stomach region that prompted the attacks, followed by a laughing feeling or cackling from the pit of hell in her chest afterwards. She stated she believed God or the devil was telling her to kill and that she knew the difference between right and wrong but could not control the surges, though she never claimed to derive pleasure from the acts and said she felt horrible after each one. On June 26, 2017, she was sentenced to eight concurrent life terms in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years, and she was initially held at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario, before being transferred to an unspecified secure facility in Montreal for medical treatment in March 2018.

Professional Discipline and Licence Revocation

Despite her criminal conviction and voluntary resignation, the College of Nurses of Ontario was required to hold a disciplinary hearing to formally revoke Wettlaufer's nursing licence and bar her from the profession for life. The hearing took place on July 25, 2017, where Wettlaufer was charged with professional misconduct based on the allegations that she intentionally overdosed residents with insulin to kill them. She did not attend the proceeding, and the college's counsel presented the agreed statement of facts from her criminal case and an affidavit from the college investigator who spoke to her as evidence. The five-person disciplinary panel, consisting of three nurses and two public members and chaired by Grace Fox, found her guilty of disgraceful, dishonourable, and unprofessional conduct.

Panel chair Grace Fox stated it was the most egregious and disgraceful conduct the panel had ever considered, describing it as heinous criminal behaviour that brings shame on the profession and violates the public trust. The panel formally revoked Wettlaufer's nursing registration indefinitely, ensuring she could never practise nursing in Ontario again. College lawyers acknowledged the hearing was largely a formality given her life sentence but stressed it was necessary to uphold accountability and attempt to restore public trust. The hearing also revealed previously confidential details about the college's early interactions with Wettlaufer, including the 1995 incident and the decision not to investigate her 2014 firing.

The Gillese Public Inquiry and Systemic Reforms

On the day of Wettlaufer's sentencing, June 26, 2017, Ontario's Attorney General Yasir Naqvi and Health Minister Eric Hoskins jointly announced the provincial government would commission a public inquiry into the case. The Public Inquiry into the Safety and Security of Residents in the Long-Term Care Homes System was formally established by order-in-council on August 1, 2017, with Justice Eileen Gillese of the Court of Appeal for Ontario appointed as commissioner. The inquiry's broad mandate was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths and assaults, including how Wettlaufer was able to continue working undetected, and to examine gaps in legislative or policy frameworks. It included interviews with victims' families, public consultations in affected communities like Woodstock, and the authority to call anyone from Wettlaufer herself to then-Premier Kathleen Wynne to testify based on uncovered evidence.

The inquiry found systemic weaknesses in the long-term care system that allowed Wettlaufer to evade detection, including fragmented oversight and inadequate communication between facilities and regulators. Its key recommendations included mandatory training for long-term care home administrators, directors of nursing, and service organizations, alongside improved screening processes and background checks for new hires. The report also advised minimizing the use of agency nurses in long-term care homes to ensure more consistent care teams, implementing improved reporting processes for critical incidents to ensure they are properly investigated, and recommending changes to specific Ontario provincial regulations to close identified loopholes. The inquiry's final report served as a detailed blueprint for systemic reforms intended to strengthen oversight, accountability, and safety within the province's long-term care system.

Case Impact, Statistics, and Chronology

The Elizabeth Wettlaufer case had a significant impact on Canadian public consciousness, regulatory practice, and the long-term care sector. It exposed critical failures at multiple levels, including within individual care homes, the nursing regulator, and the broader health system, where patient deaths from insulin overdoses were not recognized as suspicious. The case statistics show the scale and duration of her crimes, which involved a total of 14 officially recognized victims over a period of almost a decade, from her first assaults in mid-2007 to her final attempted murder in 2016. The subsequent public inquiry represented a significant government-led effort to understand these failures and implement corrective measures, with its recommendations continuing to influence policy discussions about elder care and healthcare oversight in Ontario. The delay in establishing the inquiry after the initial announcement was criticized by opposition parties in July 2017, as no progress had been made and the legislature had recessed for the summer.

The chronology of the case highlights a pattern of missed opportunities for intervention. Wettlaufer was suspended four times between 2007 and 2014 for medication errors before being fired from Caressant Care, and she was subsequently fired from other jobs for stealing drugs and making serious errors. Despite these employment terminations and her own prior confessions to individuals, no authority connected these incidents to the unexplained patient deaths, which were largely attributed to natural causes due to the covert nature of insulin poisoning. This timeline of institutional failure, from her problematic 1995 college registration incident to her final confession in 2016, directly informed the Gillese Inquiry's findings about the need for better information sharing, more robust investigative protocols, and a stronger culture of safety within long-term care settings.

Questions about Elizabeth Wettlaufer

How many people did Elizabeth Wettlaufer kill?

Elizabeth Wettlaufer was convicted of murdering eight senior citizens. Her victims were seven residents at the Caressant Care home in Woodstock and one resident at the Meadow Park facility in London. She administered lethal overdoses of insulin to all eight individuals between 2007 and 2014.

How did Elizabeth Wettlaufer get caught?

Wettlaufer was caught after she voluntarily confessed while seeking treatment for addiction. On September 16, 2016, she checked herself into a drug rehabilitation program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and confessed to staff that she had killed and attempted to kill patients. CAMH notified the College of Nurses of Ontario and Toronto police, leading to her arrest. She then provided a detailed, two-hour videotaped confession to Woodstock police.

What drug did Elizabeth Wettlaufer use to kill her victims and why was it effective?

Elizabeth Wettlaufer used insulin to kill and harm her victims. Insulin is a medication used to treat diabetes that lowers blood sugar levels. When administered in excessive doses to non-diabetic individuals or those not requiring it, it can induce a fatal hypoglycemic coma. Wettlaufer exploited this method because insulin overdoses are difficult to detect during standard autopsies, allowing the deaths of her victims to be mistaken for natural causes for many years.

What was Elizabeth Wettlaufer's sentence?

Elizabeth Wettlaufer was sentenced to eight concurrent life terms in prison on June 26, 2017, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. This sentence followed her guilty plea in court on June 1, 2017, to all charges against her. She had been formally charged with eight murders on October 25, 2016, and later with four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault on January 13, 2017.

What happened at the College of Nurses disciplinary hearing?

The College of Nurses of Ontario convened a disciplinary panel on July 25, 2017, which found Elizabeth Wettlaufer guilty of professional misconduct. The panel deemed her conduct disgraceful and dishonourable. Her nursing registration was formally revoked indefinitely, barring her from ever practising nursing in Ontario again. The finding was based on court documents from her criminal trial and her previous confessions, as Wettlaufer declined to participate in the hearing.

What was the public inquiry into the Wettlaufer case?

The Ontario government established the Public Inquiry into the Safety and Security of Residents in the Long-Term Care Homes System on August 1, 2017. Justice Eileen Gillese of the Court of Appeal for Ontario was appointed commissioner. The inquiry investigated the circumstances surrounding the deaths and gaps in policy that allowed Wettlaufer to continue working. After two years, it concluded with several recommendations, including improved staff training, better hiring checks, and changes to provincial regulations.

Sources and further reading

• Elizabeth Wettlaufer (Wikipedia)
• Elizabeth Wettlaufer Case (thecanadianencyclopedia.ca)
• Case Changes for Elizabeth Wettlaufer on CTV (lawintoronto.com)
• Elizabeth Wettlaufer found guilty of professional ... (globalnews.ca)
• Convicted killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer's nursing licence ... (cbc.ca)

Checked by the Nosy Mag desk. Last updated 2026-10-23.