khoji parkSerial Killer · Oldenburg, Germany · 2019
Patients Kept Needing Resuscitation. The Nurse Went on Trial.
German investigators exhumed over one hundred bodies to convict the country's most prolific postwar serial killer.
Read in slides1. Spike in Resuscitations
In August 2001, medical staff at the Oldenburg Clinic in Germany held a meeting to discuss an unusual increase in emergency resuscitations and patient deaths. Fifty-eight percent of these critical incidents occurred while nurse Niels Högel was on duty. Following the meeting, Högel called in sick for three weeks, during which time patient mortality in his ward dropped significantly. Hospital administrators subsequently transferred him to an anesthesiology department rather than contacting police.
Colleagues noticed a suspicious correlation between shifts and patient emergencies.
2. Transfer to Delmenhorst
In December 2002, Högel transferred to the Delmenhorst Clinic, where sudden medical emergencies and unexplained patient fatalities began spiking during his shifts. Coworkers eventually grew suspicious as multiple empty medication vials surfaced in his ward despite no doctor prescribing them. On June twenty-second, 2005, colleagues caught Högel red-handed manipulating a patient's syringe pump. Hospital management immediately contacted police, leading to his arrest that summer.
Colleagues caught Högel manipulating medical equipment, prompting his arrest.
3. Initial Convictions
Following his arrest, local police opened a comprehensive investigation into patient deaths recorded during Högel's tenure at Delmenhorst. In December 2006, a regional court sentenced Högel to five years in prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter regarding the June 2005 incident. A higher court subsequently reviewed the case, and in June 2008 sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison alongside a lifetime employment ban. Investigators soon suspected his crimes extended far beyond the single proven incident.
Courts sentenced Högel to prison for attempted manslaughter.
4. Expanded Investigations
In 2014, prosecutors initiated a new criminal investigation into historical patient deaths at the Delmenhorst Clinic. Högel confessed to investigators that he had committed numerous additional murders by administering unauthorized medication to patients. A specialized police commission named Kardio was established to review hundreds of suspicious medical files from Högel's previous employers. Investigators sought court orders to exhume buried remains across multiple cemeteries in Germany and neighboring countries.
Police launched a major investigation and exhumed numerous buried bodies.
5. Exhumation and Autopsies
The special commission examined more than two hundred suspicious cases and exhumed one hundred thirty-four bodies across Germany, Poland, and Turkey for forensic autopsies. Decomposition prevented toxicological detection in many cases, and numerous other victims had been cremated by their families. Autopsies that succeeded revealed traces of unprescribed heart medication in the remains of patients who had died unexpectedly. Authorities compiled the forensic findings to prepare formal murder indictments against Högel.
Forensic experts found traces of heart medication in exhumed remains.
6. Second Life Sentence
In February 2015, a German court convicted Högel of two murders and two attempted murders, sentencing him to life in prison. Despite his imprisonment, police continued analyzing patient records and interviewing former hospital colleagues. In January 2018, prosecutors pressed new charges against Högel for one hundred additional murders committed between 2000 and 2005. Investigators stated that Högel attacked patients to induce cardiac crises so he could subsequently attempt dramatic resuscitations.
Prosecutors charged Högel with an additional one hundred murders.
7. The 2018 Trial Commences
The major trial commenced in October 2018 at a large convention hall in Oldenburg to accommodate the high number of joint plaintiffs and media representatives. Over twenty-four court days, medical experts and forensic psychologists testified regarding the patients' medical records and Högel's psychological profile. Högel confessed to forty-three of the murder charges on the first day of trial while stating he could not remember fifty others. Defense lawyers and prosecutors debated the sufficiency of evidence for each disputed case.
The court heard extensive expert testimony during the high-profile trial.
8. Final Verdict
On June 6, 2019, the Oldenburg court convicted Högel of eighty-five murders and acquitted him on fifteen counts where evidence was insufficient. It imposed another life sentence and found a particular severity of guilt, making release after the usual minimum period more difficult. The verdict was narrower than the hundred murders charged, even though earlier proceedings had established other crimes.
The court convicted Högel of eighty-five murders and imposed a life sentence.
9. Apology to Families
The verdict left different legal outcomes depending on the evidence available in each patient’s case. Some deaths were verified through toxicology and records; others could not be proved after remains were cremated or testing was inconclusive. Högel apologized during trial, but the court still had to decide individual counts on evidence rather than accept all of his changing accounts.
Högel apologized to victims' families during the final court hearing.
10. Appeals and Aftermath
The Federal Court of Justice rejected challenges to the 2019 judgment in September 2020. A separate trial of former hospital supervisors began in 2022 over allegations that they failed to intervene. Those defendants were acquitted in September 2022 after prosecution and defense sought that outcome. Their case was distinct from Högel’s murder convictions, which remained in place.
Högel’s convictions and the supervisors’ acquittals were separate judgments.