In brief
A 41‑year‑old German doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of murdering 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024. The case points to a chilling pattern of lethal drug administration and attempted arson covering each crime. Prosecutors are investigating 76 other potential killings, raising fears of one of the largest serial murder cases in German history. The doctor, who pleaded no defence, claimed he was sparing patients from suffering and apologised to families. He has been banned from practising medicine for life.
A 41‑year‑old palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Berlin after five years of investigations that revealed he murdered 15 patients between September 2021 and July 2024.
The doctor, referred to only as Johannes M under German privacy law, killed 12 women and 3 men who were in critical condition but not in imminent danger of death. Prosecutors said he administered lethal drug combinations without consent during home visits and even attempted to burn a victim’s house to cover his tracks.
In July 2024 he is alleged to have killed a 75‑year‑old man at his Berlin apartment and, hours later, a 76‑year‑old woman in a neighbouring district, after a failed arson attempt.
During the year‑long trial the doctor remained silent, but a month before sentencing he confessed to having killed people and justified his actions as sparing suffering. He apologized for the pain caused to families.
Authorities now suspect he may have murdered 76 additional patients, a claim that, if proven, would make this one of the largest serial murder cases in Germany. The court imposed a preventive detention order and a lifetime ban on practising medicine.
Victims’ families expressed disbelief: a mother of a 25‑year‑old victim cried that her daughter had never spoken of wanting to die, while a son of a 72‑year‑old victim recalled his mother’s plans of travelling to the Baltic Sea.
