German doctor gets life for killing 15 patients

A Berlin court sentenced a palliative care doctor to life in prison Wednesday for murdering 15 patients, ending a yearlong trial in a case prosecutors say may represent only a fraction of the deaths linked to him.

The 41-year-old doctor, identified under German privacy rules only as Johannes M., was convicted of killing 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024. His victims, all receiving care at the time, ranged in age from 25 to 94. The BBC reported that the court heard the patients were critically ill, but their deaths were not imminent.

Prosecutors said Johannes M. killed patients during home visits by administering lethal combinations of drugs without their knowledge or consent. The Berlin prosecutor’s office said he gave patients “an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant,” adding that the muscle relaxant “paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes.”

On at least five occasions, prosecutors said, he set fire to victims’ apartments in an effort to conceal the killings. In one case in July 2024, shortly before his arrest, authorities said he killed two patients on the same day: a 75-year-old man at his home in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district and, hours later, a 76-year-old woman in the neighboring Neukoelln district. Prosecutors said he tried to set fire to the woman’s home, but the fire did not catch.

Presiding Judge Sylvia Busch said the 15 murder convictions may be only a glimpse of the doctor’s crimes. Prosecutors said during the proceedings that he was suspected of killing more than 70 other people; the BBC reported that prosecutors are investigating 76 other cases.

The court also ordered preventive detention after his prison term and imposed a lifetime ban on practicing medicine, the BBC reported. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, measures to make early release less likely and a permanent medical ban.

For much of the trial, the doctor remained silent. Last month, according to the BBC, he confessed to having “killed people,” specifically 12 severely ill patients, and told the court he had convinced himself he was sparing them “suffering and infirmity.” He said, “Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone,” and apologized for the suffering he caused.

CBS News, citing the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported that on Monday he told the court, “I despair at myself,” and said he only now understood “the extent of the suffering” he had caused. The BBC reported that he also said he would “get involved much earlier in the forthcoming proceedings.”

Prosecutors and police previously said the doctor appeared to have no motive beyond killing itself. Prosecutors said last year, “The accused appears to have had no motive for killing the people other than the act of killing itself.” They described the alleged conduct as meeting the legal definition of “lust for murder.”

Relatives of victims described their disbelief in court, the BBC reported. The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, said through tears: “She never said she didn’t want to live anymore.” The son of a 72-year-old woman who died in 2024 said his mother had planned a trip to the Baltic Sea with her sister. “My mother wanted to keep on living,” he said.

Care services first raised suspicions about the doctor’s activities, prompting a police investigation. He was remanded in custody in August 2024. Investigators initially examined four cases before the number of suspicious deaths grew.

German media reported that Johannes M. wrote his doctoral thesis on homicides and began it with the words, “Why do people kill?” If further cases are proven, the BBC reported, German media say it would be one of the worst cases of serial murder in the country’s history.