Six new charges laid against ex-Ontario nurse accused of killing seniors

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — A former Ontario nurse charged with killing eight seniors in two long-term care homes is now accused of attempting to kill others in her care.

Ontario Provincial Police laid six more charges against 49-year-old Elizabeth Wettlaufer on Friday — four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

The latest charges are related to incidents that allegedly occurred between June 2007 and August 2016 in three locations, including the Woodstock, Ont., nursing home where Wettlaufer spent years working as a nurse.

Wettlaufer is charged with aggravated assault against 87-year-old Clotilde Adriano and 90-year-old Albina Demedeiros between June and December of 2007. Both were residents at the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock.

Wettlaufer is also charged with the attempted murder of 57-year-old Wayne Hedges between September and December 2008, and the attempted murder of 63-year-old Michael Priddle between January 2008 and December 2009. They were also Caressant Care residents.

The alleged victims named in the other attempted murder charges are 77-year-old Sandra Towler, a resident of Telfer Place in Brant County, Ont., in September 2015, and 68-year-old Beverly Bertram at a private home in Oxford County in August of last year.

The fresh details came as Wettlaufer appeared briefly in a packed Woodstock, Ont., courtroom Friday morning. Her case was put over to Feb. 15.

Police say four of the new alleged victims — all the Caressant Care residents — have since died, but their deaths have not been attributed to Wettlaufer.

Wettlaufer was charged in October with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of residents at nursing homes in Woodstock and London, Ont.

At that time, police alleged the 49-year-old used drugs to kill the seniors while she worked at the facilities between 2007 and 2014.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press