Ex-nurse indicted in slayings - Nacona, TX Hospital Patients Murdered

Associated Press ^ | July 17, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Ex-nurse indicted in slayings

Many patients in Texas hospital died on same shift

07/17/2002

Associated Press

NOCONA, Texas - A former nurse at Nocona General Hospital, where the deaths of at least two dozen patients have been under investigation, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of capital murder.

Authorities said Vickie Dawn Jackson was taken into custody Tuesday, immediately after the grand jury returned the two indictments about 4:30 p.m.

"The hospital worked very hard with local law enforcement and the Texas Rangers to initiate the investigation," said Michael Graham, chief executive officer of the hospital. "We think this is a very healthy first step to finding out what has happened."

The indictment was to be unsealed at a news conference Wednesday.

Mr. Graham said the nurse had not been employed by the hospital since February 2001.

The investigation began last year after some Nocona General Hospital officials realized that the number of deaths in December 2000 and January 2001 was twice the normal rate, and they traced the deaths to the same work shift.

Several vials of mivacurium chloride, a drug used to temporarily stop the breathing process in order to insert a breathing tube, also were reported missing from the 38-bed hospital in late January 2001.

The 10 bodies considered the best candidates for autopsies were exhumed in June 2001.

"Today's actions will in no way bring peace to the broken families who have lost loved ones," Mr. Graham said. "We are distraught over their loss, and our hearts and prayers go out to these good people."

Lori Bailey, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Dallas, said she doesn't expect any more indictments at this time.

Nocona, an agriculture and oil town of about 3,100 people, is about 40 miles east of Wichita Falls.

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/071702dntexnocona.3dea5.html

[donozark]

Wonder what nurse holds the record for murdering the greatest number of patients? The guy at Columbia,MO VAH stands accused of murdering 40-65? patients. Government actually promoted him during his tenure there. Anyone wanna borrow my VA patient card?

[TheLurkerX]

My wife and mother both worked with her, and didn't particularly care for her. I know her husband, and he's ok. I'm glad he wasn't charged in it, because he was originally suspected of knowing what she was doing. Sad part is, now I've met two serial killers, her and Henry Lee Lucas.