Already accused of killing eight residents of southern Ontario seniors’ homes, Elizabeth Wettlaufer is now facing new charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Additionally, police revealed Friday, the allegations against the 49-year-old woman now encompass a retirement home in Brant County and a private residence in Oxford County.
Wettlaufer was first arrested in October, on eight counts of first-degree murder.
Ontario Provincial Police alleged that she administered fatal doses of drugs to seven residents of the Caressant Care home in Woodstock and one resident of the Meadow Park home in London between 2007 and 2014.
On Friday, Wettlaufer appeared in Woodstock court in-person to answer to new charges – four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Again, the bulk of the allegations relate to Wettlaufer’s time at Caressant Care.
The former nurse is accused of attempting to kill Caressant Care residents Wayne Hedges and Michael Priddle in 2008 and 2009, and assaulting residents Clotilde Adriano and Albina Demedeiros in 2007.
The other two attempted murder charges are more recent.
OPP allege that Wettlaufer tried to kill Sandra Towler at the Telfer Place home in Paris in September 2015, and did the same to Beverly Bertram at a private home in Oxford County in August 2016.
A former coworker of hers at Telfer Place told CTV News on Friday that she knew Wettlaufer to be a sarcastic person with a “twisted” sense of humour.
John Beaney is the vice-president of Revera Inc., which runs the facility.
He says there were “no suspicions” raised about Wettlaufer during the time she worked there.
“If there were any signs of abnormal behaviour, we would have looked into it and taken that very seriously,” he said.
Court documents allege that the aggravated assaults and attempted murders were all caused by Wettlaufer injecting insulin into her victims.
Police say that four of the six people named above have since died, although their causes of death are not believed to have anything to do with Wettlaufer.
None of the allegations against Wettlaufer have been tested in court.
While Friday’s court appearance was brief, it was attended by a large contingent of relatives of Wettlaufer’s alleged victims, many of whom fought back tears as they looked at Wettlaufer standing in the prisoner’s box.
Andrea Silcox, whose father was allegedly killed by Wettlaufer, told reporters that she saw “absolutely no remorse whatsoever” when she looked at the former nurse.
Wettlaufer returns to court Feb. 15 via a video link.
Police say Friday’s charges don’t represent the end of their investigation, and they still want to hear from anyone else who may have concerns about Wettlaufer.
With reporting by Nicole Lampa and Allison Tanner
