A palliative care doctor in Berlin has been charged with the murder of 15 patients, in what prosecutors describe as a chilling case driven by a “lust for murder.” The 40-year-old suspect, identified by German media as Johannes M., allegedly administered lethal doses of sedatives and muscle relaxants to his victims between September 2021 and July 2024.
Berlin prosecutors announced the charges on Wednesday, stating the suspect acted with “malice aforethought,” targeting vulnerable patients under his care. The victims — 12 women and three men — ranged in age from 25 to 94 years old. According to investigators, the doctor secretly gave the patients a cocktail of anaesthetic drugs and a muscle relaxant, which quickly led to respiratory failure and death.
Authorities say the suspect attempted to cover up his crimes on multiple occasions by setting fire to the victims’ homes. In five cases, he allegedly tried to start fires after the killings. On one occasion, both a 75-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman were murdered on the same day — July 8, 2024 — in two different Berlin districts, Kreuzberg and Neukoelln. The suspect’s attempt to destroy evidence at the latter crime scene failed when the fire failed to ignite, prompting him to alert a relative under false pretenses.
Prosecutors also revealed the suspect called emergency services in one case, pretending to have begun resuscitation efforts on a 56-year-old victim. The victim was temporarily revived but died in hospital three days later. Authorities believe the suspect acted out of fear of being caught.
Initially arrested in August 2024 and held on suspicion of manslaughter in four deaths, the charges against the doctor have steadily expanded. By November, prosecutors had reclassified the deaths as murders and linked him to additional fatalities. They now seek a life sentence, a permanent professional ban, and preventative detention.
“There appears to be no motive other than the act of killing itself,” prosecutors stated. “The suspect was driven by an insatiable desire to kill.”
The ongoing investigation is vast. A dedicated task force has flagged 395 suspicious deaths for review. Of these, 95 have shown enough evidence to initiate preliminary proceedings, while 75 cases remain under assessment. Twelve exhumations have already been carried out — five of which relate to the current charges — with five more planned.
This case mirrors another high-profile trial currently underway in Aachen, where a nurse is accused of killing nine patients using similar methods. Prosecutors in that case say the nurse was motivated by a desire to reduce his workload and played god over his patients’ lives.
The Berlin doctor’s trial is expected to draw widespread public and legal scrutiny in what is now one of Germany’s most disturbing medical crime cases in recent memory.
