BREMEN: A former German male nurse serving a life sentence for killing to hospital patients by injecting them with lethal drugs is suspected of killing at least 84 patients in total.
The police chief in the northern German city Johann Kuehme said the court ordered to exhume scores of former patients treated by the suspect, has found traces of the medication in 84 case, the Deutsche Welle reported.
Police believe that the numbers of deaths could be even higher. However, many of the patients who died have since been cremated, Kuehme added.
The suspect Niels Högel was initially jailed for life in 2015 after admitting to killing some 30 people at two clinics. If found guilty of the latest charges, he would be one of the biggest serial killers in German criminal history.
The commission has been analysing hundreds of medical records and has exhumed more than 100 bodies to test them for traces of drugs.
Kuehme was used to inject that drug so that they suffered heart failure or a shut down their circulation systems.
Two former senior physicians and the head of station at the Delmenhorst clinic are also facing manslaughter charges in relation to the deaths of the patients.
"The murders could have been prevented, with investigators believing that those responsible at the time could have acted faster,” Kuehme further said.
The proceedings against Högel were scheduled, either by the end of the year or early 2018.
However, as per Germany's judicial system, his jail term would not be amended given that the former nurse is already serving a life sentence, as it does not allow for consecutive sentences.