When Charles Cullen’s arrest first made the news, the former nurse was reported to have been sharing a meal of spring rolls and beer with a female friend – “a date”, The New York Times described her – when officers apprehended him. The woman was in fact no date, but rather Amy Loughren, a former coworker of Cullen who had been working with investigators – and ultimately helped authorities arrest and prosecute a serial killer nurse.
Cullen worked for 16 years at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Following his arrest in December 2003, he confessed to killing 29 patients, often by administering drug overdoses, at several of the healthcare facilities that employed him. The case marked one of the most infamous instances of serial killings in New Jersey. It also prompted questions about the system that enabled Cullen to keep practicing, even as people repeatedly died in unexpected circumstances under his care.
