17-year hospital killer exposed after autopsy stench unravels decades of unchecked murders

For years, Donald Harvey looked like the kind of hospital worker families trusted during their darkest moments. Behind that calm image was a killer who would later be linked to 37 murders across Ohio and Kentucky.

Harvey worked in healthcare for 17 years. He used cyanide, arsenic, suffocation, and drugs to kill patients. His victims often died without raising immediate suspicion. His coworkers even joked about his frequent encounters with death, as per Bored Panda.

That changed in March 1987. After patient John Powell died at Drake Memorial Hospital, an autopsy revealed a bitter almond-like odor associated with cyanide. The discovery finally pushed investigators to examine Harvey’s history.

Coworkers dismissed Harvey’s suspicious pattern of deaths as a joke for years

Harvey was born in Ohio in 1952 and grew up in Kentucky. He later said he had suffered abuse during childhood. In 1970, he became a nurse’s aide at Marymount Hospital. His first known victim was 88-year-old Logan Evans, whom Harvey suffocated after becoming angry with him.

He later used poisoned food and drinks along with injections and tampered oxygen supplies. He left Marymount in 1971. After a burglary arrest, he confessed to killings, but investigators found insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Confessions can carry very different motives in a trial; Aileen Wuornos famously confessed for reasons that had nothing to do with guilt.

In 1975, Harvey joined the Cincinnati VA Medical Center. A 1985 search found a revolver, needles, surgical tools, gloves, preserved tissue, and occult books. Authorities still did not prosecute him. He was allowed to resign. Years later, another nurse’s deadly secret emerged in Germany after an alarming pattern of patient deaths. 

Outside hospitals, Harvey also poisoned Helen Metzger, Henry Hoeweler, James Peluso and Howard Vetter. At Drake Memorial Hospital, nurses noticed suspicious deaths in Ward C-300. Their concerns were reportedly dismissed.

Powell’s death finally changed everything. His family requested an autopsy and Dr. Lee D. Lehman detected the suspicious odor. Harvey was charged on April 6, 1987.

Journalist Pat Minarcin then investigated other deaths at Drake. Nurses contacted him anonymously and provided names. His reporting eventually connected Harvey to dozens of suspicious fatalities.

Police searched Harvey’s apartment and found cyanide, arsenic and a diary. His attorney Bill Whalen asked how many people he had killed. Harvey reportedly answered, “Seventy.”

Investigators ultimately confirmed 37 murders. Harvey pleaded guilty to 28 Ohio killings and eight Kentucky homicides plus one manslaughter charge. He received consecutive life sentences.

Harvey died in prison in 2017 after inmate James Elliot attacked him. Elliot later described the assault as an act of vigilante justice.

However, the case offered little closure for the families. Some victims had only been remembered as patients who simply died. Only years later, their families learned they had been murdered.