Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer, of Woodstock, Ontario, is shown in this still image taken from video provided by Citynews Toronto in Woodstock on Tuesday.  She is alleged to have murdered eight nursing home residents by administering a drug.

Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer, of Woodstock, Ontario, is shown in this still image taken from video provided by Citynews Toronto in Woodstock on Tuesday. She is alleged to have murdered eight nursing home residents by administering a drug.
Photo Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Citynews Toronto / HO

Canada grapples with alleged murders of eight seniors

Canadians across the country, especially in Ontario, are trying to make sense of what police say is a series of murders at two long-term care facilities in the southwestern part of the province.

Forty-nine-year-old Elizabeth Wettlaufer of Woodstock, a nurse, has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder for the deaths, which police say took place between 2007 and 2014.

Police have not said how the victims, between the ages of 75 and 96, died, except that seven were administered a fatal dose of a drug.

The case prompted questions in the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday about the province’s role in regulating nurses and monitoring long-term care homes.

“There is a genuine question that people are asking this morning: How do murders go undetected for nearly 10 years inside any long-term care home in Ontario?” asked Teresa Armstrong, the NDP member of the provincial legislature for London-Fanshawe.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and Attorney General Yasir Naqvi declined to answer Armstrong directly because of the ongong police investigation.

Nursing homes and the nursing profession are highly regulated in Ontario.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is responsible for monitoring nursing homes.

The 150,000 nursing professionals in the province are overseen and regulated by the College of Nurses of Ontario.

Seven of victims died at at the Caressant Care Nursing Home in Woodstock and one at the Meadow Park Nursing Home in London.

Woodstock Police Chief William Renton told reporters Tuesday that the investigation began on Sept. 29, after police received a tip.

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