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Monday, March 30, 1998 Page: 4A
Expert: Probe of patients delicate
Dr. Cyril Wecht says solid evidence in suspected hospital killings could be
tough to come byLOS ANGELES (AP)- Science might not be much help proving the
case against a hospital worker who admitted suffocating or fatally drugging up
to 50 terminally ill patients, an expert said Sunday.
Those methods of killing can leave few signs to show up in an autopsy if
the bodies are exhumed.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” said Dr. Cyril Wecht, a nationally known
forensics pathologist who serves as a county medical examiner in Pittsburgh.
He suggested that authorities should take their time and be “very
selective” about which body to dig up.
“If you’re going to nail this guy, and make sure he’s not a kook or a nut
or something, one case against him is as good as 50,” said Wecht, who has been
involved in area cases such as the Joann Curley homicide investigation and the
Steven Scher murder tiral, and national cases such as the JonBenet Ramsey
slaying, and became famous for disputing the single-bullet theory in the
assassination of President Kennedy.
Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist, told police in suburban Glendale
on March 11 that he committed the