A 40-year-old German doctor is set to go on trial Monday, accused of murdering 15 patients with lethal drug injections—a case that authorities fear may represent only a fraction of his alleged crimes.
Identified by German media as Johannes M., the palliative care specialist is charged with killing 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024 while working in Berlin. The victims, aged between 25 and 94, were allegedly injected with fatal doses of sedatives, and in several instances, their homes were set on fire to conceal the crimes.
The alarm was first raised in July 2024 by a colleague who noticed an unusual number of patient deaths linked to house fires, according to Die Zeit. Johannes M. was arrested the following month, initially suspected in four deaths. However, the investigation quickly expanded, and by April 2025, he was formally charged with 15 counts of murder.
Authorities are now examining an additional 96 suspicious deaths, including that of his mother-in-law, who died under mysterious circumstances while he and his wife visited her in Poland earlier this year. She had been battling cancer at the time.
A Disturbing Pattern
Prosecutors allege that Johannes M. administered powerful anaesthetics combined with muscle relaxants to his victims without their consent. The muscle relaxant caused paralysis of the respiratory system, resulting in death within minutes. In five of the confirmed cases, he allegedly set fire to the victims’ homes after the killings.
His actions on July 8, 2024, underscore the chilling nature of the crimes. That morning, he allegedly killed a 75-year-old man in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Just hours later, he is said to have murdered a 76-year-old woman in nearby Neukoelln and attempted to cover it up by setting her apartment on fire, though the blaze failed to spread.
In another case, Johannes M. reportedly lied about initiating CPR on a 56-year-old patient who later died in hospital, despite being briefly revived by emergency responders.
Background Raises Further Questions
Johannes M. had previously trained as a radiologist and general practitioner before specializing in palliative care. Intriguingly, his 2013 doctoral thesis focused on the motives behind a string of killings in Frankfurt, beginning with the provocative question: “Why do people kill?”
Dubbed “Doctor Death” by German media, Johannes M. now faces a trial that could reveal more about one of the most disturbing serial killing cases in recent German history.
