Respiratory therapist tied to deaths at Missouri hospital faces second murder charge

A Johnson County respiratory therapist who has long been suspected of playing a role in nine mysterious deaths at a Chillicothe, Missouri, medical center is charged with a second count of first-degree murder stemming from a patient death that occurred more than 20 years ago.

Livingston County prosecutors charged Jennifer Hall, 42, on Tuesday for the alleged killing of David Wesley Harper, a 37-year-old man who died at Hedrick Medical Center in 2002 while being treated for pneumonia. Hall has been jailed without bond since her May arrest on a first-degree murder charge in the death of 75-year-old Fern Franco.

In both cases, authorities allege the patients were given succinylcholine, a muscle relaxing drug that Hall had access to. She allegedly had a vial containing the drug in her pocket at the time Harper suddenly died, according to charging documents filed in Livingston County Circuit Court.

“According to medical records, succinylcholine was not used during the attempt to resuscitate Mr. Harper. Succinylcholine was stocked on the crash cart to which Hall had access and was one of the substances identified as causing the death of Fern Franco four weeks after Mr. Harper’s murder,” a Chillicothe police officer wrote in a probable-cause affidavit seeking criminal charges against Hill.

From December 2001 through May 2002, Hall worked as a respiratory therapist at the 49-bed medical center where six others died amid a sequence of events deemed “medically suspicious,” according to charging documents for Hall.

A total of 18 cardiac or respiratory arrests, also called “Code Blue” events, were logged during Hall’s time working there. Before then the medical center averaged one per year.

Doctors and nurses suspected for months that a killer walked the halls of their small hospital as patients died at an alarming rate. Hall was ultimately placed on administrative leave on May 21, 2002.

In 2010, the families of five patients who died during that period brought wrongful-death claims against the hospital. They accused Hall of being a serial killer who poisoned their loved ones while they were being treated. But the Missouri Supreme Court ultimately found that the statute of limitations had expired for civil action, and tossed out the lawsuit.

In 2012, Livingston County Prosecutor Adam Warren pledged to reopen a criminal investigation. Ten years later, on May 4, Hall was first criminally charged in connection with the death of Franco, whose body had been exhumed and examined by the Livingston County coroner in 2002. Traces of the muscle relaxant and morphine were found, which — when combined — would have caused her to suffocate, the coroner found.

The Star wrote at length about Hall in 2015. At the time, Hall denied causing anyone’s death. She has also pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge in Franco’s death.

A criminal defense attorney representing Hall could not be immediately reached for comment late Friday.

The Star’s Mike Hendricks and Eric Adler contributed to this report.