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Up next...

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They're all veterans.

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They're all elderly.

4
00:00:11,141 --> 00:00:14,231
And they all die in strangely
similar circumstances.

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We knew Dad was...

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not well.

7
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We just thought
it was his time.

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This cluster of deaths
alarms medical investigators.

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It's not only a whodunit,
it's a whatdunit.

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The bodies of
the dead men are exhumed.

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Can they speak from the grave
to reveal what killed them?

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To this day,
I still cannot put into words

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what these families endured.

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We had to prove what happened,
and who did it.

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There was nothing we weren't
gonna do to ensure justice.

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Robert Kozul spent most of
his life in Fairmont, West Virginia,

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a rural town
about 25 miles

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from the border
with Pennsylvania.

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He built a house there, and
raised two boys with Shirley,

20
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his wife of 43 years.

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He tried to do everything
that was the right way

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the first time.

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And he tried to teach
those values to my brother,

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Bob, and I.

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And I think he did
a good job of it.

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One place Robert Kozul
learned those values

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was during his military service
as a paratrooper

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with the U.S. Army's
11th airborne division

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at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

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He was proud to be
a veteran.

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He was proud of the service
he did for his country.

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He loved his country
more than anything.

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In January of 2018,
Bob Kozul had a health scare,

34
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and was eventually
sent to

35
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a nearby
Veterans Affairs hospital--

36
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the Louis A. Johnson
Medical Center

37
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in Clarksburg,
West Virginia.

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It's a very busy hospital.

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I know folks come from
Northern West Virginia,

40
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from all over,
to go there.

41
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Because a lot of the folks that
live around here are veterans,

42
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particularly
the older folks.

43
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He had been going for
all of his visits

44
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and his doctoring
on a regular basis up there.

45
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So, we had no problem
taking him to the VA.

46
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Initial testing indicated
Bob suffered a minor stroke.

47
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It wasn't life-threatening,
but doctors had him stay

48
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at the hospital overnight
for observation.

49
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So, we all went home,
and we felt that

50
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he was going to be safe,
and well taken care of.

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The next day, Bob's family
went to check on him,

52
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and found him disoriented,
and unable to speak.

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Something was wrong.

54
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His sugar was low,
and they just didn't know why.

55
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But they were just
giving him some sugar,

56
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and trying to get it
to come back up,

57
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and he should be okay
once they got it up.

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But that
didn't happen.

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Bob Kozul died.

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And, at first, doctors
weren't sure what killed him.

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He was 89 years old.

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There was a lot of questions,
at that point,

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and we didn't have
any answers.

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Two other elderly veterans died
shortly after Bob Kozul.

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Like him, they suffered
hypoglycemic shock--

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a severe drop
in blood sugar.

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These hypoglycemic deaths
really started to stick out

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in the spring of 2018,
when, number one,

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there was a cluster
of them.

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The main cause
is usually medications

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used to treat diabetes,
such as insulin.

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Severe hypoglycemia
in non-diabetic patients

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is extremely rare.

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In all these cases,
doctors attempted to revive the patients

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with a dose of dextrose--

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essentially highly
concentrated sugar.

77
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But it didn't work.

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Could these repeated failures
be a coincidence?

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It didn't seem likely.

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These hypoglycemic events
were totally abnormal,

81
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out of the blue,
and should not have occurred.

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By the summer of 2018,
a total of eight veterans died

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of causes related to
hypoglycemic shock,

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all at the same West Virginia
veterans' hospital,

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which had investigators worried
that these deaths

86
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were anything but natural,
and might possibly be murder.

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It wasn't accidental.
It was not based on medication.

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Something was
happening here,

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and it was happening
frequently enough

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that it appeared to be deliberate.

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In the summer of 2018,

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doctors at the Louis A. Johnson
Veterans' Hospital

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in West Virginia were facing
a cluster of unexplained deaths.

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For eight people to die
of conditions connected to

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hypoglycemic shock,
at the same hospital,

96
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inside of a year,
was unprecedented,

97
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and needed to be explained
before more people died.

98
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Could it be someone
who is using the wrong needles?

99
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Could it be someone who's using
the wrong type of insulin?

100
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Or could a medication
be bad?

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The dead were
Air Force veteran George Shaw,

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Army and Air Force veteran
Raymond Golden,

103
00:05:41,428 --> 00:05:44,866
Navy veterans Russell Posey
and Robert Edge, Sr.,

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and Army veterans
Archie Edgell,

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William Holloway, Robert Kozul,
and Felix McDermott.

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Despite the commonality
of symptoms,

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the official causes of death varied.

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The families did not
request an autopsy.

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These were
elderly patients.

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They all had
additional medical issues.

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That's why they were in
the hospital.

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Doctors,
still trying to find out how

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or even if,
these deaths were connected,

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and suspecting they were
murders, wanted autopsies.

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The problem was, all the victims
had been buried--

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for months.

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Felix McDermott's family was
among the first to be contacted.

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My sister called me, and...

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I don't think I said it,
but I was thinking it--

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"Who did he piss off?"

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I mean, sometimes,
my dad does that.

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But...

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you know,
it was a shock.

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And if Felix McDermott
was murdered,

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his family had no doubt
he'd want justice.

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And if that meant
exhuming his body,

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they were sure
he'd approve.

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My dad would've
wanted it.

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He would want to do everything
he can possibly do

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to catch this person.

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He's gonna tell them,

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"Do what you have to do
to get this person."

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So, in a rare move,
Felix McDermott's body

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was dug up,
and sent to doctors

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from the Armed Forces
medical examiner system

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at the Air Force base
in Dover, Delaware.

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McDermott had not fallen
in the line of duty,

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but doctors still felt
a keen responsibility

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to find out
how he died.

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What happens behind these
walls is incredibly sacred.

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When the bodies of these
veterans were brought here,

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they were treated in accordance
with our protocols,

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which is utmost respect
at all times.

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By the time of
Felix McDermott's autopsy,

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he had been buried
for six months.

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This was going to be
incredibly challenging

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because there was
extensive decomposition.

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We were not able to get blood
samples for toxicologic analysis

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because there was not-- no
suitable samples were available.

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Despite the
considerable challenges

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of performing an autopsy
on an exhumed body,

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doctors had some
good information to work with.

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They knew that McDermott
and other veterans

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had been treated
with dextrose

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after going into
hypoglycemic shock.

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And they knew that this dextrose
didn't do what it was designed

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to do-- jump-start
the victims' blood sugar.

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This led to a theory

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that someone had injected
the victims with so much insulin

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that their blood sugar levels
could not possibly recover.

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We were looking
for evidence of insulin administration.

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Another question that we had
for the investigators is,

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how do you think
the insulin was administered?

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In Felix McDermott's
lower abdomen,

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doctors found a bruise

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caused by what was probably
a needle puncture.

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This area was tested

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for the possibility
of insulin injection.

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We took a section of
that area, looked it under the microscope,

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and we saw features

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that were suspicious
for an injection site.

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We stained it for insulin, and
found out that it was positive.

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That told me that he was
injected with insulin

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at that location.

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Since Mr. McDermott
was a non-diabetic

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who was never prescribed
insulin in the hospital,

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that is a major red flag.

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This left these
medical detectives with no doubt

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that Felix McDermott
had been murdered,

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which left a lot of
open questions

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about the strange deaths
of his fellow veterans,

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seven of whom were also exhumed
and autopsied.

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Could a serial killer
be stalking the halls

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of a West Virginia
veterans' hospital?

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If so, whoever it was

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had done a great job
of covering the trail.

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There was no
surveillance camera footage

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on the ward
in the VA Medical Center.

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There were no eyewitnesses.

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There were no fingerprints.
There was no DNA.

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There was no
murder weapon.

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Ground zero for the
investigation into the deaths

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00:10:13,743 --> 00:10:16,137
of eight military veterans
was the hospital

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where they all died--

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the Louis A. Johnson
Medical Center

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in Clarksburg,
West Virginia.

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They immediately suspect
they have a serial killer

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00:10:26,626 --> 00:10:30,542
who is going after patients
in the local hospital,

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00:10:30,586 --> 00:10:33,937
which is a terribly
scary prospect.

200
00:10:33,981 --> 00:10:35,896
But who is it?

201
00:10:35,939 --> 00:10:40,683
There's over 1,200 employees
at the hospital.

202
00:10:40,727 --> 00:10:43,730
Post-exhumation
autopsies left no doubt

203
00:10:43,773 --> 00:10:47,168
the murder weapon
was insulin.

204
00:10:47,211 --> 00:10:49,126
How could this happen?

205
00:10:49,170 --> 00:10:51,694
The answer was shocking.

206
00:10:51,738 --> 00:10:54,392
An in-house investigation
revealed that insulin

207
00:10:54,436 --> 00:10:57,265
was easy for almost anyone
in this hospital--

208
00:10:57,308 --> 00:11:01,486
a staff member, a patient,
or even a visitor--

209
00:11:01,530 --> 00:11:03,184
to get their hands on.

210
00:11:03,227 --> 00:11:07,188
We discovered that insulin
at the facility was not secure.

211
00:11:07,231 --> 00:11:09,277
It was out in the open.

212
00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:11,366
It was not tracked.

213
00:11:11,409 --> 00:11:15,587
From there, the problems
for investigators got even worse.

214
00:11:15,631 --> 00:11:18,895
More than a year had passed
since the first victim's death.

215
00:11:18,939 --> 00:11:20,897
Whoever did this
might literally have

216
00:11:20,941 --> 00:11:23,900
gotten away with
multiple murders.

217
00:11:23,944 --> 00:11:27,556
It became clear very early on
that it was very unlikely

218
00:11:27,599 --> 00:11:29,558
we were going to have
any smoking gun.

219
00:11:29,601 --> 00:11:30,994
We weren't gonna have
a murder weapon,

220
00:11:31,038 --> 00:11:34,650
or any physical evidence,
for that matter.

221
00:11:34,694 --> 00:11:36,173
Once you have
the medical evidence,

222
00:11:36,217 --> 00:11:38,741
which is that someone
gave these patients insulin,

223
00:11:38,785 --> 00:11:39,742
of course, now,
you have to prove

224
00:11:39,786 --> 00:11:44,399
who gave these patients insulin.

225
00:11:44,442 --> 00:11:46,967
Among the things
all the victims had in common

226
00:11:47,010 --> 00:11:49,621
was that they were treated
in the same ward

227
00:11:49,665 --> 00:11:52,929
at the veterans' hospital:
Ward 3A.

228
00:11:52,973 --> 00:11:55,976
And by backtracking
when the symptoms

229
00:11:56,019 --> 00:11:58,239
began to appear
with all the victims,

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investigators concluded
the shot of insulin

231
00:12:00,981 --> 00:12:03,940
that sent them
into hypoglycemic shock

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00:12:03,984 --> 00:12:05,986
happened on
the overnight shift.

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00:12:06,029 --> 00:12:09,946
There were only four
employees in the whole hospital

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00:12:09,990 --> 00:12:11,774
who had been on shift
each of the days

235
00:12:11,818 --> 00:12:16,431
that these men had experienced
this hypoglycemic event.

236
00:12:16,474 --> 00:12:18,912
One of those employees
was on the ward

237
00:12:18,955 --> 00:12:23,264
where these events took place,
and that was Reta Mays.

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00:12:23,307 --> 00:12:27,268
44-year-old Reta Mays
was a veteran herself.

239
00:12:27,311 --> 00:12:29,226
She'd served in
the National Guard,

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00:12:29,270 --> 00:12:31,141
and had been working as
a nursing assistant

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00:12:31,185 --> 00:12:34,579
at the VA hospital
since 2015.

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00:12:34,623 --> 00:12:37,452
She was actually
the 2016 recipient

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00:12:37,495 --> 00:12:41,717
for the Nursing Award
of Excellence at the facility.

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00:12:41,761 --> 00:12:43,458
And she didn't have
a criminal history.

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00:12:43,501 --> 00:12:45,155
But a background check revealed

246
00:12:45,199 --> 00:12:49,290
some potentially disturbing
information about Reta Mays.

247
00:12:49,333 --> 00:12:52,467
The investigators found that she
had left her previous employment

248
00:12:52,510 --> 00:12:56,471
as a jail guard under suspicion
of using excessive force

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00:12:56,514 --> 00:12:57,951
against an inmate.

250
00:12:57,994 --> 00:12:59,604
So, that gave a little bit of
a red flag

251
00:12:59,648 --> 00:13:01,824
that she could be someone
who could be violent.

252
00:13:01,868 --> 00:13:05,697
Further checking revealed
a home life in disarray.

253
00:13:05,741 --> 00:13:09,397
Reta's eldest son
was in jail on drug charges,

254
00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:12,226
and her husband
was also behind bars.

255
00:13:12,269 --> 00:13:15,272
Reta's husband was in
federal prison

256
00:13:15,316 --> 00:13:19,755
for child pornography--
possession of child pornography.

257
00:13:19,799 --> 00:13:23,324
But she was standing by
her husband

258
00:13:23,367 --> 00:13:25,239
while he was
in federal prison.

259
00:13:25,282 --> 00:13:27,502
Detectives had more
than enough evidence

260
00:13:27,545 --> 00:13:29,069
for a search warrant,

261
00:13:29,112 --> 00:13:31,506
and examined Reta's
digital footprint--

262
00:13:31,549 --> 00:13:35,249
her Web activity, text messages,
and viewing habits.

263
00:13:35,292 --> 00:13:37,512
What we did find was that
she had watched episodes

264
00:13:37,555 --> 00:13:39,079
of "Nurses Who Kill."

265
00:13:39,122 --> 00:13:43,083
And several of these episodes
involve providing insulin

266
00:13:43,126 --> 00:13:46,042
to patients,
and causing their death.

267
00:13:46,086 --> 00:13:48,915
Reta also complained
to co-workers sometimes

268
00:13:48,958 --> 00:13:50,873
about patients
who later died.

269
00:13:50,917 --> 00:13:53,876
The investigative team recovered
messages that Reta Mays

270
00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:57,749
would send to co-workers,
in which she would complain

271
00:13:57,793 --> 00:13:59,708
about some of the victims
in the case,

272
00:13:59,751 --> 00:14:03,277
or indicate that she was
frustrated with them.

273
00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:05,279
I think she said
something along the lines of,

274
00:14:05,322 --> 00:14:07,020
"I'm gonna kill
this patient.

275
00:14:07,063 --> 00:14:09,326
I had this other patient resting,

276
00:14:09,370 --> 00:14:14,157
and now, he's got him all riled
up, and they won't settle down."

277
00:14:14,201 --> 00:14:16,943
So, ultimately, you know,
something that a lot of people

278
00:14:16,986 --> 00:14:18,118
say in frustration.

279
00:14:18,161 --> 00:14:19,946
They don't necessarily
mean it.

280
00:14:19,989 --> 00:14:23,123
In fact, on a couple
of occasions, Reta participated

281
00:14:23,166 --> 00:14:26,082
in life-saving measures
to save the patients.

282
00:14:26,126 --> 00:14:27,910
If she was
a serial killer,

283
00:14:27,954 --> 00:14:31,392
there was no solid evidence
to prove it.

284
00:14:43,665 --> 00:14:46,146
Investigators on the
cases of eight veterans who died

285
00:14:46,189 --> 00:14:47,974
under mysterious circumstances

286
00:14:48,017 --> 00:14:50,150
at a West Virginia
VA hospital

287
00:14:50,193 --> 00:14:53,153
had become convinced
a nurse, Reta Mays,

288
00:14:53,196 --> 00:14:54,981
was a serial killer.

289
00:14:55,024 --> 00:14:57,592
The medical evidence
was very compelling.

290
00:14:57,635 --> 00:14:59,333
But there were challenges
in proving

291
00:14:59,376 --> 00:15:03,337
that Reta Mays was the person
who committed these crimes.

292
00:15:03,380 --> 00:15:05,948
And that was because
we didn't have surveillance

293
00:15:05,992 --> 00:15:07,819
in the hospital.

294
00:15:07,863 --> 00:15:10,953
So, really, what we were left
with was a circumstantial case.

295
00:15:10,997 --> 00:15:13,347
But another piece
of circumstantial evidence

296
00:15:13,390 --> 00:15:15,958
bolstered the case
against Reta Mays.

297
00:15:16,002 --> 00:15:18,961
There were numerous phone calls
with her husband,

298
00:15:19,005 --> 00:15:22,399
who was in prison
on child pornography charges.

299
00:15:22,443 --> 00:15:24,967
As part of standard
prison procedure,

300
00:15:25,011 --> 00:15:27,013
these calls
were recorded.

301
00:15:55,302 --> 00:15:58,087
That night, when she did
go back to work,

302
00:15:58,131 --> 00:15:59,915
and was assigned to sit with
that patient,

303
00:15:59,959 --> 00:16:04,224
you saw a subsequent drop in
the victim's blood sugar value.

304
00:16:04,267 --> 00:16:07,836
And ultimately,
that patient died.

305
00:16:07,879 --> 00:16:10,665
Because of the absence
of direct evidence,

306
00:16:10,708 --> 00:16:13,233
what came next was something
of a cat-and-mouse game

307
00:16:13,276 --> 00:16:15,191
between Reta
and detectives.

308
00:16:15,235 --> 00:16:19,108
The one prevailing theme
from Reta Mays' first interview

309
00:16:19,152 --> 00:16:20,849
was a comment
she made repeatedly

310
00:16:20,892 --> 00:16:23,634
to the investigative team
that things were being missed.

311
00:16:23,678 --> 00:16:27,116
However, when she was asked
to expand on this, she didn't.

312
00:16:49,660 --> 00:16:53,534
In later interviews,
investigators made it clear--

313
00:16:53,577 --> 00:16:57,364
they told Reta they knew
she killed those veterans.

314
00:17:10,768 --> 00:17:13,075
She was confronted with
all the evidence.

315
00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:15,121
She was asked what
the prosecutors would think

316
00:17:15,164 --> 00:17:16,470
after looking at
the evidence.

317
00:17:16,513 --> 00:17:20,561
She herself said,
"It looks like I did this."

318
00:17:20,604 --> 00:17:24,173
She could just never
bring herself to confess.

319
00:17:40,972 --> 00:17:42,148
There was one point
during that interview

320
00:17:42,191 --> 00:17:44,541
where Reta sat back
in the chair,

321
00:17:44,585 --> 00:17:46,282
and she looked up
at the ceiling.

322
00:17:46,326 --> 00:17:48,763
And I think she really
saw everything

323
00:17:48,806 --> 00:17:51,809
that the investigative team
had put together,

324
00:17:51,853 --> 00:17:54,986
and that we had, at that point,
connected the dots,

325
00:17:55,030 --> 00:17:58,860
and we knew her to be the one
that had done this.

326
00:18:03,386 --> 00:18:06,346
Ultimately, we'll never
know why Reta Mays killed

327
00:18:06,389 --> 00:18:10,132
these defenseless people,
these honorable men.

328
00:18:10,176 --> 00:18:12,352
But the investigation
seems to tell us

329
00:18:12,395 --> 00:18:15,181
it had to do with
some hero complex,

330
00:18:15,224 --> 00:18:18,314
that she wants to be
the one that found

331
00:18:18,358 --> 00:18:20,534
that these patients
had low blood sugar,

332
00:18:20,577 --> 00:18:24,364
and that could participate
in trying to save their lives.

333
00:18:24,407 --> 00:18:28,977
Investigators had
put together a chilling case.

334
00:18:29,020 --> 00:18:31,414
For reasons Reta
has never explained,

335
00:18:31,458 --> 00:18:34,809
she went on a course
of pre-meditated murder.

336
00:18:34,852 --> 00:18:37,072
Alone in the room
with her victims,

337
00:18:37,116 --> 00:18:38,987
she injected them
with insulin

338
00:18:39,030 --> 00:18:41,946
that was readily available
in the hospital.

339
00:18:41,990 --> 00:18:43,818
The resulting shock
to the bodies

340
00:18:43,861 --> 00:18:46,386
of these elderly veterans
was deadly.

341
00:18:46,429 --> 00:18:48,649
The medical staff
trying to save them

342
00:18:48,692 --> 00:18:52,087
had no idea the person
working right by their side

343
00:18:52,131 --> 00:18:54,350
was a serial killer.

344
00:18:54,394 --> 00:18:58,876
She would insinuate
herself into the life-saving procedures.

345
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,228
Other times,
she would sit and cry

346
00:19:02,271 --> 00:19:04,926
while she held
these patients' hands.

347
00:19:06,928 --> 00:19:10,192
It was just difficult to
imagine that somebody could do that,

348
00:19:10,236 --> 00:19:12,977
that somebody could
walk around, and say,

349
00:19:13,021 --> 00:19:14,240
"Oh, let's...

350
00:19:14,283 --> 00:19:16,372
let's inject this one
tonight."

351
00:19:16,416 --> 00:19:18,418
And "Oh, let's inject this one
tomorrow night."

352
00:19:18,461 --> 00:19:20,855
It's just unimaginable.

353
00:19:20,898 --> 00:19:25,294
Some of them could've lived
another 10, 15, 20 years.

354
00:19:25,338 --> 00:19:28,645
And some could've just passed
the next day on their own.

355
00:19:28,689 --> 00:19:33,215
And I hope that everyone that
sees this prays for all of us,

356
00:19:33,259 --> 00:19:37,219
because it is a hard thing
to go through.

357
00:19:37,263 --> 00:19:40,918
In the summer of 2020,
Reta Mays pled "guilty"

358
00:19:40,962 --> 00:19:42,442
to seven counts
of murder,

359
00:19:42,485 --> 00:19:45,793
and one count of assault
with intent to commit murder.

360
00:19:45,836 --> 00:19:50,624
She received the maximum
sentence-- life behind bars.

361
00:19:50,667 --> 00:19:54,236
In the federal system, there is
no such thing as parole.

362
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,936
Reta Mays will spend
the rest of her life in prison.

363
00:19:58,980 --> 00:20:04,464
The judge called her "the
monster that no one saw coming."

364
00:20:04,507 --> 00:20:06,596
Because of the ages
of her victims,

365
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,469
and her unusual choice
of murder weapon,

366
00:20:09,512 --> 00:20:12,515
Reta Mays almost
got away with murder.

367
00:20:12,559 --> 00:20:15,910
The problem was she that
she couldn't stop killing,

368
00:20:15,953 --> 00:20:21,959
which ultimately enough evidence
to expose her.

369
00:20:22,003 --> 00:20:23,700
The hospital said
what happened

370
00:20:23,744 --> 00:20:27,661
doesn't represent the quality
healthcare veterans deserve,

371
00:20:27,704 --> 00:20:31,317
and vowed to make changes
to ensure patient safety.

372
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,057
But thanks to science,

373
00:20:33,101 --> 00:20:36,409
and investigators' determination
to get to the truth,

374
00:20:36,452 --> 00:20:38,062
the questions
about these deaths,

375
00:20:38,106 --> 00:20:40,108
and who was responsible,

376
00:20:40,151 --> 00:20:43,459
have been laid to rest
along with the victims.

377
00:20:43,503 --> 00:20:47,333
These people were honorable
men who served our country.

378
00:20:47,376 --> 00:20:50,466
They were fathers.
They were brothers.

379
00:20:50,510 --> 00:20:51,859
They were grandfathers.

380
00:20:51,902 --> 00:20:53,295
They were even
great-grandfathers.

381
00:20:53,339 --> 00:20:55,341
And so, I refuse to focus on
Reta Mays,

382
00:20:55,384 --> 00:20:56,864
and what I think
of her.

383
00:20:56,907 --> 00:21:00,346
I focus on these victims
that we brought justice to.