Patients’ Bodies to Be Exhumed

Detectives investigating alleged mercy killings by fired hospital worker Efren Saldivar are gearing up to exhume the bodies of possible victims as early as next month, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Aiding investigators in the case is Dr. Michael Baden, a prominent New York pathologist who testified for the defense in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.

Investigators are examining a pool of several hundred cases in which Saldivar had contact with a patient who died soon afterward, police Sgt. Rick Young said.

Young said investigators are in the process of ranking the cases, starting with the patient deaths they believe Saldivar was likely to have caused. Sources said investigators would begin by exhuming about a dozen bodies.

Detectives recently completed the first phase of their investigation, in which they pored over the hospital records of possible victims, Young said. Now, detectives are interviewing all doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel who had contact with any of Saldivar’s possible victims. The family members of those patients will also be interviewed, Young said.

Baden, who bills as much as $1,500 a day for his services, has “met with us a few times,” Young confirmed.

“He is giving us technical advice in this very difficult case,” Young said. “He let us know that we are heading in the right direction.”

Young’s comments offer the best glimpse yet at the scope of the police investigation, which has been conducted in secrecy for the past two months.

Police began investigating Saldivar in March after receiving a tip that a hospital worker had been killing patients. During an interview, police said Saldivar confessed to being an “angel of death,” who had killed 40 or 50 terminally ill patients.

In the ensuing media frenzy, Saldivar appeared on two nationally televised magazine shows and recanted the confession, telling viewers he fabricated the story because he was suicidal and wanted the death penalty.

Police said they believe that at least one slaying took place, although investigators do not have sufficient evidence to make an arrest.

Saldivar, who was fired along with four colleagues, has not been charged with any crime.

After news of Saldivar’s purported confession became public, the hospital was deluged with calls from concerned family members of patients who had died there. The hospital launched its own investigation, assembling a special team of retired physicians to examine the files of patients whom callers had inquired about.

Seven of those cases were deemed suspicious and referred to the police for further investigation.