20 Bodies to Be Tested in ‘Angel of Death’ Case

Investigators in the so-called Angel of Death case said Wednesday that they plan to exhume 20 bodies in their probe of a purported mercy killer who worked as a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

Once the bodies are unearthed, investigators will search tissue samples for traces of succinylcholine chloride and Pavulon--prescription drugs that Efren Saldivar told police last year that he used to hasten the deaths of as many as 50 patients. He later recanted the confession during a nationally televised interview.

The exhumations will begin this week, said Glendale Police Chief Russell Siverling, and will be conducted at a rate of one or two a week for the next several months.

Glendale Police Sgt. John McKillop, leader of a task force assigned to the case, said medical experts believe that traces of the drugs will still be detectable. He said medical records show that none of the 20 deceased patients were administered the drugs during their treatment.

“If we find [these] chemicals in the tissues . . . the only logical conclusion would be they were given illegally,” McKillop said.

The 20 people died at Glendale Adventist during 1997 and 1998 while Saldivar was on duty, authorities said. His job was to tend to patients’ breathing apparatus.

Saldivar, who said he was angered at seeing terminally ill patients’ lives unnecessarily prolonged, allegedly told police that he killed only those who were unconscious, appeared ready to die and had standing orders not to be resuscitated.

“These cases do match certain criteria outlined by Mr. Saldivar,” McKillop said. He refused to elaborate.

McKillop also declined to identify any of the dead. He said the families have been notified of the impending exhumations and requested to remain anonymous.

Saldivar, who has maintained a low profile since recanting his confession last year on the ABC news program “20/20,” could not be reached for comment. He has not been charged with any crime.

“He maintains his innocence,” said his lawyer, Terry Goldberg, of Woodland Hills.

At Wednesday’s news conference, police shed light on the yearlong investigation that began after Saldivar’s March 11 confession last year.

McKillop said that more than a thousand patients died at Glendale Adventist Medical Center while Saldivar was on duty from the time he started work there in 1989 until he was fired last year.

Investigators focused on deaths in 1997 and early 1998. Of the 171 deaths that occurred while Saldivar was on duty during that time, 54 were excluded from the investigation because the remains were not available, mostly due to cremation.

That left 117 cases for the seven-member task force to investigate.

Aided by local, state and federal authorities, as well as public and private medical experts, task force members reviewed medical records and interviewed doctors and nurses.

The process resulted in the identification of at least 20 “suspicious deaths,” Siverling said.

Investigators outlined their findings in a 175-page search warrant application submitted to a Superior Court judge, who then ordered the exhumations.

“The judge has found that the investigators have shown probable cause to believe each of the 20 persons was murdered,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg, who would prosecute Saldivar if charges are filed.

Kelberg added that investigators were a long way from filing charges against Saldivar.

Kelberg also countered criticism that investigators have waited too long to begin exhuming bodies and may have inadvertently allowed the drugs, if any, to dissipate.

“It’s important to understand that you don’t just go identifying people who died when the man worked at the hospital and say you have a basis to exhume 117 bodies,” Kelberg said. “It is thoroughly inappropriate to be exhuming bodies when you could easily rule out that patient’s death as a potentially suspicious case.”

Kelberg said medical experts working with investigators on the case have said that if drugs were present in the body at burial, chances are “reasonably good” that they are still detectable.

But Siverling said there are no guarantees.

“Even the best of those experts made no promises that the drugs would be detectable, as there are so many variables, including the time since death, the condition of the remains [and] the amount of substance used,” he said.

Siverling said the testing and evaluation process could take six to nine months.