Busted! Canadian Nursing Home Worker Charged with Eight Murders

A 49-year-old nursing home worker in Ontario has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder spanning several years.

Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer of Woodstock, Ontario, appeared in court on Tuesday morning.
The victims were residents in two long-term care facilities where Ms Wettlaufer worked and were between 75 and 96 years old.

Police said seven of the victims were given a fatal dose of a drug.

The victims were five women and three men and were all residents of Caressant Care in Woodstock and Meadow Park in London, Ontario.

Homicide rate in Canada down to lowest level since 1966

Det. Todd Carefoot, a Toronto forensic officer, dusts for finger prints on Tuesday as police investigated a murder in a bus shelter at the corner of Victoria Park and Clydesale St. Torstar News Service

The country’s homicide rate fell last year to 1.44 victims for every 100,000 people, its lowest level since 1966, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

The agency said the 2013 rate was eight per cent lower than in 2012.

That follows reports that the overall crime rate also declined in 2013 compared with 2012, falling eight per cent to its lowest level since 1969. Statistics Canada said last summer that the crime rate was continuing a long-term, downward trend that began in the early 1990s.

But the drop in murders and a falling crime rate overall haven’t deflected the Harper government from its tough-on-crime agenda.