Ann Arbor VA Hospital Murders

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
From July to August 1975, over 25 patients at the Veterans Administration hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan were inexplicably stricken with respiratory crisis events. Some were saved, but 11 died before the doctors realized there was something unnatural about their deaths.

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19th century depiction of hunting with curare tipped blowguns in the Amazon rainforest

The death of 3 patients within a 20 minute span, sparked the suspicion of Dr. Anne Hill the chief of anesthesiology that these individuals had been poisoned. After giving a patient an antidote for muscle relaxant, this confirmed her worse suspicions that this was being administered to the patients.

Examination of 18 patients — 9 of which had died — showed they had been given prescribed doses of Pavulon. This drug is a synthetic form of curare, which anesthetists occasionally use as a muscle relaxant to insert a breathing tube before surgery.

Curare is a toxin used by some South American tribes to poison their weapons, since it is very fast acting, producing breathing failure within 3 minutes. 

The effect of Pavulon is the person cannot breath owing to the inability of the victim's respiratory muscles to contract.

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Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez went to trial in 1977

FBI agents zeroed in that most the incidents occurred in the ICU. The FBI went on to create a way to find the presence of Pavulon after the person was dead, since there was no test available at that time. Bodies were exhumed and traces of Pavulon were found in several, though not all. However none had been prescribed Pavulon while alive. They concluded the drug had been administered through the feeding tubes, because it would have diluted if added to the larger IV bottles.

Work schedules were examined and over 750 employees were questioned. Suspicion soon fell on two Filipino nurses, Filipina Narciso, 29, and Leonora Perez, 31.

It was found that both nurses were not where they should have been when patients collapsed. They behaved suspiciously, leaving codes, traveling too far for crash carts, and most damning, visiting former ICU patients before they experienced a collapse.

Most of the poisonings happened in the unit where Narciso worked, on her shift and on the days she worked. Two poisonings that occurred on Saturday when she wasn't regularly scheduled, turned out she was on duty after all.

When federal agents took into consideration all the factors, including the work schedules of the entire hospital staff, only Filipina Narciso was working during every poisoning.

John McCrery, a poisoning victim, was interviewed by the FBI two days after he was poisoned. He said he had seen a nurse known as "Pia", which was Narciso's nickname, inject something into his IV tube only minutes before he arrested.

In order to confirm his story, the FBI had two nurses, Bonnie Weston and Leonora Perez (not under suspicion yet) come into the room. He did not identify either of them.

Then Filipina Narcisco came into the room. His pulse jumped, and his heart monitor alarm went off. She left the room and he said, "That's the one." Two days after this event he underwent heart by-pass surgery, he had a cardiac arrest and he barely survived the operation. He suffered brain damage and he died prior to trial.  His story was ruled inadmissible since he was not available for cross-examination.

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Some believe there was a political motivation in the retrial that was ordered for the two nurses

Another victim, Richard Neely, told the FBI he had seen Leonora Perez inject something into his IV tube. In order to enhance his recollection, he was hypnotized by Dr. Herbert Spiegel, a psychiatrist and hypnotist. Under hypnosis he recalled what happened before his breathing failure. Unfortunately he died before the trial began.

Another witness, Richard Gasmire, son of Charles Gasmire who was a victim, came into his father's room and saw a nurse at his father's bed doing something with the IV feed. Her back was to him, so she did not see when he entered the room. He observed her for about two minutes. Suddenly his father who had been asleep sat up in bed and collapsed. This would prove to be a Pavulon-induced respiratory failure.

Richard Gasmire said it was nurse Leonora Perez who had been fiddling with the IV tube.

They brought him to a line-up with 18 women, wearing nurses' uniforms, 15 which were Asian. Right away he identified Perez as the nurse in his father's room. He did go onto testify at the trial.

Later it was found some of the jurors thought the nurses were innocent, however as testimony was given during the trial, each juror became convinced the nurses were guilty.

Both nurses contradicted themselves, and gave inaccurate testimony which proved they lied repeatedly.

At the end of her testimony, Perez was even caught out in a stupid little lie — the prosecution provided her a generic description of Narciso, but she insisted it didn't match anybody on the unit. Her defense lawyer later had her walk that back, and she admitted she had denied it before because "Narciso was her friend."

After 13 days of deliberation, both nurses were found guilty of three counts of poisoning and conspiracy to poison patients.

In February, 1978 the verdict was overturned on appeal, and a judge ordered a new trial, not an acquittal.​

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So that is where the case ended. As much as their supporters would like to believe otherwise, Narciso and Perez were convicted of poisoning patients and conspiracy to poison. Though the verdict was set aside, it cannot be said the nurses were innocent or that they were 'falsely accused.'

Filipina Bobadilla Narciso who remained living in Michigan passed away on October 28, 2024