CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (AP) — A former respiratory therapist charged with first-degree murder in the death of a patient in Missouri 20 years ago has been arrested in northeastern Kansas, authorities said.
Jennifer Hall, 41, was arrested in Johnson County, Kansas, on Thursday evening under the name Jennifer Semaboye, of Overland Park, Kansas, the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office said. The discrepancy in her last name wasn't immediately clear, but a worker with the Johnson County jail said booking documents showed she was divorced and that she also went by the name Jennifer Hall. Online records indicate she is being held without bond.
She was charged this month in the 2002 death of Fern Franco — one of nine people who died at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe over several months in 2002 amid a series of “medically suspicious” events at the hospital, according to court documents in Hall’s case.
Hall worked as a respiratory therapist at the hospital when the patients all died from cardiac collapse, officials have said. Matthew O’Connor, who has represented Hall in the past, said earlier this week that no evidence exists to connect Hall to the deaths. Hall has previously denied any involvement.
The case was revived after an analysis of Franco’s tissue samples found morphine and a powerful muscle relaxant used in anesthesia in her system. Neither drug was prescribed or ordered for her by her doctors, investigators said.
Some staff at the hospital believed Hall was responsible because of her proximity to the stricken patients, her access to deadly pharmaceuticals, and because she notified staff of every patient’s cardiac emergency, according to court documents.
Hall was placed on administrative leave three days after Franco’s death.
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LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Missouri—Law enforcement authorities in Kansas have arrested a former respiratory therapist who worked at a hospital in Missouri where nine people died under suspicions circumstances twenty years ago.
According to a social media report from the Livingston County Sheriff's office, Jennifer Anne Hall, 41, was arrested by authorities in Kansas on a Livingston County arrest warrant for alleged 1st degree Murder. Extradition process will begin at the earliest opportunity, according to the report.
Hall was charged last week with first-degree murder in the 2002 death of Fern Franco, who was one of nine people who died of cardiac collapse between Dec. 16, 2001, and May 18, 2002, at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, Missouri.
The Livingston County Sheriff's office said Tuesday authorities were searching for Hall, who might be using the name Semaboye.
Hall worked as a respiratory therapist at the 49-bed hospital when the patients died. Doctors and nurses at the hospital viewed the numbers of deaths as “medically suspicious,” according to a law enforcement record supporting the probable cause for her arrest.
The case was revived after an analysis of Franco’s tissue samples found succinylcholine and morphine, which were not prescribed or ordered for her by her doctors, according to a probable cause statement by Chillicothe Police Officer Brian Schmidt.
Some staff at the hospital believed Hall was responsible because of her proximity to the stricken patients, her access to deadly pharmaceuticals, and because she notified staff of every patient's cardiac emergency, according to the probable cause.
She was placed on administrative leave on May 21, 2002, three days after Franco’s death.
An overdose of succinylcholine causes slow suffocation. At least nine suspicious deaths and 18 suspicious medical emergencies at Hedrick Medical Center during that time period were suspected overdoses of succinylcholine or other drugs.
Hall denied involvement in the deaths during an interview with the Kansas City Star in 2015.
Matthew O’Connor, a Kansas City attorney who represented Hall in the past, said the murder charge was based on “conjecture and speculation.”
“This isn’t lawyer talk — there aren’t facts in support of it because Ms. Hall did not commit these acts,” he said.
Before she worked at Hedrick Medical Center, Hall was convicted of setting fire to Cass Medical Center in Harrisonville, Missouri, where she was hired as a respiratory therapist. She spent a year in prison before an appeals court vacated her conviction because she received ineffective counsel at trial. A jury acquitted her at a subsequent retrial.
The families of five of the nine patients who died during that period filed wrongful death lawsuits against the hospital in 2010, claiming the hospital covered up possible foul play in their relatives' deaths. An appeal filed in 2013 alleged that employees at the hospital believed they would be fired if they raised suspicions about the deaths.
In 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court threw out the lawsuits, ruling that the families had filed their actions after the statute of limitations had run out.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.