Reta Mays

a war veteran struck by a mysterious life-threatening illness his sugar had dropped in a matter of minutes that sent him into cardiac arrest he was non-diabetic and there was absolutely no reason for his blood sugar to be low as investigators dig into the mystery a disturbing pattern comes to light there were events with a number of patients of unexplained hypoglycemia the rumor mill spread around the hospital it could have been anybody it was pretty clear something terrible had gone wrong at this hospital all the deaths in this case occurred in a single unit of the hospital to unearth the horrifying truth investigators must expose a killer preying on a community's most vulnerable member these events couldn't be occurring naturally or by accident this was being done by someone insulin had been administered subcutaneously or injected into the patients did you have anything to do with the deaths or incidents for these patients absolutely no that's no angel of mercy to me that's a monster I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths I don't have anything to do with the deaths Clarksburg West Virginia is a small town with a proud history it's home to the the Louis A. Johnson Medical Center, which is one of the 172 veterans' hospitals distributed across the United States. The Louis A. Johnson Medical Center is a relatively small facility, has approximately 100 beds, and it serves the population of north central West Virginia and surrounding states. This is a VA hospital that was built after World War II that sits high on a bluff, and look down over this gorgeous countryside of West Virginia. The center serves a vital role in the lives of nearly 70,000 veterans. In June 2018, 92-year-old Russell Posey Sr. becomes the latest to be admitted, but his experience won't be routine. My sister called me one morning and said that, "My father was not a veteran." "He was not acting right, he was sick," so she took him to a VA because that's where his doctors were. They didn't diagnose him with anything for the first day. He was in ICU at low blood pressure with low kidney response. They said his organs were trying to shut down. Eventually, they determined that he had pneumonia, and they treated him for it. He got better in a couple days. That's when they moved him to Section 3A to get just general care. They helped him get stronger, and then they were gonna send him home. Ward 3A is the hospital's medical-surgical unit, where many patients recuperate before release. That was Father's Day that they transferred him into that ward. We all had like a little Father's Day party for him. I stayed with him that night until probably midnight. He was talking to people that weren't there. He had gotten stronger enough to where he could be moved to this nursing home, but he was 92. He was never going to get strong enough to where he could live on his own again. But the Posey family is desperate to understand how could this have happened? Mr. Posey was non-diabetic, and he had eaten cheesecake the night before, and there was absolutely no reason for his blood sugar to be low. It is a very unusual event for a non-diabetic. Something else is going on. We have to figure out what could cause severe catastrophic low blood sugar events, and who could have done this. Coming up, an investigation uncovers a disturbing pattern. All of these men were in their 80s and 90s. All of them had suffered a very similar hypoglycemic event. And there seems to be only one terrifying explanation. The rumor mill spread, and the term angel of death began to present itself. After Russell Posey Sr.'s unexplained health crisis, administrators conduct a review of the veteran's case and the hospital's procedures. What they find is alarming. They realize that they had multiple patients that were experiencing the same thing. There were events with a number of patients of unexplained hypoglycemia. So these patients were experiencing dramatic drops in their blood sugar that couldn't be explained by their underlying condition. Administrators review records showing there have been several cases of hypoglycemia. There have been six hypoglycemic incidents that year. The first occurred in late January, 2018. The patient was 89-year-old Robert Kozol. Robert Kozol was a Korean war veteran who was admitted overnight for non-life-threatening medical issues going on with him. He was not diabetic, but ended up suffering an extreme hypoglycemic event. And he received multiple bouts of D-50 dextrose. He was actually really starting to do much, much better. And his family, one of the last memories they have, is singing with him in the hospital bed. And then he died shortly thereafter. Two months later, the same thing happened to another Korean war veteran. 84-year-old Kozol. Archie Edgell. Archie Edgell was admitted to the hospital in late March, 2018, for medical conditions related to dementia and was being held, ultimately, I think, expected to be discharged from the ward when he suffered an extreme hypoglycemic event. The two cases seemed unrelated at the time, but a third incident made the pattern harder to ignore. On March 22, 2018, 81-year-old George Shaw Sr. checked into the hospital, expecting the quality care he'd grown accustomed to after decades in the armed forces. My father joined the service when he was 18. He joined the Air Force. And he stayed in the Air Force for 28 years before he retired and moved back here. And then after that, he worked for the VA. The thought process, of course, crosses your mind that do we have a serial killer on our hands? - After initial findings suggest a caregiver could be killing patients at a veterans hospital in West Virginia, additional resources are immediately committed to the investigation. - The Veterans Affairs Officer Inspector General joined with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to begin a criminal investigation. - The VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, the facility, at any point in time, has approximately 1,200 employees. There were any number of employees who could have had access to any of these patients at any point in time. It could have been anybody. - Agents try to narrow down the pool of suspects by looking for clues. By analyzing patterns in the suspicious deaths. - All of the deaths in this case occurred in a single unit of the hospital called Ward 3A. - 3A wasn't like an intensive care unit or anything like that for people expecting to die. It was general medicine where people were recovering and expecting to be discharged. - Employees do have to scan their cards in order to access different access points. - So they immediately start checking timesheets, particularly for folks who worked on or had access to Ward 3A. - Only one person fits all of the requirements. - Upon further review of the Ward 3A timecard records, we learned that Rita Mays was the only 3A employee that was working when all of the hypoglycemic events occurred. Rita Mays was a nurse. - She was a nursing assistant. Her duties entailed responding to patient call bells, assisting with their daily needs of living, changing linens, and also conducting finger sticks, checking the diabetic patient's blood sugar levels. - Records indicate Rita wasn't only working in the ward during all of the incidents. She was also in the room with many of the victims. - The hospital kept sitter logs, which is just a list of when someone required one-on-one attention from a nursing assistant or sometimes a nurse. In five of our cases, she was sitting one-on-one with the victim immediately prior to them experiencing the hypoglycemic events. ♪ ♪ - Investigators also find evidence that Rita seemed very interested in the blood sugar levels of her patients. - So the hospital had glucometers, which is just an instrument that will measure blood glucose levels. Nursing staff, as well as nursing assistants, use the glucometers. They're required to log in. - We quickly determined that Rita Mays took a disproportionate amount of the severely low blood sugar readings as opposed to other staff. ♪ ♪ narrator: As investigators keep digging, the glucometer readings reveal something else. - We were looking at the audit trails. Our investigative team was able to identify an additional patient who suffered similar low blood sugar readings. - Robert Edge was admitted with a UTI in July of 2017. Nothing to do with blood sugar. ♪ ♪ - My grandfather joined the Navy right out of high school to make sure that he was able to provide for himself, but also for my grandmother to be able to provide for a family in the future. When he was admitted in the hospital, my dad had texted me and was like, "We're just going to get this, like, situation under control, and then I'll just come back home." - He was diabetic, but he was not receiving insulin from the hospital. It was not on his charts at all for requiring that. And his blood sugars at one point prior to his death were measured at 17, which is extremely low. ♪ ♪ narrator: Robert Edge Sr. died within 24 hours of his hypoglycemic event. ♪ ♪. making him the seventh veteran to pass away under suspicious circumstances. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - When my grandpa passed away, there was no additional explanation given to us as to why just that blood sugar issue caused him to pass away. We didn't have my grandpa anymore. I think that it's kind of a wound that's never really healed on our side. narrator: Agents confirm Rita Mays was the nurse's assistant on duty. - And so really quickly into the investigation, within the first week, the investigators already had a person of interest, Rita Mays. ♪ ♪ narrator: Agents look into Rita's background in an effort to see if there's anything that might tie her to the victims. - Rita Mays at the time was in her late 40s. She was from Clarksburg, and her family had moved around the mid-Atlantic. She did try to get a college degree in accounting, but. didn't make it all the way through. She ended up marrying, having two sons. - Her home life was not the best. One of her sons had apparently been in jail. - We learned that her husband, Gordon Mays, was actually currently serving a six-year sentence, stemming from a conviction for child pornography. narrator: Rita's personal life is troubling, but it's her employment history that catches investigators' attention. - One of the first things that stuck out was Rita Mays herself as a veteran. Rita Mays served in the Army National Guard from 2001 to 2004, and even deployed as a chemical munitions repairman in support of the war in Iraq. - She was ultimately honorably discharged in 2006, and she herself received her care from the VA hospital in Clarksburg. - Prior to joining VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, she was actually a corrections officer at a local jail in West Virginia. - We learned that she left that position during an internal affairs investigation into allegations of excessive use of force. - She had been accused in several complaints of being excessively harsh and holding prisoners while another guard was alleged to have kicked a prisoner. - That obviously set off a red flag. - When investigators talk to Rita's hospital colleagues, they find it hard to believe she could commit murder. - We learned that Rita Mays had a very stellar reputation at the medical center. She had even received a nursing assistant of the year award. - But some colleagues do recall suspicious behavior. - They thought it was unusual that Rita was often found in the room with the victims holding their hands, asking questions as to why and how this could have happened while they were suffering from the hypoglycemic events. - It furthered the investigative team's stance that we were on the right track and that Rita was our primary target. - Rita is suspected in the deaths of seven patients, but less than a week into the investigation, another is added to the list with the death of Russell Posey Sr. - My sister got a call, it was about two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning on July the 3rd that my father had passed in the night. In the medical report, it said natural causes. - Unfortunately, there's not yet enough evidence to charge Rita. - There's a big difference between us knowing that she did this in our gut and being able to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. - Even worse, the hospital doesn't have any legal reason to fire Rita. - We needed to move her off the floor and not give her access to any of their patients. - Coming up. - Investigators confront a potential serial killer. - Do you have anything to do with these patients? - I don't know what they think could have happened. - But when a suspect refuses to talk, there is only one way to reveal the buried truth. - The body's needed to be exhumed. - Investigators suspect nurse's assistant Rita Mays has killed eight patients by injecting them with insulin. But until they can prove she's a murderer, need to make sure Rita doesn't harm anyone else. Our mentality was, now that it's on our watch, we cannot let this happen to any other veterans. We ultimately made a recommendation to the facility to remove her from patient care. She was reassigned to the mail room in a non-patient care capacity. The thinking became, we need to really get to the psychology of this person. What could she be motivated by? There were a lot of things going on in her personal life. There was a lot of turmoil. And she was losing control from a lot of different fronts. Because she had been deployed, PTSD can sometimes play a role. And that was something that we considered. To ensure they are ready to confront Rita with their findings, agents spend the next few weeks bolstering their case. Electronic evidence. The evidence ended up being pretty important. So we also obtained some records by search warrant. And it showed us that Rita Mays had been watching a show called Nurses Who Kill. Now look, we're not saying because you watch a show, Nurses Who Kill, that you might be a nurse who kills. But in fact, on a couple of those episodes, insulin was the weapon of choice. Armed with more evidence, investigators set up a meeting, with Rita. We elected to go with a specialist from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit to conduct an interview with Rita. It was a voluntary interview and lasted approximately five, five and a half hours. This interview was really meant to start introducing some of the evidence and see if she would discuss with us anything more. As you know, we're looking into things at the hospital issues. We're also looking into the patient deaths. And what I'm trying to accomplish today is figure out what we're missing. OK. After the FBI agent builds rapport with Rita, the questions become more pointed. Did you have anything to do with the deaths or incidents with these patients? Absolutely not. While you guys have been asking these questions about people with low blood sugar, I don't know what they think could have happened. I test the sugar. I tell the nurses what the sugar is. I know it's something to do with that. But I don't know what could have been done. As soon as victims are brought up and the pointed questions about anything that might have happened, she really starts to shut down. And that's how she ends the interview. Hey, before you're accusing me of, Meryl, now I need a lawyer. So there was no question that when she left that interview that she knew she was our prime suspect. Investigators see only one way to proceed, and it won't be pleasant. Unfortunately, the investigative team had to make the difficult decision of approaching the family members of our identified victims to seek their consent to exhume their remains and perform forensic autopsies. We're looking for every type of medical evidence to determine whether there's insulin present. It's been two months since the federal investigation began, but this is the first time any of the victims' families have been told what's going on. It was towards the end of August. FBI come to my house. I was in total shock. I had no idea what they were doing with it. When they explained that they felt somebody had helped this along and had been given them insulin. What they said is, we're investigating your father's death, and we would like to exhume his body. I said, my father would want to make sure that this never happened to anybody else. And if we can help, I'm in favor of them exhuming the body. What hurt me was they were going to disrupt his rest. But then, how much of a peaceful rest could he get without knowing the truth? So it was easy to say yes. The families of the eight victims give consent. And in fall 2018, investigators exhumed those bodies for autopsies. There was potential not only to look for the administration of exogenous insulin in various bodily fluids, but tissue samples that were taken to determine if insulin had been injected into the patients. Despite months of decomposition, the medical examiner finds the evidence investigators are looking for. The medical examiner discovered what he believed to be insulin injection sites. Ultimately determined that these were homicides caused by nefarious insulin injections. What really hit us smack in the face is seeing the autopsy report and in big, black, bold letters, the words "homicide." It just all became real then. Seven of the eight victims' causes of death are now classified as homicide. There remained one case that was not able to reach that opinion and left it as undetermined, and that was Mr. Roy. Mr. Posey. Because he lived so long, approximately two weeks or more after his hypoglycemic event, the medical examiner was unable to definitively say that the insulin injection caused his death. On the autopsy, they changed it to "suspicious death" and "undetermined causes," which allowed them to go after her for attempted murder. As the victims are buried for a second time, investigators confront Rita with their findings. The investigative team made the decision to reveal to her why, at this juncture, we knew it was her and only her who had committed these acts. What would you say if you were the prosecutor? With everything that you're showing me, it looks like I did it. Even under more pressure, Rita still refuses to confess. Ultimately, after being presented with all the evidence, Rita ended the interview, got up, and left. She had had enough, and that was it. I'm going to go watch. Okay. We were at a stage where we believed we had enough evidence, and so, at that point, I issued her a target letter that was served on her by the FBI. That target letter simply says you're a target of an investigation, so she was appointed three attorneys. That's because it's a death penalty-eligible case, and she has that right. And so, we start a dialogue, and we are laying out all the evidence against Rita Mays. After a two-year investigation, authorities are certain 45-year-old nursing assistant, Rita Mays, is responsible for the murders of seven patients at a veterans' hospital in West Virginia. But the case never makes it to trial. She voluntarily surrendered. She was never arrested. She seems to be moving forward in good faith, based on conversations with her attorney, toward a plea agreement. Her attorneys got what we call a reverse proffer, which is pretty much a layout of the case that would be presented against their client. And so, in this case, Rita Mays, is the one who's going to be arrested. And so, she is the one who is going to be arrested. And so, in this case, Rita Mays, is the one who is going to be arrested. The plea agreement, very importantly, required that Rita Mays give a debrief, in this case, where we'd have the chance, finally, to get answers from her for what her motivations were. contradictory reasons. One is she did try to claim, to some extent, that some of these were mercy killings, that they were suffering and needed to die. But the evidence didn't support that. These veterans were not on death's door at all when they were admitted to the Clarksburg VA. What insulin does is shut your body down one organ at a time. And my father lived for two weeks. Two weeks he suffered. That's no angel of mercy to me. That's a monster. The other contradictory reason was that her home life was out of control. She said that in 2017, when she started having these thoughts, her husband was in prison, her son was having issues. This somehow was meant to give her a sense of control. But she told us this did not relieve her stress. And she, in fact, hoped that she would get caught someday. While the things she told us were interesting, we'll never know why Rita Mays committed these heinous acts. Why did Rita snap? I have no idea. I have no idea why she went to the dark side and started playing God. Rita Mays might be etched in the annals of American serial killers. But the names of the men whose lives she stole are still in her memory. Rita Mays is not the only one that has lost her life. She lost her family. She lost her friends. She lost her family. Robert Edge Sr., Robert Kozol, Archie Edgell, George Shaw Sr., W.A.H., Felix McDermott, Raymond Golden, and Russell Posey Sr. will be memorialized for a better reason. They should be remembered as men who honorably served our country, who were loved and loved their families, and deserved a lot better. I think their legacy will be helping improve how people are treated in the VA, improving in a system that they all, I think, believed in. They were respectable men. They had loving families. Their families will make sure that they are never forgotten. Their families will make sure that they are never forgotten.