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Details :
Category: Serial Killing
Location: United States
Date: 1993 - 1995
Crime: Utilized his position as an LPN in the care of the elderly to kill as many as 130 patients via injection of potassium chloride. He was only tried and convicted of six of those murders and is serving 360 years in an Indiana state prison.
Biography: Orville Lynn Majors was born on April 24, 1961 in Clinton, Indiana. His father was a coal miner from Greenville, Kentucky and his penchant for elderly care was solidified when as a youngster, he cared for his elderly grandmother. After high school, he studied nursing at a medical training school in Nashville, subsequently finding work at Vermillion County Hospital. He left VCH for a short time but came back for good in 1993. A study of his performance evaluations tells the tale of a caring and compassionate employee. However, late in 1993, suspicions arose when it was determined that an inordinate number of Major's patients seemed to be dying. Over the next year, it was found that a VCH patient died every 23 hours that Major's was on duty, as opposed to one every 552 hours when he was not on duty. In 1995, Majors was suspended for giving unauthorized injections to his patients, although there was insufficient evidence that he was criminally harming anyone in his care. Finally, in 1997 a nephew of Major's came forward to claim that Majors had boasted of killing patients. Police searched his vehicle and garage and found potassium chloride and other medical supplies used for injections. In December, 1997, Majors was arrested and charged in the deaths of six former patients for which he was convicted and sentenced. Indiana police spent almost 90,000 hours investigating this crime and exhumed the bodies of at least 13 former patients, all of which have been found to have died suspiciously. This investigation ultimately supports the belief that Major's could be responsible for more than 130 patients who died while in his care at VCH.
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