Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The PICU Killer” Genene Jones Pt. 2

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

While she was a pediatric nurse at Bexar County Hospital, Genene Jones' colleagues were alarmed by how many babies were dying during her shift. When evidence was presented to the hospital's medical director, an investigation was launched. But during that time, Jones stayed on the job, and her patients were still in danger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the nature of this case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, harm against minors, suicidal ideation, and medical cruelty. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and suicidal ideation, visit Spotify.com slash resources. A few days after Christmas, 1981, in a hospital ward still decked out with lights and tinsel, A one-month-old baby fought for his life. And the worst part was Dr. Kenneth Copeland had no idea why. At 33, Kenneth had worked in pediatrics for several years.

He'd seen a lot. The ICU where he worked in San Antonio was always busy with critically sick children who needed to be triaged and treated. He wasn't easily phased and didn't often freeze at work. And as a pediatric epidemiologist, it was his job to understand how diseases develop in children. But with Rolando Santos, Kenneth was at a loss. Nothing about this little boy's symptoms made sense. He'd been admitted with a straightforward pneumonia case and started improving.

And then? Rolando took a sudden and drastic turn for the worse. Kenneth had been at the boy's bedside for nearly an hour, turning over scenarios in his head, trying to come up with a diagnosis that would explain everything. Deep down, though, he knew it didn't exist. There's an internal logic to medicine. which stays constant even in the direst of situations.

He'd seen his share of tragic deaths and witness patients suddenly deteriorate when they seem to be improving. But he'd never seen anything like this. Rolanda's decline defied all reason. There was only one explanation that made sense to Kenneth. Somebody was trying to kill this little boy. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson.

This is serial killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're continuing our deep dive into Janine Jones, San Antonio's Angel of Death. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we spoke about Janine's upbringing in a wealthy Texas family and how her anxiety about health developed from a series of tragic losses.

We also chronicled her early checkered career as a nurse at Bear County Hospital, where an alarming number of infants began dying under her care. Today, we'll see how Janine continued attacking children for months, even as colleagues tried sounding the alarm, and at last we'll explain how the authorities brought her to justice. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify, Bonnie and Clyde, the Lonely Hearts Killers,

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And now, you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ziprecruiter.com slash killers. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories,

and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. In September 1981, 31-year-old Janine Jones was approaching her three-year-year-anniversary as a pediatric nurse at Bear County Hospital.

During that time, she raised two children and endeared herself to the families of countless infant patients with her warmth and dedication. In her annual performance review that month, Janine received top marks from her boss, Nurse Pat Belko. Pat had always seen Janine as an outstanding nurse, but not everybody on the ward agreed. Janine's colleagues were alarmed by how many babies were dying during Janine's 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. Some even began calling it the death shift. The recent death of Rosemary Vega, a seemingly healthy two-year-old, had shaken everyone, and just a few days later, another chillingly similar incident followed.

In late September, four-month-old Paul Villarreal was admitted to the Picqueau to recover from an elective skull surgery. It was routine and nobody anticipated any trouble. Paul should be able to go home the following day. But then came the 3 to 11 p.m. shift, Janine's. Before Greg continues, please note that we're about to discuss sensitive material pertaining to the death of children. At some point during her shift, Janine walked into Paul's room. Once there, it's theorized that she injected him with a large dose of heparin. This is an anticoagulant, commonly known as a blood thinner. It can be life-saving for patients prone to blood clots, but deadly when misused. Within hours, Paul's condition began deteriorating. He had a seizure and a seizure.

struggled to breathe, so his alarmed doctors put him on a respirator. It wasn't enough to save him. Paul began bleeding uncontrollably. Though the medical team stabilized him for a while, he ultimately went into cardiac arrest and died. In the aftermath of yet another death in the Picu, Janine may have played the role of the heartbroken, dedicated nurse by consoling Paul's parents. They had no idea that she might be the one responsible for their grief. Janine has never given a complete account of her crimes, nor a confession, so we have limited insight into her motives.

But as we discussed last week, she may have had something called factitious disorder, and it's possible Janine had not just one, but two forms of this condition. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. The form of factitious disorder that we discussed last time is factitious disorder imposed on self, where a person feigns the symptoms of an illness or deliberately makes themselves sick. The other type is factitious disorder imposed on another, previously known as

Munchausen by proxy. Janine had a history of compulsively visiting hospitals, complaining of symptoms she thought meant she had a terrible illness. That's all characteristic of factitious disorder imposed on self. But if she was also deliberately making her infant patient sick, that would be characteristic of factitious disorder imposed on another. Some people in her life recalled that she diagnosed her young son Edward with illnesses that weren't real. More than once, she took him to the ER, convinced that he was fatally sick or about to go blind. But it's important to note that, as far as we know, Janine never hurt her children. Back to Paul Villarreal.

After his death, routine tests showed that he died after a problem with his blood's clotting mechanism. No one raised any red flags. That October, doctors admitted six-month-old Jose Antonio Flores to the hospital with relatively common symptoms, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. But his condition declined. After experiencing a seizure, his doctors ordered a brain scan. As his nurse, Janine accompanied him to the scan.

At some point during the procedure, she may have injected Jose with a syringe of heparin the same blood thinner she'd used on Paul. And, just like Paul, Jose quickly deteriorated, eventually dying from cardiac arrest. Afterward, Janine sat with Jose's relatives as the doctor solemnly delivered the news. When Jose's older brother asked to hold him, Janine gently placed the baby's limp form into his arms. She even allowed the brother to carry Jose's body to the morgue. but midway there, she suddenly seemed to reconsider. In his book, The Death Shift, journalist Peter Al-Kine describes this bizarre moment in detail.

Out of the blue, Janine grabbed Jose's body from his brother and took off running down the hallway toward the morgue. The child's family chased her until she finally lost them in the corridors of the hospital. It's hard to imagine what Janine was thinking here. Maybe she felt a sense of ownership over the children she killed, or even a twisted maternal instinct. But more broadly, this strange moment is another reminder of just how erratic her behavior could be. Though she was sometimes adept at manipulating the people around her, she could also be impulsive and reckless. Like so many of her other infractions at Bear County, she only got a warning for this incident. And to our knowledge, no one suspected foul play in Jose's death.

At least, not officially, 25-year-old Susanna Maldonado, a registered nurse, had noticed how many children were dying, during Janine's shifts, and she began reviewing Janine's nursing notes, paying close attention to what Janine wrote about deceased patients. She also studied the ICU's patient census book, taking careful notes. Using all of this information, she compiled a death list, showing the dates and times each patient had died over the past 10 months. Though the exact number remains unknown, the pattern was clear. Many children had died.

Not just during Janine's shift, but specifically, under Janine's case. hair. That October, Susanna walked into Pat Belko's office and closed the door. Trying to hide her nerves, Susanna told the head nurse that she and other members of staff had suspicions about Janine. At first, Pat dismissed this as gossip. She'd already caught wind of the rumors about Janine and had written them off. As far as she was concerned, Janine could be abrasive and a bit odd, but she was one of the best nurses they had. But once Susanna revealed what she'd found, Pat felt sick. She couldn't brush this aside. She thanks Zana and sent her on her way.

Then she gathered up the evidence and took it to Dr. Jim Robotham, LePicue's medical director. Jim was as disturbed as Pat was. Soon afterward, the hospital launched an internal investigation. But in the meantime, Janine was still on duty, and her patients were still in terrible danger. In a moment, Janine sets her sights on a new victim. Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora.

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Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Now back to the story. By the fall of 1981, there was an internal investigation into the infant deaths at Bear County Hospital. At the investigation center, 31-year-old Janine Jones.

Janine was too preoccupied with her own health to notice. Her compulsive hospital visits continued throughout the year. And around November, she was admitted to the ICU, complaining of severe abdominal pain and nausea. Janine spent three days in the hospital undergoing a slew of tests. Just like always, the results showed nothing, and doctors discharged her. While Janine was out, there was a notable shift in the Picu. Not a single child died. Despite this, the investigation moved slowly.

Picou Medical Director, Dr. Jim Robotham, had informed his superiors at the hospital about the allegations against Janine. And while they permitted him to investigate, they were skeptical. Some hospital administrators suspected that interpersonal conflict was really to blame for the complaint against Janine. They warned Jim to conduct his investigation, quote, without appearance of a witch hunt, unquote, as to avoid a potential lawsuit. Undeterred, Jim began going through nine individual cases of infants who had died during Janine's shift, looking over their medical notes and ordering additional lab reports to try and make sense of their deaths. After enlisting a hematologist to analyze blood samples, Jim determined to try to try and make sense of their deaths. Jim determined that at least two of the children, Jose Flores and Paul Villareal,

had likely died from an overdose of heparin. There was no medical reason for either child to have been given this drug, which alarmed him. But there was no smoking gun to tie Janine directly to the heparin. And so, when she returned to work after her medical leave, she went back to her usual shift. That December, 1981, 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer was admitted to the ICU in critical condition. He'd suffered smoke inhalation during a house fire and slipped into a coma in the ambulance. Given Janine's penchant for drama, she probably found this story irresistible, a baby being

rescued from a burning building, only to end up fighting for his life in the hospital. After a couple of days in Picu, Joshua showed signs of improvement and his doctors were cautiously optimistic. But then Janine took over his treatment. Early in her shift, she pulled Joshua's parents aside, her expression grim. She told them that if their son survived, he would be left with severe permanent brain damage. Looking straight into the eyes of Joshua's horrified parents, Janine said solemnly, he would be better off dead. We don't know if this was true or not, given Janine's tendency to lie, it wouldn't be surprising if it wasn't. And maybe it was just her attempt to prepare the Sawyers for what she was about to do.

next. During her shift, the following evening, Janine injected Joshua with a massive dose of dylan, a sedative prescribed to prevent seizures. She gave him more than double the maximum dosage. Soon, Joshua's blood pressure plummeted, and he went into cardiac arrest. Confused by the sudden deterioration, doctors sent a sample of the infant's blood to the hospital lab to check for anything unusual. But before they could complete the tests, Joshua died.

When a lab technician ran the tests, the results showed a toxic level of dilatine in Joshua's blood. That number was entered into his medical chart, but it seemed to go unnoticed. It's unclear why the dilatine level wasn't flagged more urgently, or why Jim Robotham didn't carefully calm through Joshua's blood panel results, given that yet another infant had died under Janine's care. But it hadn't gone fully unnoticed. A few days later, Jim issued a new order to nurses in the pediatric ICU. Any time a child coded, they were to inform either him or his deputy immediately. Privately, to a few of the nurses he trusted, Jim added a caveat. He was especially interested

in any codes that happened on Janine's watch. By now, Janine had caught wind of Jim's investigation, and she was livid. As far as she was concerned, she'd been nothing but loyal and dedicated to Bear County Hospital and felt betrayed by their suspicion of her. It's hard to tell if Janine was really so deluded that she believed she was a good nurse, or if her righteous indignation was all part of keeping up appearances, but either way, she was on the war path. Never wanted to shy away from confrontation. She pulled Jim aside during one of her shifts

and demanded to know why he was ordering so many extra tests on her patients. She asked him outright if he thought she was doing something to hurt children under her care. Meeting her gaze, Jim answered, I don't know. Most people in this situation might try to avoid drawing further suspicion, but not Janine. She doubled down and even made thinly veiled threats, telling Jim that she'd kept a detailed record of every patient who'd ever died on the ward, and which doctor was responsible. Furious at what seemed like attempted blackmail, Jim tried having Janine fired. It didn't work.

Administrators seemed willing to overlook Janine's outburst, reasoning she was understandably upset by being accused of harming patients. And a few weeks later, Jim was placed on temporary leave for a month. This wasn't framed as a punishment, but a break. Jim's superiors told him he was overworked, under pressure, and needed some time off. And though he didn't disagree, he couldn't shake the feeling that the hospital was trying to brush whatever was happening in the pick you under the rug. That December, while Jim was on leave, four more children died under Janine's care. One of them, was a two-year-old named Dora Rios, who died from cardiac arrest. We don't know whether Janine killed Dora, but she was eager to insert herself into this tragedy.

At the end of her nursing notes for that day, Janine wrote something highly unusual, a miniature eulogy of sorts, calling Dora, quote, a legend in her own time, and ending with the words, I love you. It's plausible that she truly believed what she wrote. She did feel a twisted love for the children in the pick you and might have been so detached from reality that she didn't understand how the note would come off. Though Janine's mental state is largely a mystery, there's one nugget of information that's worth highlighting here. Years after her crimes, Janine claimed she'd been compelled to kill babies

by, quote, the voices in her head. Janine is describing an auditory hallucination, which is the most common type of hallucination in conditions like schizophrenia. Patients experiencing psychosis often report hearing voices, but the content can vary wildly, depending on the person's cultural background and specific history. Some people hear critical voices, providing a barbed commentary on their everyday life. Others hear voices that appear to be speaking directly to them through the radio or television, and in some cases, a person experiencing psychosis will hear voices that tell them to do harm, either to themselves or someone else. It's worth noting that other than her claim,

there's no evidence Janine experienced auditory hallucinations or psychotic symptoms of any kind. We do know that a psychiatrist who examined Janine years later noted, quote, no evidence of hallucinations, delusions, or other evidence of thought disorder. Whatever the truth, it wasn't long before another patient caught Janine's eye. At the end of 1981, doctors in the emergency room admitted four-week-old Rolando Santos to the pick-you with pneumonia. There, the staff put him out a respirator and his condition began improving.

Then, two days later, and without explanation, Janine injected Rolando with heparin. That's the same blood thinner she'd used before. Rolando went into a downward spiral. His symptoms followed a similar pattern to so many children before him. He had seizures, his blood pressure tanked, and he became dehydrated. His blood wouldn't clot either, leading his doctors to think he had a clotting disorder. But attending physician Dr. Kenneth Copeland was suspicious. In his opinion, there was no medical reason for a child with pneumonia to experience these symptoms.

After watching Burlondo fight for his life for several days, he could see no other explanation. Someone was doing this to him. He ordered blood tests, which came back positive for his. for high doses of heparin. At that point, doctors had stabilized Rolando, though he'd come close to dying. Now certain that Rolando's life was in danger, Kenneth transferred him out of the pediatric ICU

and arranged to have his room guarded. Anyone who came in or out would be added to a list. For the first time, someone had stopped Janine, and she was forced to watch from afar as Rolando gradually improved, recovering not only from the heparin, but from his pneumonia. By mid-January, he was well enough to go home with his parents.

At last, the evidence was becoming too overwhelming for hospital higher-ups to ignore. Jermrobotham was no longer on his own. By mid-February, a team of six specialists was assembled to investigate the spate of deaths in the pediatric ICU. And finally, they were beginning to hone in on Janine. One of their first steps was to remove all licensed vocational nurses from the ward and replace them with registered nurses. That meant getting rid of Janine, but also six other LVNs who had done nothing wrong. It was far from ideal, but administrators were worried about a lawsuit if they targeted

Janine without firm evidence. So in March, management informed the LVNs that they were being reassigned to other jobs within the hospital. Rather than panicking, Janine infused the situation with her typical flair for the dramatic. In the middle of the meeting, she proclaimed, quote, If you want a scapegoat, take me. We know you just want to get rid of me. Let me go and let the rest stay.

The administrator assured her that they weren't targeting anybody. But when Janine asked about other pediatric openings where she could be reassigned, management told her that none were available. That was unacceptable to Janine. Working with children was her passion. And if Bear County wouldn't let her do it anymore, she'd go somewhere that would. Despite the suspicion that swirled around Janine,

She still had friends at the hospital. People who believed she'd been railroaded. One was Dr. Kathleen Holland, a third-year pediatrics resident who was about to start a practice in Currville, about 70 miles north of San Antonio. Kathleen knew Janine's history, and she didn't believe any of the rumors, so she had no qualms about hiring her to work with infant patients. When Kathleen offered Janine a job at her new clinic, she accepted. In March 1982, Janine handed in her resignation to her supervisor,

Pat Belko and walked out of Bear County Hospital for the last time. She didn't look back. There was no reason to. Not when she had a crop of new victims waiting for her. Up next, Janine's crimes finally catch up to her. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zepound contains terseptide and should not be used with other

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Details at Yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Now back to the story. In August of 1982, 32-year-old Janine Jones began working as a pediatric nurse at a brand new clinic in Curville, Texas.

She was relieved to get away from Bear County Hospital, where the investigation into the numerous pick-you deaths was still ongoing. Now she was working for Dr. Kathleen Holland, who was inexperienced with running her own clinic. This likely worked in Janine's favor. In September, Petty McClellan brought her 15-month-old daughter, Chelsea Ann McClellan, to the clinic. Accounts vary as to why she was there.

Chelsea was an established patient, and according to Petty, Kathleen had asked to see her. But per Kathleen's account, Petty wanted to bring Chelsea in because she was having, quote, blue spells. The formal term for this is a cyanotic spell, and it describes an episode where reduced oxygen levels in the blood cause an infant's lips or skin to take on a blue tinge. Either way, Petty brought Chelsea into the clinic that morning. Kathleen checked her over, then sent her to another room for some routine inoculations.

Petty carried Chelsea into the treatment room where Janine was waiting, syringe in hand. As Chelsea sat on her mother's lap, Janine injected her with what appeared to be a measles-mumps rubella vaccine. But it wasn't. It was a lethal dose of an actin, a powerful muscle relaxing that can render a person completely unable to move or breathe, but still conscious. Almost immediately, Chelsea began struggling for air. Petty panicked and begged Janine to do something, but Janine appeared nonchalant. She insisted Chelsea was just reacting to the pain of the injection. Ignoring Petty's protests, Janine injected Chelsea with another shot. Within a few seconds, the toddler's skin turned blue, and she had a seizure. Frantic, Kathleen called an ambulance,

and she, Janine, and Petty rode with Chelsea to a nearby ER. Once there, Chelsea seemed to improve, so she was transferred to another hospital a short while later. On the way, Zanin, There, Janine and Kathleen rode in the back of the ambulance with Petty again while Chelsea was kept stable. In this ambulance ride, however, things took a turn for the worse. Chelsea suddenly flatlined. As they sped through traffic, Janine, Kathleen, and an EMT took turns performing chest compressions and administering drugs, trying everything they could to resuscitate Chelsea. At least Kathleen and the EMT did everything they could, while Janine probably knew it was. was no use. When they arrived at the hospital, doctors tried for 20 minutes to get Chelsea's

heart started again before giving up. She was pronounced dead that afternoon. Janine murdered Chelsea right under her new boss's nose. It's unclear if Kathleen suspected anything at the time, though. When she filled out Chelsea's death certificate, she listed the cause as a fatal cardiac arrest caused by a seizure. However, she also requested a full autopsy on Chelsea's body. which indicates she may have suspected something was wrong. The cause of death wasn't immediately apparent until one neuropathologist noticed scarring on Chelsea's brainstem. Based on this, he concluded that the toddler had probably died from sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. SIDS describes the sudden, unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby, usually during sleep.

It's most common in children between one and four months old, but can occur any time during the first year of life. Chelsea was 15 months old, making Sid's an unlikely cause of death, and though the coroner did note that it wasn't a typical case. It seems nobody raised any suspicions. But over the next month, another six patients had medical emergencies in the clinic on Janine's watch. And unlike San Antonio, Curville was a tiny town with a small medical community. Word spread fast. Staff at Sid Peterson, the closest hospital to Kathleen's clinic, were alarmed by

how many infants were coming into their ICU after being at Kerrville. Childhood seizures and cardiac arrest weren't ordinary events, and when they started occurring in such quick succession, it was impossible not to notice. Some of the doctors at Sid Peterson began digging into Kathleen Holland, a young surgeon named Dr. Joe Venus, who'd done his residency at Bear County Hospital, called around to his old colleagues to see what he could find out.

It didn't take long for him to uncover the pattern of mysterious deaths, all linked to a single nurse, Janine Jones. After confirming that Janine was the same nurse who was now working for Kathleen, one of Joe's contacts told him, you've got a baby killer on your hands. Meanwhile, at the clinic, Kathleen noticed some disturbing things, like that vials of anectin were going missing and reappearing with holes in their rubber stoppers. She eventually realized she'd placed her faith in the wrong person. When Kathleen could She named Janine about the bottles. Janine feigned ignorance, but inwardly, she was panicking.

Her bravado and confidence seemed to abruptly give way to despair. At some point she wrote a suicide note addressed to Kathleen and did go through with an attempt, but she survived after being rushed to a hospital. For Kathleen, this was the final straw. The letter disturbed her almost as much as the missing an actin. She regretted hiring Janine and was more than ready to wash her hands of her. especially now that she and her clinic were under scrutiny from the local medical community. So after doctors released Janine from the hospital, Kathleen fired her.

But it was too little too late. Doctors at Sid Peterson had alerted law enforcement. Just after Janine was let go, a Texas rangers showed up to interview both her and Kathleen about the deaths at the clinic. Janine insisted she hadn't hurt anyone and was willing to take a polygraph test to prove it. The ranger called her bluff and escorted her to Austin to undergo the test. She failed. It wasn't enough to place her in custody, though, and the authorities still didn't have the tangible evidence they needed.

So they let her walk. Janine knew her luck had run out, so she wanted to get out of town, and she already had her next destination in mind. She'd stayed in touch with Diana and Cresenzo-Hoheda, the parents of a baby who died under her watch 15. months prior, Chris Hojada. As far as they were concerned, Janine was the caring, attentive nurse who had cradled their son after he died, and they were deeply fond of her. The Hojadas now lived in

San Angelo, 150 miles north of Curville, far enough away for Janine to feel safe from authorities. Diana had invited her to visit whenever she wanted. And so, when she needed a new place to call home, Janine chose San Angelo. At least there'd be some friendly faces waiting for her there. But as Janine boxed up her belongings in October 1982, the investigation against her in Curville was gathering steam. The case had been passed all the way up to the district attorney who convened a grand jury to look into the deaths of Chelsea Ann McClellan. Back in San Antonio, the internal probe at Bear County Hospital had also reached some alarming conclusions about Janine's time there. More than 30 children had died in 1981, and at least

20 of those deaths had been during Janine's shifts. The case had been referred to law enforcement. As for Janine, she arrived in San Angelo with her kids in tow, ready to turn over a new leaf. She eventually found work at a school for adults with learning disabilities. As far as we know, she didn't kill anybody during her time in San Angelo. She might have hoped if she kept her head down and drew no attention to herself, the whole thing would blow over. Instead, it became front page news. In February 1983, four months after Janine moved to San Angelo, headlines about the mysterious spate of baby deaths in Texas began to appear.

Locally at first, then nationwide. Janine was scrutinized heavily in the press, with multiple newspapers and TV stations identifying her as the primary suspect. She hadn't been charged with anything yet, but she was guilty in the court of public opinion and dubbed a baby killer. Eventually, she was forced to leave her job, at the school in San Angelo. Janine hired an attorney and held a press conference in which she maintained her innocence.

The 32-year-old then tried carrying on as though everything was normal. She found a new job at a nursing home and even remarried. The man's name was Garin Ray Turk, a 19-year-old nurse's aide. Perhaps she hoped to reinvent herself, but the walls had already closed in. In May 1983, the Kerr County prosecutor indicted Janine. for murdering Chelsea and injuring seven other children by injecting them with muscle relaxants or other drugs. She tried to run, hiding around 150 miles away in Odessa with some of Garen's relatives. But by the end of May, Texas Rangers found her and took her into custody.

Things moved swiftly after that. Janine's trial began just eight months later in early 1984. Over five weeks, the jury heard evidence that Janine had murdered 15-month-old Chelsea Ann McClellan by injecting her with a nectin. The prosecution's key witness was Kathleen, who spent several days testifying against Janine. She gave a detailed account of the events leading up to Chelsea's death. Kathleen also described several other near misses where children suffered sudden extreme medical emergencies under Janine's care. Janine insisted Kathleen was lying, cover up her incompetence, but nobody was buying her excuses anymore. That February, jurors found 33-year-old Janine Jones guilty of murder, and she was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Now it was Bear County's turn. The evidence against her there was substantial. But despite all the children she'd possibly killed, prosecutors felt the strongest case was the attempted murder of Rolando Santos, the four-week-old who had survived being injected, with Heparin. In October 1984, Janine was found guilty of injuring a child and sentenced to 60 years. Beer County Hospital's long nightmare was finally over. But while many in the community were relieved to see justice done, Janine's conviction also confirmed many people's worst fears. There had been a baby killer in their midst for years. Many of the victim's families had trusted Janine deeply. She'd been at their children's bedsides supporting them in their grief,

and now they were forced to confront the monstrous reality of who she truly was. It was yet another trauma for people who'd already been through far too much. If they felt any comfort, it came from Janine being locked away for decades. In 2017, 30 years after going to prison, Janine became eligible for parole. But prosecutors in Bear County were determined to ensure she removed. behind bars. So they charged her with the murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, whom she'd injected with a sedative. In 2020, Janine pleaded guilty to killing Joshua and was sentenced to life in prison, meaning she'd have no chance of being free. It's worth remembering that Janine's convictions represent only a fraction

of the murder she may have committed. The true number will likely never be known, but the authorities believe she could be responsible for up to 60 infant deaths. After decades, it seems the weight of her crimes finally caught up with Janine. Shortly before the new charges were filed, a letter she'd written in 2011 was made public for the first time. It addressed the Texas Board of Nursing and offered what might be the only honest assessment Janine ever gave of her actions. It's also the closest she ever came to a confession.

In the letter, Janine apologized to the board for the damage she caused. She claimed she wasn't of sound mind during her crimes, but noted this was not an excuse. At one point, she wrote, I look back now on what I did and agree with you that it was heinous, that I was heinous. But there's a glaring omission in her letter. Janine never once mentioned her victims nor their families when she addressed her horrific crimes. Even in this rare moment of remorse, she still centered the narrative around herself. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode.

For more information on Janine Jones, amongst the many sources we used, we found Peter Elkind's book, The Death Shift, extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. safe out there. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Powercast, executive produced by Max Cutler. Our head of programming is

Julian Boisro. Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as our head of production and quality control by Spencer Howard. Stacey Neimick is our supervising editor, and Derek Jennings is our writing lead. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dipton, edited by

Robert Tyler Walker, fact-checked by Catherine Barner, researched by Sapphire Williams and Chelsea Wood, produced by Bruce Katovich and sound design by Carrie Murphy. Our hosts are Vanessa Richardson and me, Greg Paulson. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan,

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