---------
By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A former respiratory therapist charged in the mysterious death of a Chillicothe hospital patient 20 years ago has been taken into custody.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office reports 41-year-old Jennifer Anne Hall was arrested Thursday night by Kansas authorities. The office says extradition proceedings will begin immediately.
Twenty years ago, nine patients at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe died from unexplained circumstances. The cause of death for each patient was listed as cardiac collapse.
Prosecutors have charged Hall with first-degree murder in the death of one of those patients, Fern Franco. Hall was working as a respiratory therapist at Hedrick at the time of the deaths. Matthew O'Connor, who has represented Hall in the past, says no evidence exists to connect Hall to the deaths.
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
