OCMW nursing home

Sister Godfrieda, born as Cecile Bombeek in 1933 in Wichelen, entered the convent as a nun in 1958 and became the head nurse in the geriatrics department of the OCMW nursing home/hospital in Wetteren. In the mid-1970s, she caused at least three proven deaths and presumably up to about 17 deaths among especially elderly patients through insulin injections. In January 1978, fellow sisters and a young doctor reported their suspicions to the police; she was arrested, declared unaccountable, and interned in a psychiatric institution. She passed away in 2019, while her case later gained international attention as the "Killer Nun" case.
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Fellow sisters and a young doctor documented the suspicious deaths and reported them to the police in Wetteren in January 1978, after which she was arrested and declared unaccountable. She died in 2019 in a care center in Sint-Jozef near Wetteren; her case received renewed attention through the non-fiction book “Soeur Mourir” by journalist Tom De Smet and is often cited internationally as the “Killer Nun” case.

On the Nieuwblad website, you can find an excellent podcast about this story.

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