**Berlin Doctor Accused of Murdering Eight Elderly Patients and Committing Arson**

Berlin authorities are investigating a 40-year-old doctor, whose identity remains undisclosed, for allegedly murdering eight elderly patients under his care and attempting to conceal his crimes through arson. The suspect, employed in palliative care for an at-home nursing service, was initially detained in August on suspicion of killing four women aged between 72 and 94. Recently, Berlin prosecutors expanded the investigation, linking him to four additional deaths of men and women aged 61 to 83.

In August, police began probing the suspect for four counts of manslaughter, one count of arson, and three counts of attempted arson. However, prosecutors now consider these allegations as murder cases, accusing the doctor of operating with a "lust for murder" and without any discernible motive beyond the act itself.

The initial accusations in August centered on the deaths of four female patients between June 11 and July 24. One incident involved an 87-year-old woman who was resuscitated by emergency services but later succumbed in the hospital. In another instance, the suspect allegedly ignited a fire that extinguished itself. The doctor then reportedly informed a relative of his victim, deceitfully claiming that he was at her flat but received no response to his doorbell ringing.

Four new cases have since emerged, spanning from June 2022 to April 2024. The doctor is now accused of killing two men and two women in Berlin. One case involves a 70-year-old woman in Berlin's Tempelhof district, whom the suspect allegedly administered a lethal mix of medications and then set her apartment on fire. The fire department, alerted by a neighbor, managed to contain the blaze before it spread further. Additionally, he is suspected of administering fatal medications to two men, aged 70 and 83, and to a 61-year-old woman.

This harrowing case is reminiscent of infamous incidents such as that of Niels Hoegel, a German nurse sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for the murder of 85 patients with lethal injections from 2000 to 2005. More recently, in 2023, a 27-year-old nurse named Mario G. was sentenced to life for murdering two patients through the deliberate administration of unprescribed drugs and was convicted on six counts of attempted murder. Mario G. confessed during his trial to injecting patients with sedatives and other drugs while employed in a Munich hospital recovery room.