Deputies arrest Johnson County respiratory therapist suspected of murder in 2002
A Johnson County respiratory therapist who has long been the subject of questions related to nine mysterious deaths at a Chillicothe, Missouri, medical center has been arrested on a single count of first-degree murder, Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox said Thursday.
Jennifer Hall, 41, was taken into custody by Livingston County deputies in Kansas on Thursday evening, eight days after a warrant was issued for her arrest. She was charged May 4 with first-degree murder in the death of Fern Franco, who died in May 2002 at the Hendrick Medical Center.
In a statement on Facebook, Cox celebrated the work of law enforcement agencies “working together” to locate Hall. Further details about authorities’ efforts to find her were not immediately available.
From Dec. 16, 2001 through May 18, 2002, Hall worked as a respiratory therapist at the 49-bed medical center where Franco and eight others died of cardiac arrest — a sequence of events deemed “medically suspicious,” charging documents for Hall state. A total of 18 cardiac or respiratory arrests were logged during Hall’s time working there; before then the medical center averaged one per year.
Hall was placed on administrative leave on May 21, 2002, three days after Franco’s death. In 2010, five of the families of patients who died during that period filed a wrongful death suit against the hospital The Missouri Supreme Court found that the statute of limitations had expired for civil action and tossed out the suit.
The Star wrote at length about Hall in 2015. Hall, who had been accused of delivering fatal injections, denied causing anyone’s death.
“My name is just thrown out there, and it’s for horrifying reasons,” she said at the time. She requested that her photograph not be taken and spoke in the presence of her attorney. “I want my name to be cleared, yes,” she added. “At the same time, I don’t want my character destroyed.”
In court papers charging Hall, authorities allege she knowingly gave Franco — who was hospitalized with pneumonia — succinylcholine and morphine that caused her death. Court papers say the medications were found in Franco’s human tissue, and her medical records showed they were not prescribed to her.
The Star’s Eric Adler contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 9:09 PM.
