Bobbie Sue Terrell

Case record

Background

Bobbie Sue Dudley Terrell was a Pinellas County nurse and worked as the night supervisor when 12 of her patients at a St. Petersburg nursing home fell ill and died in 1984. She was diagnosed with schizophrenic disorder and suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. She had also undergone psychiatric treatment and had a psychiatric background that investigators later used in identifying her.

She was born in Woodlawn, Illinois. Her age was given as 29 in 1984-1985, and as 33 at the time of her arrest on March 17. She worked on the midnight shift in nursing homes across Illinois and Florida.

She married Danny Dudley. The couple adopted a son. The marriage collapsed when the boy was hospitalized for a drug overdose. Danny Dudley accused his wife of feeding the child tranquilizers prescribed for her own schizophrenia, which led to Bobbie being stripped of custody in the divorce. After the divorce, her health and mental state declined.

She was hospitalized multiple times for medical problems including fibroid stomach tumors, a hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries, surgery on a broken arm that failed to heal properly, gall bladder problems, and ulcers and pneumonia. She voluntarily committed herself to a state mental hospital and spent more than a year under psychiatric treatment.

After release, she held several short-term nursing jobs before being hired to work at Hillview Manor, a rest home in Greenville, Illinois. Staff at Hillview Manor recorded bizarre events involving her during her employment. She fainted frequently on duty with no apparent cause, and twice she slashed her own vagina with a pair of scissors. The second wound required emergency surgery at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, where she told a counselor she stabbed herself in rage and frustration over her own infertility. She was discharged from that job.

She moved to St. Petersburg in July 1984 and obtained a Florida nursing license in August. She drifted from job to job in the Tampa Bay area, including a bout of rectal bleeding that led to an emergency colostomy. In October, she was employed as a shift supervisor at St. Petersburg’s North Horizon Health Center and worked from 11 P.M. to 7 A.M.

While investigating her later conduct at North Horizon, detectives also examined her psychiatric background. In a psychiatric evaluation dated October 22, 1985, Dr. Arthur J. Forman concluded she suffered from a schizophrenic disorder known as Munchausen’s syndrome, defined as repeated fabrication of illness.

The offence

At North Horizon in November 1984, patients died mysteriously during her graveyard shift. Aggie Marsh, age 97, was the first to die on November 13, 1984. Advanced age made her death seem commonplace, but attention increased when Anna Larson, age 94, nearly died from an insulin overdose. Police and investigators said Larson was not diabetic, and that insulin was kept in a locked cabinet with the nurse holding the only key.

Leathy McKnight, age 85, died from an insulin overdose on November 23, 1984, while Bobbie Sue Terrell was on shift. On the same night, an unexplained fire broke out in a hospital linen closet, with arson suspected.

Two more patients died on the night of November 25: Mary Cartwright, age 79, and Stella Bradham, age 85. The next day was described as a Monday dubbed “The Holocaust” by worried staffers, and five more patients died in quick succession. An anonymous call was made to the rest home with a woman’s voice whispering that five patients had been murdered in their beds.

Bobbie Sue Terrell was confronted by police during the early hours of November 27, when detectives found her with a stab wound in her side. She blamed a prowler for the assault. Detectives were further concerned by reports of twelve patient deaths in the prior 13 days.

Her conduct was later tied to insulin overdoses. She admitted injecting elderly patients in her care with fatal doses of insulin. She was charged with killing four and almost killing a fifth.

In the later prosecution, she was charged with attempting to murder Anna Larson in November 1984 by injecting her with a large quantity of insulin. Larson survived the insulin overdose but died two months later, apparently of natural causes.

Investigation

Detective Robert Engelke said: “‘The deaths began shortly after Bobbie Sue Dudley began working at North Horizon . . . and ended when she quit,’ Detective Robert Engelke said in a affidavit.”

Under her mattress, police found a five-page dissertation listing patients’ deaths, identifying them by bed number and indicating what time they died. Police said insulin breaks up in the body, and many autopsies performed months after the deaths were inconclusive.

Police said Terrell had access to a cabinet where insulin was kept and altered records. She denied involvement in any death. After five patients died in a single day, she told her psychiatrist, Dr. Arthur J. Forman, about the deaths. Dr. Forman said: “‘She told me that she was very upset because there were 13 people who died of overdoses of insulin,’ Forman said.”

A full-scale investigation led to her dismissal in December for the good of the facility.

When she filed a $22,000 claim for workers’ compensation based on her stabbing, the hospital countered with psychiatric reports branding her a borderline schizophrenic who suffered from Munchausen’s syndrome, described as a mental condition characterized by self-inflicted wounds and false claims of illness. Reports of her Illinois self-mutilations were obtained, and her claim was rejected.

By January 31, 1985, she entered a Pinellas County hospital for medical and psychiatric treatment. Detectives obtained exhumation orders for nine patients, including bodies buried in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Florida’s Department of Professional Regulation issued an emergency order suspending her nurses license on February 12. Department spokesmen asked the state’s Board of Nursing for a permanent revocation order, calling her an immediate serious danger to the public health, safety, and welfare. She demanded a formal hearing. While waiting for her day in court, she married 38-year-old Ron Terrell, a plumber from Tampa.

Her licensing ultimately led to a five-year suspension of her license, with reinstatement conditional upon successful psychiatric treatment.

In 1985, a psychiatric evaluation dated October 22, 1985, described her as an “extremely interesting and quite bizarre patient.” The evaluation concluded she suffered from a schizophrenic disorder known as Munchausen’s syndrome.

Arrest

On March 17, 1985, she was formally charged with attempting to murder Anna Larson in November 1984. Arresting officers found her and Ron Terrell living in a roadside tent. A search of their former residence produced sufficient evidence to support indictments on four counts of murder. She was held without bond pending trial in the deaths of Aggie Marsh, Leathy McKnight, Stella Bradham, and Mary Cartwright.

She was described at arrest as Bobbie Sue Dudley, 33, arrested March 17 and charged with attempting to murder Anna Larson, 94, by injecting her with a large quantity of insulin.

Trial

The trial was scheduled to begin on October 20, 1985, but legal maneuvers and psychiatric tests repeatedly postponed the date.

In February 1988, she pled guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to a combined term of sixty-five years in prison.

Sentencing

On February 23, 1988, she was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

Appeals

No appellate history was provided.

Outcome

She died in prison on August 27, 2007.

Other details

Before trial, she had been dismissed from North Horizon in December 1984. She had also been fired from North Horizon after suffering a stab wound she claimed a prowler inflicted, and she later admitted that she had injured herself.

Michael Mervis, spokesman for Unicare Health Facilities, North Horizon’s owner, said: “‘A damned good nurse,’ said Michael Mervis, spokesman for Unicare Health Facilities, North Horizon's owner. ‘Lucid as hell, a bright diagnostician. ‘We had no idea she went off in other realms.’”

Bobbie Sue Terrell also worked at at least six nursing homes in St. Petersburg and quit most because of illness. She had checked into a mental hospital in January 1985, and Florida suspended her license during that period.

She demanded a formal hearing after her emergency suspension, and she remained in a mental ward that included a commitment against her will.