Killed in Care: A Mother's Quest for Justice
Insistent Parents Call for Inquiry into Child's Psychiatric Death - Tragic Passing at the Psychiatric Facility: Families Petition for a Re-evaluation
"My daughter was brutally murdered in a place Where she was supposed to heal," Eleonora Nagy, her eyes welling up with tears, exclaims with a trembling voice. She's baffled by the attempts to sweep this horrific incident under the rug. "We demand justice."
Nearly three years ago, her 40-year-old daughter, Kamilla, lost her life in a psychiatric hospital near Munich. A man, who had earlier announced his intention to kill someone and was subsequently involuntarily committed, took her life in her hospital room.
"The circumstances surrounding Kamilla's untimely death remain unclear," states Jella von Wiarda, the family's lawyer. Disheartened by the seeming attempts to cover up this tragedy, the family and their advocate have filed an application for a compulsory prosecution at the Munich Higher Regional Court.
A court spokesperson confirms the receipt of the application, and the file has been handed over to the Public Prosecutor's Office. The expected decision regarding the application remains uncertain.
The man who killed his fellow patient in the Isar-Amper Clinic later confessed in court to torturing her with a metal rod, strangling her with her sweater, and then setting her on fire. Through his lawyer, he claimed that God had commanded him to do so because the woman was a witch.
"Kamilla was not a victim of a freak accident," her mother asserts. She was "slaughtered in a sanctuary," in a place meant to offer solace and healing.
The man was admitted to the clinic just a few hours before the act, having informed the police that he had killed a dog on God's orders and intended to kill a human. According to von Wiarda, the man had stabbed a nail scissors into the dog's armpit and then strangled it.
Within hours, he is alleged to have ripped the shower curtain rod from its holder in his bathroom and moved to the patient's bathroom. As per the application, he struck her on the head with the rod twenty times before strangling her with a sweater and setting the fire.
"This killer was able to roam freely on a closed psychiatric ward," lawyer von Wiarda states. He managed to remove the rod without attracting attention. "He strolled through the ward corridors with it undetected." It was only when the fire alarm was triggered that the staff intervened.
The crime occurred for an extended period, the exact length of which remains unclear. "The duration of this barbaric act is still unknown," von Wiarda contemplates, referring to a "gruesome execution."
Why didn't anyone intervene?
Why was the man's attack allowed to go uncontested? Why didn't anyone intervene? These are questions that the deceased's parents continue to ponder - and once, even the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office did too.
In 2022, the Public Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation to establish whether the treating doctors or nursing staff had committed a criminally relevant omission in connection with the death of the victim, thereby facilitating or simplifying the actions of the now convicted suspect. The suspicion was: negligent homicide through omission.
The public prosecutor's office sought expert opinions, questioned witnesses – and discontinued the proceedings in January of this year. The reason given: "No criminally relevant behavior could be established with the certainty required for a criminal trial." The General Prosecutor's Office in Munich did not grant an appeal against the discontinuation. The negative decision was delivered on March 24.
The Isar-Amper Clinic declined to comment on the incident, nor would they comment on whether security measures there have been tighter since.
Kamilla fell victim to the inadequacies of the psychiatric ward. The man who ended her life was also neglected; he entered the clinic as a mentally ill individual and left as a criminal. It's possible that somewhere, another mother mourns the loss of her child. "I'll never see her smile again," Eleonore Nagy whispers, her voice breaking.
Keywords:- Psychiatry- Justice- Munich- Death- Accountability- Public Prosecutor's Office- Isar- Clinic- Mother- Patient- OLG- Munich Regional Court- Woman
- Despite the family's lawyer's application for a compulsory prosecution at the Munich Higher Regional Court, the Public Prosecutor's Office discontinued the investigation into the psychiatric clinic's staff due to insufficient evidence.
- The man who killed Kamilla was a mentally ill individual admitted to the Isar-Amper Clinic, where he later committed the crime, yet the security measures in place seemingly did not prevent his actions.
- Eleonora Nagy, Kamilla's mother, demands accountability for the apparent negligence that allowed her daughter's killer to roam freely in the psychiatric ward.
- The family and their advocate have consistently questioned why no one intervened to stop the barbaric act that led to Kamilla's untimely death.
- Concerns about the quality of care at psychiatric institutions are often heightened when tragic incidents like Kamilla's death occur, raising questions about the need for improved vocational training and policies in these facilities.
- The medical-conditions, health-and-wellness, and mental-health of patients in psychiatric hospitals must be prioritized to prevent such tragedies from happening again, and those responsible for their care should be held accountable for any failures that lead to patient harm.
