“Black shadow”
New documentary works on an incredible series of murders
A re-enactment scene from “Black Shadow – Serial Murder in the Hospital”
© © Kinescope Film / Britta Krehl
Germany can also do true crime: This is proven by the documentary “Black Shadow – Serial Murder in the Hospital” about the monster Niels Högel.
“If you added up the sentences for each of his murders, the 42-year-old would have spent at least 1,275 years in prison.” In order to illustrate the unbelievable extent of the deeds of the nurse Niels Högel, this calculation was used as part of the reporting on the mammoth process from the beginning of 2018 to mid-2019.
The new true crime documentary “Black Shadow – Serial Murder in the Hospital”, which can be seen from August 5th on Sky Ticket, Sky Crime and on demand, opens with this quote. And endeavors to finally answer the many questions that inevitably arise in view of the unprecedented and bestial series of murders.
The Högel case
Only about six years, from 1999 to 2005, Niels Högel was active as a nurse in hospitals in the Lower Saxon cities of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. Still, at least 85 murders were detected during this period in the later trial of 2019. The court determined the gravity of his guilt – Högel will remain in safe custody for the rest of his life.
Högel had repeatedly secretly injected patients with a heart drug, which, if overdosed, would lead to cardiac arrhythmias and a drop in blood pressure. Time and again, apparently by chance, he was on site as a first aider and initiated resuscitation measures, which often came too late.
The many questions
But how was it even possible that Högel was able to murder unhindered for so long? And that despite the fact that the number of necessary resuscitations and deaths skyrocketed during or shortly after his shift? “The number of deaths in the Delmenhorst Clinic has doubled from the first day the killer started working,” states a stunned relative in “Black Shadow – Serial Murder in the Hospital”. The true crime program gets to the bottom of these and other questions in its four episodes of around 50 minutes each – with shocking answers.
The Sky Original, produced by Kinescope Film, has gathered numerous votes for this, whether from officials and experts involved in the case, former work colleagues or friends of Högel. And the survivors of his numerous victims are also listened to.