When Amy Loughren’s new co-worker, ICU nurse Charlie Cullen, began working at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey, she was initially relieved. Cullen was a kind, funny and generous man who became an asset to her during their high-pressure night shifts: He’d watch her two young children when she couldn’t and cover her shifts when her heart condition threatened her life and livelihood. He also offered her emotional support.
Soon after Cullen started, however, one of their patients died unexpectedly — then another, then another. Loughren was determined to find out why. Detectives would later find out Cullen was potentially responsible for at least 400 deaths across hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The documentary film Capturing the Killer Nurse reveals how Loughren and investigators proved Cullen was killing patients — and how close he came to getting away with it.
Capturing the Killer Nurse premiered on Netflix on November 11, 2022.
Watch the Capturing the Killer Nurse teaser trailer here.
Loughren is interviewed in Capturing the Killer Nurse along with Cullen’s colleagues, detectives and the poison control center employee who identified possible foul play.
Capturing the Killer Nurse takes viewers back to the early 2000s after Cullen had settled into his new job at a New Jersey hospital and Loughren became suspicious about their dying patients. Cullen was later convicted of 29 murders, though the number was likely much higher according to Cullen himself and the investigation.
Released on Netflix Oct. 26, the film The Good Nurse, starring Academy Award winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, tells the story of Loughren and the detectives who zeroed in on Cullen. The movie and documentary are based on Charles Graeber’s New York Times bestselling book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder.
