LOWER BURRELL, PENNSYLVANIA: The case of Heather Pressdee, a former Pennsylvania nurse who has been charged for allegedly killing her patients, has sparked comparison with Charles Cullen, the New Jersey nurse-turned-serial killer who is currently serving consecutive life sentences at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
According to Fox News, Pressdee was first accused of injecting three patients with insulin, leaving two dead and a third injured, in November 2022. The veterinary technician-turned-nurse later claimed that she "felt bad for their quality of life."
She was initially arrested in May but hit with 17 additional counts of attempted murder on Friday, November 3, after she allegedly admitted to trying to kill 19 other patients, per CNN.
In light of Pressdee's new charges, several experts pointed out the eerie resemblance between the cases of the former and that of Cullen, a former nurse who reportedly killed dozens, possibly hundreds, of patients during his 16-year career until his arrest in 2003.
Similar to Pressdee, Cullen also murdered or attempted to murder his patients by administering lethal doses of intravenous medicines, including digoxin, epinephrine and insulin.
Charles Cullen's conviction and sentencing
Following his 2003 arrest, Cullen confessed to committing as many as 40 murders, out of which 29 have reportedly been confirmed, although investigators, psychiatrists, and journalists suggest there are many more.
As part of his plea deal, Cullen pledged to cooperate with authorities if they did not seek the death penalty as his punishment. During a 2004 court proceeding, the killer nurse reportedly mocked the judge by repeating the phrase, "Your Honor, you need to step down."
Shortly after, Cullen was ordered to be gagged and restrained. He was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole by Judge Armstrong in New Jersey on March 2006.
As per reports, Cullen is not eligible for parole until June 10, 2403, which would make him 443 years old.
Cullen reportedly spoke about his murders during an interview on '60 Minutes' in 2013.
"I thought that people aren’t suffering anymore, so in a sense, I thought I was helping," he said at the time.
When journalist Steve Kroft pointed out that while some of his patients were terminal and others were not, Cullen said, "My goal here isn’t to justify."
"You know what I did there is no justification. I just think that the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time," he added.
Cullen's case also became the subject of the 2022 film 'The Good Nurse' starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne in lead roles.
At present, Cullen is serving his life sentence at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. He has reportedly been working with law enforcement officials to identify additional victims as part of his plea agreement, the New York Times reported.
Experts compare Heather Pressdee's case to Charles Cullen's murders
Criminal profiler John Kelly, who has interviewed numerous serial killers, spoke to Fox News about the similarities between Pressdee and Cullen's cases.
Pressdee's case even caught the attention of former detective Tim Braun, who worked in Cullen's case and whose role was played by Noah Emmerich in 'The Good Nurse'.
Braun told the publication that Pressdee could have been a "budding serial killer" even before she got her nursing license.
"She’s only been a nurse for five years. Before that, she was a vet tech, and one of her primary responsibilities was administering anesthesia to animals and also euthanizing animals," he said.
"She experimented basically for years before she moved on to humans," Braun alleged.
He said that forced insulin overdose is reportedly a painful way to die and argued that the motives raised by both Cullen and Pressdee about providing so-called "mercy" to patients were completely fabricated.
"Insulin, I came to learn, is not a pleasant way to go," Braun stated. The former detective as well as Kelly both predicted that Pressdee would have more victims after she was arrested for two insulin-related deaths and another patient's illness earlier this year.
"The question here is the why?" Kelly asked. He said that many serial killers often begin their agenda by torturing or abusing animals and become desensitized over time.
He theorized that the same could have happened for Pressdee in a "clinical setting" at the vet's office. "Putting animals to sleep and then, you know, that helped her put bigger animals to sleep, like humans, just like with other serial killers," Kelly said, adding, "It gets easier."
Kelly also mentioned that Pressdee's text messages and allegations from other victims showed that she had a "murderous rage."
Cops shared that a search warrant on Pressdee's cellphone revealed a Christmas Day text message to her mother, which read, "I can't with this lady. She's going to get pillow therapy."
Two days later, an 85-year-old woman under her care died. Pressdee later admitted to giving her 60 doses of short-acting insulin. Another alleged text said, "I'm gonna get fired tonight."
"If this [sic] says excuse me one more time because she can't remember my name she may die," the message added.
Officials claimed that other texts from Pressdee's phone allegedly included death threats for fast-food workers, co-workers and other people.
Kelly called the text messages "homicidal delusions." Meanwhile, Braun pointed out one notable difference between Pressdee and Cullen's cases related to the paper trail.
He said that Cullen kept his killings a secret, even from close friends and family, while Pressdee allegedly texted her mother repeatedly about the desire to kill people.
"Cullen, he had a silent rage. She's communicating with others in this fashion, but he didn't," Braun noted. "The closest people around him had no idea of the stuff he was doing," he shared.
Speaking about Pressdee's victims, Kelly said, "You gotta believe that there's more victims." Braun agreed by noting how Cullen was addicted to killing.
"Cullen and probably most other serial-type killers, it becomes an addiction. And Cullen told us he couldn’t stop," he said.
"If we hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve continued to kill," Braun mentioned. "A couple of serial killers have told me there’s no higher high than playing God," Kelly added.
"They have the choice over whether they live or die at that point in time, and that’s the gratification that could be soothing the anger in a way," he noted.
While Cullen is currently serving his life sentence without parole, Pressdee is being held at Butler County Prison without bail.
