An Act Of Murder by Linda Rosencrance

Author:Linda Rosencrance [Rosencrance, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2014-08-29T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

On March 3 Corporal Joe Gamble talked to Dr. Timothy Wex, chief anesthesiologist at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, who, in the course of his duties, interacted with surgical technologists, including Kimberly and Ken Burgess.

The purpose of the interview was to corroborate Burgess’s statements to police that after he learned of Stephen Hricko’s death he told Wex that Kimberly had asked him to kill Steve for her. Gamble also wanted to ask Wex about the hospital’s policy for storing various drugs in the operating room.

Wex told Gamble he learned about Steve’s death sometime around February 16 when he heard other operating-room personnel talking about a newspaper article reporting the incident. Gamble said Wex might have mixed up the date because the Washington Post didn’t report the story until February 19.

One evening, shortly after Steve’s death, while they were in the locker room changing their clothes, Burgess told Wex that Kim had approached him a few days before she resigned in December 1997 and asked him if he knew anybody who would kill her husband for $50,000. Wex told Burgess to call the police and tell them what he knew, which he did.

Gamble then asked Wex about curare and succinylcholine, the two drugs that Kimberly may have used to kill Steve. Wex said both the drugs were present in the operating room and neither was controlled. The doctor explained that narcotics were dispensed by a system that only allowed a user to access the drugs by entering a personal identification number. That system provided a way for institutions to track the different narcotics. However, there was no such system in place for curare or succinylcholine, Wex said.

The reason those drugs weren’t tracked was because they couldn’t be abused. And for good reason—anyone who attempted to abuse curare or succinylcholine would die.

Gamble asked Wex if there was any way to determine whether Kimberly took either of the drugs from the operating room. Wex said it would be impossible to account for every dose of the drugs in question. According to Wex, if a doctor had a technologist draw a dose of either curare or succinylcholine and then didn’t use it, it would just be thrown into the trash.

“Based on your information and experience, do you think Kimberly could steal the drugs in question from the hospital?” Gamble asked Wex.

“It is absolutely possible,” he replied.

Wex said that anyone working in the operating room could steal one dose or multiple doses of the drugs because they were not kept under lock and key. Instead, they were kept on a cart, where they were available for immediate use during surgery. Wex added that there was ample opportunity for the surgical technologists, who prepared the room for surgery, to steal the drugs.

Gamble also asked Wex how the drugs were administered. Wex said they were either administered intravenously or intramuscularly. Wex added that during her career as a surgicial technologist, Kimberly would have seen the drugs used many times.

That same day Gamble also spoke with Dr.

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