Dorthea K. Hoagland was an 80-year-old homemaker from Middlesex, New Jersey, who died on April 6, 2003, while a patient at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville. Her death was not treated as a natural medical outcome but as a homicide carried out by a member of the hospital staff.

The person identified as responsible was Charles Cullen, a registered nurse who worked at the hospital. An investigation into a pattern of suspicious patient deaths at Somerset Medical Center led to Cullen’s arrest in December 2003. During questioning he confessed to administering lethal doses of medication to multiple patients over a sixteen-year nursing career in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and later pleaded guilty to numerous murders, including Dorthea’s, receiving multiple life terms.

Does anyone have information about Dorthea’s time at Somerset Medical Center or knew her before she was hospitalized?