Ernst C. Frey, 85, was a patient at Daniel Drake Memorial Hospital in Cincinnati when he died on August 16, 1986. At the time, Frey’s death occurred during a period when several seriously ill patients at Drake were being poisoned, a pattern that initially went unrecognized because many deaths there could be attributed to existing illnesses.

The string of suspicious fatalities at Drake continued through 1986 and early 1987 until the March 1987 death of John Powell prompted an autopsy that found cyanide. That inquiry led investigators to focus on Donald Harvey, who was charged in April 1987 and later admitted to multiple killings. Frey was later included among the murders for which Harvey accepted criminal responsibility; Harvey pleaded guilty in Cincinnati on August 18, 1987, to numerous counts of aggravated murder that specifically listed Frey and described cyanide administered via his gastric tube. Does anyone have additional information about Frey’s life or his time at Drake Memorial Hospital?