MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WTHR) - He's suspected of killing dozens of Hoosiers, but we've learned Indiana's so-called "Angel of Death" has died.
In 1999, serial killer Orville Lynn Majors, a former nurse, was convicted of murdering 6 of his patients. Investigators believe he may have committed at least 100 more.
Majors died Monday after becoming unresponsive in an Indiana prison.
His 7 week trial captivated the state and gained nationwide attention. Majors was convicted on six counts of murder and suspected in over a hundred more. Judge Ernie Yelton presided over the trial in Clay County.
"The impact on the victims' families was very vivid then and it remains vivid. It was very devastating for many people in Vermillion County and it was truly an incredible tragedy," Yelton said Monday.
Looking back, you could hear the pain in their voices.
"I was sad because I can't imagine how a human being would do this, whether it be a nurse or anyone else and I have seen people die and couldn't imagine helping them along," Melissa Collins told us at the time. The jury deadlocked and was unable to reach a verdict in her grandfather Cecil Smith's death.
Majors was convicted for giving lethal injections of heart-stopping drugs to ailing patients at Vermillion County Hospital.
"It's been five years of hell," said Russell Firestone Jr. in 1999. His father, Russell Firestone Sr., was one of the dozens of patients who died but whose deaths are still unsolved.
"Most people go through a loved one's death and they've got closure of what went on. There's 165 of us who don't know, probably never will know why or the reason behind their family members death. That's hell," said Firestone.
I put in a request to interview Majors just last month, thinking he might have something he wanted to say, since he did not testify during the trial. He declined my request, maintaining the stoic persona to the very end.
"I know now that closure is just around the corner and that finally we could close the door on all that suffering," John Rozsa told us. His wife Ethel was a victim.
The Indiana Department of Correction issued a press release saying Majors died of natural causes on Sunday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He was 56.