All language subtitles for FBI.True.S06E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- We've had vulnerable
military veterans

who just went to the hospital
to get medical care

and they never went home.

- Ready.

Aim.

- None of them were expected
to die when they were

admitted into this hospital.

- Pull.

- The medical examiner saw
a bruising on the abdomen

of one of the patients that
indicated an injection point.

These patients were given
insulin, which killed them.

And so now, we're dealing
with a murder case.

- So we're collecting
sharps containers,

which include IV lines
and IV bags.

- We did not have any
surveillance footage.

There was no eyewitness.

We didn't know,
was it a staff member?

Was it somebody
coming off the street?

- We work with Facebook.

We end up recovering
those messages.

One message,
"I could kill this patient."

- You have access to
their phone calls?

- Absolutely.

- There was one call
in particular

that's absolutely
gut-wrenching.

- It's tense beyond all belief.

- These were veterans
who had served America,

and we don't have
the luxury of time.

- Another death could be
around the corner, really.

- Exactly.

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent-to-agent.

This is "FBI True."

- On the evening
of June 27, 2018,

our duty agent received a call
from the director

of the VA Medical Center in
Clarksburg, West Virginia,

who wanted to report to
CID that the facility

had identified
a series of significant

hypoglycemic events,
all of which occurred

on the same ward
at the hospital

during a six-month
time frame.

- When you say several
hypoglycemic events,

were they injured?

In a coma?

Like, what's the
result of that?

- Kristy Kottis is a
24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked Gangs,
Crimes Against Children,

as well as Human and
Drug Trafficking.

- When those low blood sugars
were recorded,

they were so low.

Eight of those inpatients
had subsequently died.

- In fact, when you look at the
medical records for these eight

patients, you see that they
were expected to be discharged.

None of them were expected
to die when they were

admitted into this hospital.

- We want to know,
how did this happen?

Was this an accident, or are
we dealing with a murderer?

- Jarod Douglas has worked
in the US Attorney's Office

since 2012,
prosecuting cases

involving national security,
civil rights,

corruption and fraud.

- And these weren't
just any patients.

These were veterans
who had served America,

been deployed overseas,

and they were seeking treatment
at the VA.

- Ashley Archibald
joined the FBI in 2016.

She's worked cases involving
white-collar crime,

violent crime,
and international terrorism.

- There's very strong
military ties

for the folks in West Virginia.

- And not only did
each of these gentlemen

honorably serve their country,
the majority of our veterans

were buried with full
military rites and honors.

- All of them were
hard-working fathers,

grandfathers,
great-grandfathers.

- So we set up a command post
in the basement

of the medical center and
basically started tasking teams

with our partners, with the FBI
here, to initiate interviews.

- Keith Vereb has been with

the Department of Veterans
Affairs Office

of the Inspector General
since 2008,

investigating violent crimes,
drug offenses,

and fraud cases
impacting VA personnel

and veterans themselves.

- We didn't know if there
was a potential bad actor.

- We also don't have
the luxury of time.

At that point,
we haven't identified

what is causing
these men to die.

- Another death could be
around the corner, really.

- Exactly.

- We had a team set up
for medical reviews

to determine a plausible
medical explanation for this.

What was alarming here was that
half of the inpatients

that were referred to CID,
they had never had any issues

with blood sugar
a day in their lives.

And then, as we started to
learn about hypoglycemia,

our focus became a shift onto

what could cause it,
which revealed insulin.

- These patients should
not have received insulin,

and they were given insulin,
which killed them.

And so now we're dealing
with a murder case.

- And so number one
concern at that point

is loss of more life,
and we have to move quickly.

- From the investigative
standpoint,

very early on,
we learned that

they were going to be
tremendous roadblocks

and obstacles in the way.

We did not have any
surveillance footage.

There was no eyewitness.

There was not going to be
a smoking gun in this case.

That ward, the Med/Surg
Ward 3A, was unlocked.

Anybody could come,
day or night,

and there was no tracking
protocols for insulin

within the facility.

Anybody could have had
access to that insulin

at any point in time.

- We really need to identify
someone as soon as possible.

- Was it a fellow veteran?

Was it somebody
coming off the street?

Was it a staff member?

- We're looking at, where
could we collect evidence from?

If you're looking at
insulin-related deaths,

where was the insulin
administered, right?

So we're collecting
sharps containers,

which include IV lines
and IV bags.

- We were literally
pulling sharps containers

off of the wall to get those
to Quantico for analysis.

- We wanted to
test for insulin.

Were there insulin
present in those IV bags?

There absolutely
shouldn't have been.

So we're obviously looking
for direct evidence.

And in the absence of that,

you have to start building
a circumstantial case.

- We had, first and foremost,
wanted to interview the staff.

Had they seen anything?

Was there anything that
was out of the norm?

- Not only did we have one
of our VA OIG special agents

in the room, we also
had a nurse in the room

from our Office of
Health Care Inspections.

- And as we started to talk to
staff, there was one employee,

and her biggest comment
during that interview was,

"Things are being missed."

- Very early on, we didn't
know if there was somebody

who had seen something,
so we started

around-the-clock interviews.

And there was one employee,
a nursing assistant

by the name of Reta Mays.

She was adamant,
multiple instances

during that interview,
that things were being missed.

- What are you
learning about her?

- So not only was Reta
a nursing assistant,

she herself was a veteran.

She had been deployed
to Iraq in mid-2000s,

had worked at the hospital
for several years prior

to the investigation starting.

People are saying pretty
positive things about her.

Nurses talked
about to help out,

she would go above and beyond
what her actual duties were.

In 2016, she had won
Nursing Assistant of the Year

for her work on the ward.

- So looking at it as a
prosecutor at this point,

she's showing some
genuine concern.

- Like she really
cared about them.

She stressed in that interview.

- The case was in its infancy.

We didn't have any
direct evidence.

So one of the things
that we wanted to do

was determine who,
from the facility standpoint,

could have been working when
all these events occurred.

Let's pull time cards.

There's about 1,200 employees
that work at that facility.

- That's a lot.

- And what we identified
was about four employees

who were working on or around
when the events occurred.

- You had the
psych ward employee,

and then you had
a respiratory therapist

who does roam the hospital.

The other one was in ICU.

And one of the clear-cut,
alarming things that we saw

was that there was
one 3A employee--

That was working on or around

when all these
events occurred--

Reta Mays.

- Just based off
of time card data,

there was one employee
who was working on 3A--

Reta Mays.

In fact, she was
the only 3A employee

that was working
when all of these

hypoglycemic events occurred.

- But there weren't
reports of her

administering any kind
of medications,

which were way outside
her bounds.

There weren't reports of her
handling medication,

even in the medical room.

- Was there somebody who
knew a heck of a lot more

about insulin,
about hypoglycemia,

about how to administer it,
put it in the IV?

Because here again,
she's an uncertified,

untrained nursing assistant.

And as a nursing assistant,
if there is a clinical aspect

to the position,
the most medical thing

that she would be doing
would be taking fingersticks,

which you would use
to check blood sugar levels.

We did a blind forensic audit
of the blood sugar readings

that were recorded
on the glucometer,

which essentially captures
the fingerstick readings.

- Right.

- And there's a way to look
on the glucometer,

the fingerstick machine,
and see the employee ID.

- We received a call saying,

"Are you all taking a look
at Reta Mays?

"She takes a very
disproportionate amount

"of low blood sugar readings

compared to the other staff
on the ward."

But I'm looking back at it,
and I'm saying,

"We still have
three other people,

staff members,
we got to rule out."

We have the person in ICU,
the psych ward,

and then
the respiratory therapist.

What we're able to do
is see the key card access

and the computer access
for these employees,

and that would put them
in other places

at the hospital
at the time

that we believe
the insulin was given.

- One of the things
that was done

is taking all
the medical information,

times and dates and charting
that out on timelines.

And when Reta Mays
was on shift,

you could start seeing
the drop in blood sugar,

and then ultimately,
them passing away.

- With all the work of
the investigative team

and all of these different
facets of intel coming in,

we made a recommendation
to have Reta Mays

removed from patient care.

She was actually repositioned
or stationed in the mail room

on the opposite end
of the basement.

And as soon as she's
removed from patient care,

we no longer have any
severe hypoglycemic event.

There is no other death.

- But there is a big difference
between making a decision

to save patients' lives
and move her to the mail room,

versus going to court with
the evidence that we have

and proving it beyond
a shadow of a doubt.

So our next step is BAU sent
Supervisory Special Agent

Cari Robins out to conduct
our second interview

with Reta Mays.

- Mm-hmm.

- This is not part
of a mass interview,

so she is very
specifically asked

to come in and sit down
and talk.

She's read her Miranda rights.

- Keith, where were you during
the second interview of Reta?

- I, along with the rest
of the investigative team

at that point,
were in the command post,

which was basically
adjacent to the room

that we stationed with
audio and video feeds.

- There were multiple times
where she would engage

and she would
converse with Cari.

- How long is the interview?

- I think upwards
of four hours.

- It's tense beyond all belief.

We don't know, at any juncture,
is she going to give it up?

Are we going to be able to
bring some finality to this?

- We're just waiting for her
to say the right thing

to be able to go right across
the hall and put the cuffs on.

- As Cari's asking her
what happened here

and they're starting to
touch on the incidents

of hypoglycemia,
Reta starts pulling away.

Right?
She mentally, physically

is pulling away
from the interviewer.

- The question is, does she
have some emotional attachment

to these patients
that's normal,

that she just is upset about?

Does she feel shame
about something?

This can go either way
at this point.

- She's sitting back
in her chair.

She's crossing her arms, which
is a very defensive gesture.

She has long pauses
between her answers.

It becomes a little
confrontational on Reta's side.

- This, unlike the first
interview, was video recorded.

So now we have what we could
possibly show in court.

Yes, we don't
have a confession,

but look how she's reacting.

- And at that point,
after a very long pause

where she's not making
eye contact with Cari,

she tells Cari that she thinks
she needs a lawyer.

- And that effectively
ends the interview.

- We didn't secure
a confession,

but it's all down to
Reta Mays at this point.

And we're going to probably

have to prove this case
in court.

And because this occurred
on federal property,

there could be the federal
death penalty imposed.

That heightens
the level of evidence

that we need, the pressure
that our office is putting

on the investigators to
get every piece of evidence

they can to prove that
this was Reta Mays.

- We need to
examine the bodies.

The medical examiner
issues a report that says

the cause of death
was homicide.

- Insulin is what
killed these patients,

and Reta Mays administered
that insulin to them.

So we go to pull her
Facebook messages.

In one message, she talks,
"I could kill this patient."

- This is going to be
our best chance

of getting a confession
in this case.

- It's all down to
Reta Mays at this point,

and we're willing

to do everything we can
to prove this case.