Full Cases · Clarksburg, WV · Guilty plea · sentenced
Reta Mays: seven veterans, one night ward
Between 2017 and 2018, nursing assistant Reta Mays murdered at least seven elderly veterans at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, by injecting them with unprescribed insulin. She pleaded guilty to seven counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms plus twenty years. On the day she was sentenced, the VA's own Inspector General released a report calling the failures that let it happen "serious, pervasive, and deep-rooted" - no one contacted her prior employers, the ward's medication wasn't secured, and the pattern of deaths went unread for nearly a year. This is the story beneath the headline: the veterans, and the accountability that came too late.
We name them, because they were not a body count: Robert Edge Sr., Robert Kozul, Archie Edgell, George Shaw, Felix McDermott, Raymond Golden, and a seventh veteran identified only by his initials.
Video · 10:31 · Watch on YouTube
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice (USAO-NDWV)
- VA Office of Inspector General, Report #20-03593-140 (May 11, 2021)
- AP / NPR / Military Times
If you or a veteran you know is in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line is free and confidential, 24/7: dial 988, then press 1.
Real documents - the VA Office of Inspector General report and DOJ filings - and the medical-center photograph are sourced and credited on screen.
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