Nurse Amy Loughren famously helped catch serial killer Charles Cullen, a fellow nurse convicted in 2005 for a string of high-profile murders. As of 2023, Cullen is serving 11 consecutive life sentences for his crimes — what became of Loughren?
Cullen’s story is told in the 2022 Netflix film The Good Nurse, based on The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber. In 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to murdering 13 patients in his care at New Jersey and Pennsylvania hospitals in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, according The Washington Post. Cullen reportedly told police he killed up to 40 patients in his time as a nurse, but no one knows for sure. He’s was ultimately convicted of killing 29 people.
In 2003, Loughren, a nurse employed at a New Jersey area hospital, befriended Cullen. Investigators looked into a string of unexplained deaths at the healthcare facility where Cullen and Loughren worked, and Loughren cooperated with the authorities to elicit a confession from her colleague in secretly taped conversations. Cullen most often killed by injecting those in his care with lethal doses of medication. In 2022, Loughren told People, “It’s just not in my nature to betray one of my friends, but of course I knew I had to.”
Loughren now lives in Florida
According to Harper’s Bazaar, “Good Nurse” Amy Loughren now lives in Florida near her two daughters and grandchildren. Loughren frequently posts about her life on Instagram. In a 2022 Glamour profile, Loughren revealed she has remained in contact with Charles Cullen and has even visited him while in prison. Though she no longer works as a nurse, she has reportedly channeled her interest in helping people by becoming an independent meditation instructor and integrative energy healer, among other specialties.
On helping capture Cullen, considered by some to be among the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, Loughren told Glamour, “I knew that monster needed to be behind bars, but I was also putting my friend Charlie behind bars. I struggled with that. Also, the guilt of knowing that my patient had been harmed — people who I was supposed to protect had been harmed in my care.”
Laughter added, “It was another reason I wanted to be part [capturing Cullen], so that I could shine a light on those victims because so many people believe he was a mercy killer and we have white washed people into thinking that his victims were already too sick to survive.”