Amy Loughren, a former colleague of serial killer Charles Cullen, is sharing her experience with taking him down.
She shared her story while speaking with Fox News less than two months after Netflix premiered a scripted drama based on the events titled, “The Good Nurse.”
Eddie Redmayne played Cullen and Jessica Chastain played Loughren in the film.
“Knowing that Netflix wanted to tell the real story and not just the Hollywood story made me very excited,” Loughren said.
She added, “I felt it was very important to make sure that the victims and the victims’ families had a voice. That was the most important thing for me.”
Fox News noted Loughren began working as a nurse in the intensive care unit at New Jersey’s Somerset Medical Center around 2000.
Additionally, she worked as a trauma and ER nurse.
Loughren then met and befriended Cullen while working with him.
“Charlie was funny,” she said.
Loughren explained, “He was very sarcastic. He was always very self-deprecating. He would turn everything back on himself and make a joke about it. He was also brilliant and knew more about medications than any pharmacist I had ever met. He really understood policies and procedures. I trusted him more than any other nurse that I worked with.”
Acknowledging “all nurses are well-versed in medications,” Loughren added, “However, even after 35 years of being a nurse, I still look up medications … We had our little physician’s desk reference that talked about all the side effects and adverse reactions to medications. And looking up medications is a safety procedure we have. But Charlie always seemed to know them all right off the top of his head.”
Commenting on Cullent’s social behavior, Loughren told Fox News, “He felt more like somebody who was dealing with depression.”
According to her, “He didn’t seem to hide that. I believe what I was drawn to was the fact that he was shy and quiet. He wasn’t as social as the other nurses. He didn’t come and hang out at the nurses’ station with us.”
She continued, “He would occasionally, but for the most part, it was me seeking him out. We worked together, we would turn patients together. We would talk about our personal lives while we were doing our jobs.”
In 2003, investigators approached Loughren as they became more suspicious of the number of deaths at the facility that were connected to Cullen.
Loughren was initially surprised that Cullen could somehow be connected to the murders.
However, she was then provided with a record of dosing information of drugs that Cullen withdrawn while working in the ICU, as Fox News explained.
Detectives would later wait outside of a restaurant as Loughren met with Cullen while she was wearing a wire.
She attempted to confront Cullen about all of the deaths and how they were somehow linked to him.
“He suddenly became so smug and proud,” Loughren said.
She continued, “There was a darkness to him. The confusion I first heard in his voice was gone. This was no longer my friend Charlie. His posture, the way he communicated, his voice – it all changed. Even the color of his eyes seemed to change. Then I realized it was over. It was finally over.”
After he was arrested in 2003, Cullen confessed to killing 29 patients by often administering drug overdoses.
Three years later, Cullen was handed 11 life sentences and is currently imprisoned at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
