Late Catholic brother suspected in 37 boys' deaths
A crucifix. File picture
Image by: Daniel Barry / Getty images
Image by: Daniel Barry / Getty images
Dutch prosecutors say a brother at a Catholic institute for disabled boys may have been involved in the suspicious deaths of 37 patients in the 1950s.
Prosecutors said Thursday that they will not further investigate the deaths because the suspect, identified as Brother Andreas, has died and any alleged crimes happened too long ago to be prosecuted.
The investigation gave no causes of death, but said the boys "were more likely to have died as a result of a crime than of natural causes."
Prosecutors began a preliminary investigation last year after an independent commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Dutch Catholic Church uncovered an unusually high number of deaths at the now-defunct St. Joseph's institute in the southern town of Heel between 1952 and 1954.
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