CINCINNATI -- Hospital orderly andserial-murder suspect Donald Harvey is a 'good boy' but 'terribly sick,' his mother said Friday amid reports he could be indicted in the deaths of more than two dozen hospital patients.
Harvey was charged with the cyanide death of one Drake Hospital patient in April, and he reportedly confessed to investigators he killed 34 people, most of them patients.
'My son has always been a good boy,' Goldie McKinney told The Cincinnati Post from her home in Booneville, Ky. 'He's still a good boy. He's just terribly sick and he needs a good doctor.'
She refused further comment.
A special Hamilton County grand jury investigating the deaths is expected to release its findings Monday. The grand jury is scheduled to hear from one final witness Monday, Drake administrator Jan Taylor.
Harvey's lawyer, William Whalen, said he expects the grand jury to issue additional indictments, and a published report said Harvey will plead guilty to several murder counts in an effort to avoid the death penalty.
A television station reported this week that Harvey confessed to police investigators he killed 23 patients during the year he worked as an orderly at Drake, five patients at the Cincinnati Veterans Administration Hospital and six other people. He allegedly said he killed them by poison, suffocation or injecting air into their blood.
Harvey, 35, of Middletown, Ohio, grew up in the eastern Kentucky town of Booneville. Residents there expressed shock and dismay at the revelations linking Harvey to the deaths.
'I just can't imagine how anything like this could possibly happen to such a sweet boy,' Martha Turner told the Post. Turner was principal of the elementary school Harvey attended for eight years.
'I really think his mind snapped,' she said. 'He always had a smile for me. I saw him about six months ago and his face was kind of drawn. That was the only indication ever that anything might be wrong.'
Harvey worked at Drake Hospital from February 1986 until his arrest in April. Prior to that, he worked as a morgue attendant at the VA Hospital for 10 years.
In July 1985, he was allowed to resign from that facility when he was discovered carrying stolen hospital property in a bag. At the time, he was under investigation for theft of tissue samples and sabotage.
Drake didn't learn of the VA incident because of federal privacy guidelines.
His confession has not been verified by police or other authorities.
