A nursing home fire with horrifying intentions | Forensic Files

[Music] in the early hours of the 18th of November 2011 a fire was deliberately lit at the Quakers Hill nursing home in
Sydney's northwest the nursing home has daily 9 residents a lot Wilhite dependent patients who were a mobile
suffering from Al's honors and dementia the fire killed 11 residents a further eight residents were seriously injured
from burns and smoke inhalation but survived the case is one of Australia's worst ever mass murders committed by a
registered nurse Roger Dean the person who is in charge of the nursing home they're not the person who was supposed
to be caring for the residence but he didn't care about anyone but himself he was trying to cover up another crime
that he had committed [Music] [Music] Quakers your nursing home is an aged care facility caring for up to a hundred
residents that require a high need of care and full assistance with daily living activities the home has 35
separate rooms each containing a number of beds the nursing home is built into a
large hate shape and is divided into four wings wing a one wing a two wing b-1 and wing b2 wing a1 contained eight
rooms wing a2 had eight rooms and two double rooms wing b1 contains six rooms wing b2 had six rooms with one double
room and each room contained four beds the external doors including the main entrance to the nursing home were kept
locked entry required a PIN number on a keypad there was a different code for day and
night the day code was available to staff into some relatives but at 8:00 p.m. each night the code changed and
that nighttime code was only available to staff members the nursing home contains 16 CCTV cameras in total
cameras were located both internally and externally the cameras were motion activated and
each time the camera was activated the time was recorded there were 89 residents living in the nursing home at
the time of the fire many of the residents were bedridden and suffered from dementia and Alzheimer's disease
many needed assistance with day-to-day living in early September 2011 a new nurse commenced employment at the
Quakers Hill nursing home to work the night shift on Wednesday and Thursday nights that nurse was Roger Dean Roger
Dean was 35 years old he was born in Vietnam and arrived in Australia as an infant with his mother and three other
siblings they arrived to Australia as refugees their father died was trying to flee Vietnam at a later date
roger was homosexual and he recognized and identified with his sexual orientation from an early age this
resulted in him being socially isolated at school and the victim of excessive bullying in his mid-teens he was
actually physically and sexually assaulted by two adult men he had an open homosexual relationship by the age
of 18 and this ignited a rift between Roger and his family he had little to no contact with his siblings throughout his
adult life and his relationship with his mother has been strained they did not approve of Rogers homosexual lifestyle
Roger graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Nursing degree in 1996 he worked as a nurse at both the
San Jorge Hospital south of Sydney and the st. John of God hospital in Burwood which is in Sydney's west in 2004 he
started a law degree at Macquarie University while still working as a nurse this had an adverse effect on his
in work relationships and resulted in numerous arguments with fellow staff members the law degree combined with his
employment and shift work was having an adverse effect on his sleeping patterns not long after this Roger was diagnosed
with irritable bowel syndrome and was prescribed benzodiazepines this drug is like a tranquilizer which is prescribed
for anxiety and sleeping problems by 2007 he was no longer using the drug for what it was prescribed for he was
abusing it using it for recreational purposes in 2008 one of Rogers close friends committed suicide which
escalated his misuse of prescription drugs Roger used to go doctor shopping and stockpiled a list of prescription
medications not just benzos but also sleeping tablets painkillers any depressants any psychotic medication
antibiotics and penicillin nausea medication high blood meds asthma meds the list went on and on
he used to store the medications in his kitchen pantry in two separate Tupperware containers at the time of his
arrest he had about 43 different prescription drugs at his home and he was taking about 15 tablets per day
Roger resided in Walker Street Quakers Hill within walking distance to the nursing home he lived there with his
former partner a mr. French there's differing reports as to whether or not they are still partners or they were ex
partners are now just flatmates but regardless they live there together Roger had a serious problem with
prescription medication in June 2011 only three months before commencing employment at Quakers Hill nursing home
Roger was found drugged affected whilst on duty at the San John of God hospital he couldn't talk properly could hardly
walk he was uncoordinated he was speeding couldn't understand basic requests he was sent home from work and
immediately suspended in the review after that incident he claimed to suffer from bipolar and depression and he
blamed the incident at work on his GP who had recently changed his medication he obtained a signed note from his GP
confirming he suffered bipolar and depression and recently had the medication change explaining his
behavior the GP declared him fit and well to return to work shortly after this Roger Dean was informed by
supervisor at st. John of God hospital that he was to be taken off night shifts and placed on day shifts so he could be
properly supervised they didn't trust him they also believed had a poor ability to communicate and to manage
relationships with others which aren't good qualities for a registered nurse Roger resigned from sent John of God
Hospital in September and as they only lived nearby to Quakers Hill nursing home he walked down there and asked if
they had any work going and they said they did they needed a registered nurse to cover Wednesday and Thursday night
shifts Roger gave them his resume but he never made mention of his employment at
st. John of God Hospital he said his last employment as a nurse was a sin George Hospital in 2007 and
since that time he had worked in a cheesecake shop he also produced some no recent references but it didn't really
matter anyway because no Anna Quakers Hill nursing home contacted any of his references all previous employers he was
hired based on his resume which was misleading into quick interview so they had no idea about his poor racing
history of sin John of God hospital and the fact that they didn't trust him there
so we gotta start at Quakers Hill nursing home in early September 2011 to work Wednesday and Thursday nights when
if there were better systems in place he should never ever been given the job he
should never have been allowed anywhere near the residence of the Quakers your nursing home or anywhere else for that
matter on the 6th of September 2011 only days after commencing employment a local
fire station officer delivered a training course at the nursing home titled fire safety in health care
facilities Roger attended that course the course included a walk around the nursing home
indicating the location of all installed firefighting equipment and the location
of the fire and smoke doors as well as the differences between them and how they function the bio doors were
designed to automatically close upon activation of the fire alarm to contain a fire within the wing that it had
started the fire officer also explained the purpose of the fire indicator panel and the emergency warning system as well
as dr. shopping Roger Dean developed another method of obtaining prescription medication while stealing it from the
nursing home all of the schedule 8 drugs were stored and dispensed under strict protocols there were regular audits to
ensure all were accounted for schedule 8 drugs are prescription based drugs that
have a recognized therapeutic need but also a higher risk of misuse abuse and dependence so we're talking about things
like oxy and down codeine methadone and a lot more basically a lot of the stuff Roger Dean was addicted to the schedule
at drugs were stored in a treatment room in the central part of b-wing between section b1 and Section B - despite being
a treatment room it was never used to treat patients it was just the drug room the drugs are stored in a locked
cupboard within that room and the daughter the room itself was always kept locked the daughter the treatment room
could only be open by a key on a blue lanyard and the locked cupboard that has the schedule eight drugs inside could
only be open by a key on a red lanyard the night shift registered nurse was always in possession of both lay needs
and whenever he was at work Roger Dean was the night shift registered nurse meaning he had both
lanyards and both keys but the nursing home had a strict protocol that required both the regice
the nurse and an assistant nurse to be present in order to access the drugs so each time a schedule 8 drug was
dispensed there was a drug register that had to be filled out this included the patient's name the
date and time the type of drug and how much then both the registered nurse and the assistant nurse would saw in the
register an audit was conducted every day by the two registered nurses that work the afternoon shift so at 8:00 p.m.
on the 16th of November 2011 an audit of the schedule eight drugs was carried out
by the afternoon registered nurses and all were accounted for later that night at 10:30 p.m. the 16th of November Roger
Dean commenced his shift being the registered nurse on night shift means Roger was basically in charge of the
place Roger finished his shift at 7:00 a.m. on the 17th of November and during that
time he stole 237 and I'm tablets and one kept an old tablet from the treatment room
although there is no CCTV footage inside the treatment room there is a camera that shows entry to it and Roger Dean
was captured on that footage entering and leaving the room many times he would spend a considerable amount of time
inside the room removing the endone tablets from their blister packs he tried to cover this up by placing sticky
tape around the blister packs but that fooled nobody at 7:30 p.m. the 17th of November the afternoon shift registered
nurses completed an audit of the schedule eight drugs as per their daily protocol they noticed the 237 in nine
tablets missing and a one cup an old tablet missing they immediately contacted the clinical manager Lunada
matteo who wasn't on duty at the time but she immediately traveled to the nursing home to double-check the order
this was a pretty serious thing Lynnae de Matteo confirmed the drugs were missing in the 10 p.m. she contacted
Quakers Hill police to make a report Roger Dean arrived at work at 10:23 p.m. that night he conducted a changeover
with the afternoon shift staff and they informed him about the missing drugs and
that the police were on their way to take a report Roger starts to panic not only is his
nursing career in jeopardy but the law degree he is studying and nearly finished will be worthless if he gets a
criminal conviction so he is on edge police arrived just after midnight they'll met at the door by Roger who
allowed them in saw it police started to take a report and asked a few questions
of Roger and Lynette a Mateo however after 7 8 minutes of being on scene they received an urgent call and
they had to leave they said they would be back as soon as they could whilst waiting for the police to return
leonard mateo started reviewing the CCTV footage covering the treatment room and
that's when she saw the only person coming and going was roger at 3:43 a.m. Lynette I left the nursing home the
police still hadn't arrived back and she was unable to wait any longer Lynetta had compiled all the evidence of
the thefts together she had the audit documents and computer records the CCTV footage and the empty
blister packs for fingerprinting she kept them in her office and locked the door there are only two Kay's available
her office she had one and the facility manager had the other the manager's office wouldn't be open again until
after the fire when it was open by police once Lynetta had left Roger had come up
with his plan to avoid getting in trouble for the drug theft at 4:35 a.m. Roger Dean requested two assistant
nurses in b-wing who were near the treatment room to take a break they decline stating they had already had
their break so Roger Dean then approached two other assistant nurses over in a wing and told
them to take a break which they did and this left Roger alone on the ward at 451
a.m. Roger entered wing a to whether or no CCTV cameras about 453 a.m. Roger set
fire to a bed in room 19 of wing a2 he used a cigarette lighter that had been left in the kitchen by another staff
member this is how he describes it I took the lighter for the purpose of lighting I I didn't expect to like a
better I just wanted to lie something I just wanted to instead of what to something
it just so happens that there was an empty bed and I just did it to that the fire sensors detected the fire almost
immediately and the fire alarm activated the alarm caused the loud siren to activate and this send an automatic
message to the fire brigade all the fire doors throughout the nursing home closed
and the fire alarm panel in the foyer was activated of course Roger was well aware of all this because he had
recently attended the fire safety and health care facilities course as the fire door closed Roger walked from wing
a2 towards wing a1 Roger then lead a second fire on the sheet of an unoccupied bed in room 3 of wing a1 he
used the same cigarette lighter which he then threw into a sanitary bin in the wing a1 bathroom this is how he
describes it he started just as a small Fame and I thought that that that's okay
like that's containable I didn't expect it to be so big it was just something stupid and
something that I wish had never done at 4:59 a.m. the first fire brigade officers arrived other staff members
directed them straight to the first fire in room 19 in wing a2 they were able to
extinguish that fire but they were unaware of the second fire there was no second alarm alerting them to the second
fire the alarm had already gone off so as far as they were aware room 19 was the only fire all ceasefire was being
put out Roger Dean started to try and play hero he grabbed a resident Helen from room 4
in wing a1 the room next door to the second fire he said come on darling we've got to get
out we've got to evacuate he started to walk her out of the room up the hallway to the front door as they passed room 3
Helen looked in and saw the second fire by this stage the bed was well alive Helen broke free from Roger and ran into
the room yelling we've got to get them out we've got to get them out what Roger had done was lit the second fire on an
unoccupied bed but there were two residents in that room on other beds Dorothy Stirling and Dorothy woo both
suffered a llamas disease amongst other health problems both were immobile and were unable to
move without assistance Roger would have been well aware of this but he just left
them to door he callously said don't worry Helen just leave him we've got to get out people
are on their way to get them Roger grabbed Helen and forced her out of the room Roger got Helen out and then
divided his time between wing a and wing be assisting some of the residents to get out but at no time did he tell
anyone about the second fire as far as the fire brigade officers and other staff members could tell there was still
only the one fire and that had been put out at 5:04 a.m. fire brigade officers made their way into wing a1 and it
became clear to them at this point that there was actually a second fire but at this stage the fire was out of control
the heat was intense and their excessive amounts of black smoke everywhere for this reason it was difficult for them to
determine where the fire was exactly they could hear a number of residents screaming out for help
in the meantime Roger Dean was outside safe he helped move residents away from the building as they made their way
outside at 5:15 a.m. fire brigade officers found the second fire in room 3 by this stage the fire was reaching the
roof it was well a lot they got to work on putting it out they could still hear residents crying out for help the smoke
and the heat was so intense they had to crawl around on the hands and knees to try and find the residents they couldn't
say anything they were getting around more by way of touch than anything else there was a horrific scene the residents
that could move by themselves were crawling on the hands and knees to get out with the roof burning above them but
then there were those residents who couldn't move without help frail and vulnerable just lying there waiting for
someone to come and save them with the building burning down around them it's hard to imagine anyone experiencing
more terror in some cases they were over the wheel patients out but in other cases they had to make do just by
dragging them along the floor I had to do whatever they could to get a residency out as quickly as possible and
once they got some residents to safety they ran straight back into danger to get more fiber gate officers did their
best to get everyone here but not everyone could be saved the fire resulted in three residents doing at the
scene another eight residents died later in hospital and another three died in the weeks and months after the fire
outside was a horrible horrible sight elderly vulnerable patients everywhere lying in beds lying on the ground being
attended to by ambulance officers beds were stacked up outside everywhere there were police everywhere fire brigade
everywhere on lookers everywhere it was estimated there are about a hundred firefighters on scene
a hundred ambulance officers on scene and about 75 police on scene when you add in all of the residents and all of
the on lookers in the media the place looked more like a war zone and in amongst it all was Roger Dean
standing amongst the chaos safely outside he remained outside for a while but between 5:30 a.m. and 610 a.m. he
made three separate attempts to re-enter the nursing home through the front doors
he was blocked by police and fire officers the first two times but the third time he got lucky he said to a
firefighter I need to go inside to get the drug books so I need to get in there Roger showed the firefighter over to
language with the keys for the schedule a drug room and the drug cupboard the firefighter allowed Roger to enter but
he also went with him [Music] Roger went with the firefighter towards the treatment room but Rogers stopped
short aware the CCTV cameras capture he handed the keys to the firefighter and told him the location of the drug box
inside the treatment room while he waited off camera but the firefighter couldn't open the door so he called
Roger over Roger didn't go up first he was reluctant he was trying to call out the instructions but eventually he had
no choice he had to walk on camera to unlock the room he walked in the room unlocked the drug come in and removed
the drug audit registers put them into his shoulder bag and then left the building as he was leaving he said I
need to go home I need to get ventolin I'll live close by and I really need my ventolin but as Roger left the nursing
home he ran straight into the path of a TV reporter and camera crew and he made time for a quick interview this is what
he had to say I'm Roger I'm one of the nurses and just there was a fire and I just quickly just did what I can't get
everyone out and the smoke is just overwhelming but you know we got a lot of people out so that's the main thing
he gave that interview whilst the drug registers were still in his bag the reason he caused the whole tragedy
[Music] afterwards Roger walked home where he tore up the pages of the drug audit
register he put the pages into a plastic shopping bag and then got his flatmate mr. French to drive him to a shop in
Douglas Road Quakers Hill where he disposed of the bag in a dumpster bin Roger then got dropped off back at the
nursing home he was looked over by ambulance officers and was taken in me outdraw at hospital his condition was
recorded as presented with [ __ ] residue on his face and clothes pale skin and generally distressed about 2:00 p.m. he
was released from hospital and was taken to Mount Druitt police station where he
made a statement he made no admissions in that statement he just accounted for his actions on the night - the part
about lighting the fires shortly after making the statement he was told by police he was a suspect it's hard to
understand what Roger was hoping to achieve by starting this fire we know it was done to try and cover up the fact
he stole the drugs but it covered up nothing Lunetta the clinical manager had already reviewed the CCTV footage and
had all the evidence stored in her locked office Roger was the only one with keys the night the drugs were
stolen and he was the only one entering the room on the CCTV footage the footage
was still intact it wasn't damaged by the fire at all so not only did it show him stealing the drugs it also showed
the far more serious offense of him being responsible for lighting the fires the actual act themselves weren't
captured they were off-camera but it wasn't hard to work out who was responsible he was the only one on
camera going to the locations of the fires police said they mean pretty much straight away there was no long
drawn-out investigation he in fact when he was told by police he was a suspect they already had his telephone tapped
and he made a call straight away to mr. French he told him what was going on he then called two friends mr. and mrs.
Reed who attended the police station to speak with him in private and while speaking to them he came clean and made
full admissions to lighting the fires Roger Dean was arrested at 7:50 p.m. a lot of the residents killed were unable
to move independently a worse fate he's difficult to imagine knowing a fire is raging they're not being able to move or
do anything about it just lying there waiting to be either burnt alive or to be suffocated by smoke
all the victims were vulnerable and were under rogers direct care he was the registered nurse in charge at the night
shift he knew those patients in that room where he lit the second fire were immobile and he refused to help them
telling Helen don't worry someone else is coming but he knew no one else was coming because they didn't know about
the second fire and he didn't tell anyone about it despite this she claims that he never intended to hurt anybody
he didn't think the fires would get out of control he felt they would be contained but his actions tell a
different story those premeditation and planning he asked her to assistant nurses to leave
the wing he had planned this with one main objective to deflect attention away from the stolen drugs
it's been thought since that Roger was mistreating patients before the fire doing things like giving them nowadays
tablets or generic over-the-counter paracetamol tablets instead of their prescribed pain medication which he
would instead keep for himself other staff members had already complained about Roger Dean's behavior at the
nursing home but nothing had been done Roger tried the shift accountability away from himself by placing the blame
on prescription drugs and a psychiatric illness and even the devil you won't believe it but it was like Satan saying
to me that it's the right thing to do the grounds of placing blame on the prescription drug addiction are sake
onus Satan or whatever else were rejected Roger displayed no obvious impairment to
his reasoning communication skills or physical function during his television interview just after the incident or
during his police interview later that night doctors rejected any notion of a psychiatric illness after an evaluation
Roger was determined to show narcissistic personality traits with an unusually strong desire to please people
he also was found to have a strong sense of entitlement an assumption of superiority he disregarded the needs of
others dismissed criticism and refused to take advice and instruction the very fact he committed the crime to cover up
the drug theft shows he was overseer mind he had no impaired capacity from drugs or a psychic illness and he didn't
receive instructions from Satan the reason to light the fires was out of pure self-interest
he knew his career in nursing and any future career in law would be gone if he was convicted of stealing drugs
Roger initially elected to have the charges go to trial and he requested to have them at a trot in front of a judge
only no jury but this application was thrown in and as a result Roger elected not to go to trial instead on the 27th
of May 2013 in the New South Wales Supreme Court he pled guilty to eleven counts of murder
he also played guilty to eight counts of recklessly caused grievous bodily harm he also pleaded guilty to stealing the
schedule eight drugs the eleven lives he took that night with Dorothy sterling Dorothy Wu Elmer Smith Lola Bennett Ella
wood Urbana lepo Caesar Gilley Doris Beck Reginald William Green Verna way back and no j-val Kaye Roger was also
responsible for the deaths of three other people that he was never charged with murder for they couldn't exactly
pin the deaths directly to him they lost their lives a bit later on but I think you can say he was responsible
Esther Newman's death was deemed to be due to age in natural causes however she suffered smoke inhalation
that night and was in hospital Joan Joy's death was ruled due to age and natural causes however she suffered
stress as she had to be disconnected from her dialysis machine during the evacuation in Manila
katia died from an infection acquired in hospital after being admitted as she was
suffering from smoke inhalation it was found that the Lake guilty pleas were made out of a realization on Rogers part
that there was overwhelming and damning evidence of his guilt and overwhelming and damning evidence he committed the
crimes whilst in a lucid and rational state he didn't plead guilty due to any remorse on the 1st of August 2013 in the
New South Wales Supreme Court Roger Dean was sentenced to life in prison for each
murder charge he was also given jail time for the eight counts of recklessly inflicted grievous bodily harm and for
stealing the drugs but Moffett on those sentences expire he was still being custody on the murder charges he's never
getting here [Music] Roger showed no emotion at all when his life sentence was read out he just
stared blankly straight ahead before being taken away to spend the rest of his life behind bars
victim's family members in the court yelled out and applauded at the sentence it was fitting he was giving her life
sentence not only did he take 11 lives he handed all the family members a life sentence as well they thought they were
doing the right thing sending their family members to a nursing home it was supposed to be a safe place a place
where they would be well cared for and well looked after not a place where they was supposed to be put in danger by a
complete psychopath the fact that so many residents required assistance with day-to-day living and just moving around
in general and the fact many suffered dementia and Al's honors significantly complicated the rescue effort and was a
factor in the scale of the disaster no one knew just how vulnerable the residents were better than Roger Dean
whilst in jail roger has suffered degrading and distressing behavior at the hands of other inmates his
reputation has required the need friend to be put into protective custody Roger later appealed life sentences
saying they were excessive and that he could not have foreseen the extent of the damage and loss of life that
occurred when he lit the fires he also argued that his long term addiction to prescription medication and his alleged
personality disorder / psychiatric illness and the effect that those had on his decision-making were not taken into
account during the sentencing thankfully this appeal was rejected the Court of Criminal Appeals found that his actions
were deliberate for the purpose of covering up theft of the prescription drugs and that he had several
opportunities to alert firefighters as to where the second fire was but he didn't
instead electing the try and work out how to retrieve the drug audit registers Roger Dean will thankfully spend the
rest of his life in jail he never even really showed any remorse just trying to shift the blame on the
devil and evil thoughts I love the residents very much and I have a really good rapport with
them so I feel extremely bad and I just feel evil that I'm just corrupted with evils thoughts that have made me do that
[Music]

Case 06: Roger Dean

"You won't believe it, but it was like, satan saying to me that it's the right thing to do."

In the early hours of the 18th of November 2011 a fire was deliberately lit at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home. The nursing home housed 89 residents, a lot of whom were highly dependent patients who were immobile, suffering dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anonymous Host Production, scoring – Mike Migas

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Brief Summary

Roger Dean set a fire at Quakers Hill nursing home, killing 11 residents to cover up his drug thefts.

Key points

The Quakers Hill Nursing Home Fire. A deliberate fire at a nursing home leads to tragedy, killing multiple residents.
Roger Dean's Troubled Past. Roger Dean's history of drug abuse and personal struggles culminated in a horrific crime.
The Chaos of the Fire. The fire at Quakers Hill nursing home resulted in a chaotic scene with many residents in danger.
Roger's Desperate Plea. After the fire, Roger urgently requested his medication, revealing his state of mind.
The Fire Interview. Roger gives a quick interview after the fire, claiming he did his best to help.
Guilty Pleas. Roger pleads guilty to multiple counts of murder and grievous bodily harm.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just wanted to light something.

Roger Dean's justification for starting the fire.

13:48WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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