Amy Loughren is a former nurse who became famous for helping the police catch serial killer Charles Cullen, who worked with her at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey. Cullen confessed to killing at least 29 patients by injecting them with lethal doses of drugs, but some experts believe he may have killed up to 400 people during his 16-year career as a nurse
But who is Amy Loughren’s husband, and what role did he play in her life and the investigation? Here are some facts about Richard “Rich” Loughren, the ex-spouse of the good nurse.
Who is Richard “Rich” Loughren?
Richard “Rich” Loughren is the ex-husband of Amy Loughren. According to the show and per the real-life story, Amy was already separated or divorced from Richard when Charles Cullen turned heads with his killings
The former couple, Amy and Richard, share a child named Alex Loughren. Their daughter, Alex, is a Regent’s American College London graduate who lived in Oneonta, New York, with her husband, Bryan Thomas, and their daughter, Blayze
Not much is known about Richard’s personal or professional life, except that he hails from Norwich, New York
How did Amy Loughren meet Charles Cullen?
Amy Loughren met Charles Cullen when they both worked the night shift in the intensive care unit at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, New Jersey
Amy was a single mother of two children and hiding her cardiomyopathy from her employers, with some help from Cullen, in whom she confided
Cullen and Loughren became friends and often had lunch together. Amy described Cullen as a “gentle soul” who was “very caring” and “very compassionate”.
She had no idea that he was secretly murdering patients with fatal doses of medications such as insulin and digoxin
How did Amy Loughren help catch Charles Cullen?
In 2003, Amy Loughren was approached by detectives who suspected Cullen of poisoning hospital patients
The patient who triggered law enforcement interest was Florian Gall. As a patient at Somerset Medical, Gall had been improving, then he suddenly died of a massive heart attack. An autopsy showed that he had been administered digoxin. It was not on his prescription list. In small doses, digoxin can improve heart function, but the amount Gall had received was lethal
After consulting with her 11-year-old daughter, Loughren agreed to assist law enforcement.
Independent of the police investigation, Loughren noticed that Cullen’s medical charting was irregular. It was at points muddled and hasty, and there were frequent misspellings. The hospital’s tracking system also showed Loughren that Cullen spent unusual amounts of time on the files of other nurses’ patients
As part of the investigation into Cullen, Loughren met with him at a diner, wearing a wire. Because she had just had a pacemaker installed, police did not want her to wear the wire, but she insisted. “The truth is I didn’t know how this would affect my heart, but I knew I needed to go in there and get that confession,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair
During Loughren’s meeting with Cullen in the diner, he did not overtly admit to the murders, but he said that he would “go down fighting.”
The evidence from the meeting allowed police to then arrest Cullen.
After he was arrested, Loughren encouraged him to make a full confession, which then supported his convictions for 29 murders.
How is Amy Loughren doing now?
Amy Loughren struggled with the fact that her friend was a serial murderer and with her role in apprehending him: “And he wasn’t a mercy killer. He was a cold-blooded murderer. And for me to not have seen that, I really did struggle.”
She also faced backlash from some of her colleagues, who accused her of betraying Cullen and being a “snitch”.
Loughren left nursing and became a reiki master, a form of alternative medicine that involves energy healing
In 2008, Loughren had an experimental heart surgery, and her health has improved.
She is now a grandmother and lives in Florida.
She is also the subject of a Netflix film, The Good Nurse, starring Jessica Chastain as Loughren and Eddie Redmayne as Cullen. The film is based on the 2013 book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber.
Loughren hopes that the film will raise awareness about the need for better patient safety and accountability in the health care system.
She also wants to honor the victims of Cullen and their families, who have suffered unimaginable pain and loss.
“I hope that they know that I did this for them,” she said.