Cynthia Ann McGee, a 19-year-old white female from Dublin, Ohio, died on January 15, 1984, while recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident. She had been struck by a vehicle while riding her bicycle in Illinois, where she was attending the University of Illinois and was a member of the gymnastics team. Following the accident, she was admitted to Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for recovery.
Her death was initially attributed to complications from the accident, but later investigations revealed a far more sinister cause.
Authorities eventually determined that Cynthia had been poisoned with a lethal dose of potassium. The suspect was Michael J. Swango, a 29-year-old white male intern at the hospital at the time. Swango was later identified as a serial killer who used his position in the medical field to poison patients across multiple states and even internationally. In 2000, Swango pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to the aggravated murder of Cynthia Ann McGee. He admitted to injecting her with potassium, which caused her to lapse into a coma and die shortly thereafter. A nurse had reported seeing Swango enter Cynthia’s hospital room with a syringe just before her condition deteriorated.
Swango was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years, which was the maximum penalty available under Ohio law at the time of the crime. This conviction came after Swango had already pleaded guilty to murdering three patients at a veterans hospital in New York in 1993, for which he received a separate life sentence without parole. His handwritten journals revealed disturbing insights into his motives, including statements that he found pleasure in killing and viewed murder as a way to affirm his own existence.
Cynthia’s death was one of at least six suspicious fatalities that occurred during Swango’s tenure at Ohio State University Hospital between 1983 and 1984. Although circumstantial evidence existed at the time, it was not sufficient to bring charges until Swango’s later admissions. After being barred from continuing his residency at Ohio State, Swango went on to work at other hospitals by falsifying his credentials, continuing his pattern of poisoning patients in places such as Illinois, New York, and Zimbabwe.
The driver of the car that initially struck Cynthia, 17-year-old Scott Bone, was convicted of reckless homicide and sentenced to 30 months’ probation and 1,000 hours of community service. However, it was ultimately Swango’s actions during her recovery that led to her death. Cynthia’s parents expressed sorrow over the reopening of old wounds during the trial but were relieved that justice had finally been served.
