Kriti Mehrotra
Although ‘The Good Nurse’ could’ve easily been another harrowing true-crime drama by zeroing in on serial killer Charles Cullen, it takes an entirely different approach to deliver its moving point. After all, this Netflix original shines a light upon the woman actually responsible for ensuring his ultimate apprehension — his close friend and the true hero of the entire narrative, Amy Loughren. So now, if you wish to learn more about this nurse — with a particular focus on her complex hand in the matter as well as her overall current standing — we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Who is Amy Loughren?
It was back in 2003 when Amy Loughren first came across Charles as her fellow night-shift ICU nurse at the Somerset Medical Center (now RWJ University Hospital Somerset) in Somerville, New Jersey. “He was funny,” the single mother of two candidly told People before adding she truly, always looked forward to working alongside him since they had “bonded right away and became friends.” In fact, the latter not only helped her conceal her cardiomyopathy from their employers in fear she might lose the job, but he also assisted her at home with her daughters, just like the film depicts.
However, everything changed once two local homicide detectives arrived at the hospital to investigate abnormal lab reports in connection to the eerily suspicious deaths of several patients. They were just conducting a standard interview with Amy at first, yet upon noticing her sheer strength as well as intellect, they decided to follow their gut and indicate her friend might be responsible. She obviously didn’t want to believe Charles, or as she called him Charlie, could be such a heinous monster, but the medicine order slips were undeniable — she thus knew she had to help stop him.
Amy actually consulted her elder daughter Alex (then 11) before moving forward with her decision, though, because she understood that even one wrong step could endanger all their lives. According to her own open account to People Magazine recently, “I told her, ‘Our lives might completely change. I don’t know if I can do this to you.’ And Alex said, ‘Mom, he’s murdering people.'”
Hence, Amy agreed to wear a wire and meet Charles at a restaurant on December 12, 2003, where she confronted him after sharing a few pleasantries to make it known she was still genuinely his friend. That’s when Amy saw the murderer inside him for the very first time — “[Charles] sat straight up. The color of his eyes changed. He put a smirk on his face and said, ‘I’m going to go down fighting.'”
Amy was honestly terrified and had no idea how her heart would react to anything that transpired. However, she was still determined because innocent patients were the ones who lost their lives. Therefore, following his arrest the same day, she played a crucial role in getting him to confess as well (on December 14) — yet it’s imperative to note her identity remained a secret until 2013; until Charles Graeber’s eponymous book ‘The Good Nurse’ was released.
Where is Amy Loughren Today?
Amy has never once shied away from referring to Charles as his friend owing to the connection they personally shared, but she has also never taken away from the significance of his crimes. Her story is thus of care, understanding, empathy, as well as morals, and it’s why she did try to keep in touch with him even after he confessed to slaying 29-40 people (the suspected number is 400). “When he found out that I had been working for the New Jersey Crown Prosecution, that was the last time he answered my letters,” the nurse revealed to Glamour Magazine in an exclusive. “Up until then, I saw him in prison maybe dozens of times.”
Amy has since realized that “People are complicated. We have all loved someone dark, someone who has the capability to do monstrous things… It doesn’t mean we don’t hold them accountable or set boundaries for ourselves, but we can forgive ourselves for loving dark people.” It hence comes as no surprise she has looked for closure in several places, and although she has never figured out the “why” behind it all, she does want the world to know Charles was not a mercy killer.
“I wanted to be part of [‘The Good Nurse’ as a consultant] so that I could shine a light on those victims because so many people believe [Charles] was a mercy killer… that his victims were already too sick to survive,” Amy told Glamour Magazine. “People thought that because there were no blood and guts that it wasn’t monstrous, but the medication that Charles Cullen used were terrifying and paralytic so he could take them off their sedation, wake them up, give them a paralytic, and watch them struggle to breathe. They couldn’t even call out for help.”
Coming to her whereabouts, from what we can tell, Amy currently leads a happy, healthy, and stable life in Deland, Florida, alongside her two daughters as well as their own individual families. She was actually able to get the heart surgery she needed around the mid-2000s itself and has since been expanding her wings as not only a professional nurse but also a spiritual/energy healer.
According to her website, just some of the areas Amy currently dabbles in are integrative energy healing, past-life regression, Reiki healing, crystal language reading, medical intuition, hypnotherapy, and re-connective healing. The 57-year-old honestly appears perfectly content at the moment, which is all that matters.
Read More: Where is Serial Killer Charles Cullen Now?
