Kimberly Clark Saenz

Kimberly Clark Saenz (born November 3, 1973), also known as Kimberly Clark Fowler, is a former licensed practical nurse and a convicted serial killer. She was convicted of killing several patients at a Texas dialysis center by injecting bleach into their dialysis lines.

Background Saenz was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, as Kimberly Fowler. Kim attended Central ISD in Pollok, Texas (suburb of Lufkin, Texas) for at least her junior high and high school years. She was a cheerleader in junior high and part of high school. Her junior year of high school, she learned she was pregnant by her high school boyfriend and gave birth to her son that same year. This ended Kim's high school career as she left Central High School after the birth of her son. Kimberly eventually earned her high school diploma or equivalency of and went to Angelina College in Lufkin, Texas to earn her vocational nursing license. She was hired as a nurse at a DaVita dialysis clinic. She was hired despite a checkered employment history: at the time, she had been fired at least four times from healthcare jobs. One such firing came when her bosses at Woodland Heights Hospital caught her stealing Demerol (which was found in her handbag) and cheating on a urine test.

Saenz was married with two young children. She suffered from drug dependence and used stolen prescription medication.

Murders and investigation In the spring of 2008, DaVita's Lufkin clinic had an unusual spike in patients falling seriously ill during treatment. Emergency Medical Services had been called to the clinic 30 times in April, during the previous 15 months there had only been two such calls.

After two patients, Thelma Metcalf and Clara Strange, died of cardiac arrest on April 1, DaVita sent clinical coordinator Amy Clinton to the Lufkin clinic. Despite Clinton's presence, the problems continued. Paramedics, unnerved by the situation, passed their concerns on to their superiors at the Lufkin fire department. A department official secretly wrote to state health inspectors and asked them to investigate.

On April 28, 2008, with inspectors on site, two more patients (Marva Rhone and Carolyn Risinger) suffered severe drops in blood pressure. Patients Linda Hall and Lurlene Hamilton subsequently testified that they saw Saenz draw a bleach solution into two syringes, then inject the substance into Rhone and Risinger's dialysis lines. When Clinton confronted Saenz, Saenz said she was cleaning an unused dialysis machine, and used a syringe to get a precise measurement–a method that was contrary to DaVita corporate policy. The bucket Saenz was using, as well as the syringes, tested positive for bleach. Police were called in, and the clinic was shut down for two months. After several other syringes used by Saenz tested positive for bleach, she was fired the following day. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but on April 2, 2012, Saenz was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the five murders, plus three consecutive 20-year sentences, totalling sixty years, for aggravated assault.

District Attorney Clyde Herrington believed more victims existed than just the 10 indicted cases, based on CDC research. The CDC epidemiologist statistically connected Saenz to other adverse health events.

Saenz's defense team appealed to Twelfth Court of Appeal of Texas, but the appeal was denied.

Saenz, Texas Department of Criminal Justice #01775033, is serving her sentence at Patrick O'Daniel Unit (formerly Mountain View Unit) in Gatesville, Texas.