KINDERGARTEN ‘KILLER’

Fears nursery teacher, 25, is killing kids as she’s arrested for murder of girl, 3, & cops investigate other ‘incidents’

COPS fear a nursery school teacher who has been arrested for the death of a three-year-old girl has 'killed other children'.

After the 25-year-old was detained, police in Germany widened their investigation to take in the near deaths of other children at kindergartens where she previously worked.

The young victim, named as Greta, died from respiratory failure, it has been reported.

The woman, known only as Sandra M under Germany’s strict laws protecting the names of suspects, worked at a kindergarten in the western town of Viersen near Düsseldorf.

Greta was having a nap on April 21 on her own because of coronavirus social distancing measures and was being supervised by Sandra M, Bild reports.

She said that at 2.45pm she couldn’t detect any breathing and colleagues were unable to resuscitate Greta - but she went into a coma and died on May 4.

After her death toys and tributes were left at the Steinkreis nursery for Greta, described by her heartbroken mum as "fun loving".

A post-mortem examination found and according to lead investigator Guido Rosskamp she died of “serious brain damage caused by massive lack of oxygen” which is usually associated with violence.

Sandra M was arrested on May 19 and so far not spoken about what happened.

Investigators are now looking at three other incidents, going back to 2017, when she started a one-year internship in at a kindergarten in Krefeld.

After a few days, her experienced colleagues noticed that she was apparently not suitable for the job.

Sandra M. had been monitoring children who were having a nap but after about half an hour came out and said there was something wrong with a three-year-old boy.

According to Bild, colleagues who rushed to help found unresponsive, with his arms and legs hanging limply and his eyes were rolled upwards.

After being treated at hospital the boy was scared of returning to school and his mother said the “joy” only returned to her son when Sandra M. left the school, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Sandra M. then moved to a kindergarten in Kempen in 2018 where a similar incident occurred, in which a two-year-old was found to be short of breath several times and need hospital treatment.

The third incident being investigated happened at a daycare centre in Tönisvorst in October 2019.

A two-year-old girl, alone at a nappy changing station with Sandra M, stopped breathing and is reported to have her father that a woman pressed her hand firmly on her chest.

Rosskamp said police probing the three other kindergartens where Sandra M worked found "to their horror that there were similar incidents" at each of them.

Asked about the suspect, her previous employers or colleagues have wondered "why such a person who lacks empathy with children would want to take on such a job," he said.

It  has also emerged she told police she had been attacked in a forest by a man who slashed her face with a knife.

The wounds were, however, self-inflicted and she was advised to seek psychiatric help.