Number 9 Krista Szewczyk For seven years, leading up to her arrest
in 2018, Georgia woman Krista Szewczyk had been posing as a dentist in an illegal operation
ran alongside her husband, John, a former Paulding County sheriff’s deputy.
Szewczyk ran County Dental Providers, which claimed that it was a service organization
that didn’t practice dentistry but handled the business aspect while connecting dentists
and patients.
The issue was that, when dentists weren’t available, Szewczyk, who didn’t have the
required license, took it upon herself to do the work.
Not only that but she also wrote fraudulent prescriptions.
Dozens of accusers came forward, some with horrifying stories.
One of Szewczyk’s patients claimed to have developed a “tennis-ball-sized” infection
that required a trip to the hospital, after she’d extracted two of his teeth.
Another claimed that he had to glue his crown on every morning.
Because of her husband’s influence, Szewczyk was able to evade justice and carry on with
her illegal practices.
In December of 2018, the Szewczyks were indicted under Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations act.
The trial is ongoing and they face accusations in a 52-count criminal indictment.
Number 8 Jacobus van Nierop In April of 2016, Dutchman Jacobus van Nierop,
dubbed by the media as the “dentist of horror” was jailed for eight years, in France.
His practice had operated out of the small central town of Chateau-Chinon, where van
Nierop reportedly took pleasure in mutilating the mouths of roughly 120 patients.
One of them claimed that he’d “ruined her life” after filing her teeth down.
A pensioner stated van Nierop had left “flesh hanging everywhere” after an extraction.
Another patient was left gushing blood for three days after he’d pulled 8 of her teeth
in one sitting.
More of his horrendous practices, meant to deliberately inflict pain, included breaking
patients’ jaws, pulling out healthy teeth and leaving abscesses untreated.
After being questioned by the police, in 2013, the dentist had fled to a small town in New
Brunswick, Canada, from where he was eventually extradited on an international warrant.
At his trial, van Nierop, whose defense argued had psychological problems, admitted responsibility
while also claiming that he wasn’t interested in people and didn’t remember his patients’
names.
Number 7 Enrique Sanabria Gravier & Adriana Gutierrez Hoyos
In 2019, Florida couple Enrique Sanabria Gravier and his wife, Adriana Gutierrez Hoyos, were
arrested for running an illegal dental practice out of their garage.
The couple, both in their late 40s, had performed extractions, braces and crowns, for several
years.
Patients would wait in the living room prior to being escorted to the garage, where the
dentistry equipment was held.
The patients were reported as undocumented immigrants of Hispanic descent.
The only way to get an appointment was for potential patients to call Gravier, ask for
a cleaning in Spanish and say who recommended them.
The authorities received a tip about the illegal operation and, in February, an undercover
detective arrived at the address.
The practice, Enrique Dentistry, didn’t have medical insurance and hadn’t been paying
taxes.
The couple was arrested on charges of practicing dentistry without a license and conspiracy
to commit a felony.
Number 6 Clara Suarez Following their marriage, in 1992, dentist
Clara Suarez and her orthodontist husband, David Lynn Harris, owned and operated a chain
of offices.
Through their successful business, the Texas couple enjoyed an upscale home and lifestyle.
They raised three children; twin boys and Harris’ daughter from a previous marriage.
In 2002, Suarez, who at one point was named “Mrs. Colombia Houston”, came to suspect
that Harris was having an affair.
She hired a private investigator and, in July of 2002, was notified that her husband and
his former receptionist, Gail Bridges, were at a hotel together.
With her teenage stepdaughter, Lindsey, as a passenger in her Mercedes-Benz sedan, Suarez
went to the hotel to confront them.
She attacked Bridges and hotel employees escorted Suarez back to her car.
As the adulterous couple came out, Suarez fatally struck Harris with her Mercedes.
Her defense would later claim that she hadn’t seen him and a medical examiner stated that
there was only one conclusive tire mark on the body.
However, Lindsey and other eyewitnesses reported Suarez had run him over three times, which
supported the idea that she’d meant to harm him.
A video, recorded by the detective agency she’d hired to spy on Harris, showed her
circling the block three times but the victim’s body wasn’t clearly distinguishable in the
footage.
The defense was unable to prove Suarez had run Harris over only once.
She was found guilty of murder and given 20 years, the maximum sentence for a crime of
passion, which the jury deemed it to have been.
Number 5 Laurel Eich On May the 4th of 2021, deputies from Reno,
Nevada, responded to a burglar alarm at a dentist cabinet, on Sun Valley Boulevard,
where they found a broken back window and a disturbed cash drawer.
Over $20,000 in cash and checks was stolen.
The investigation led the authorities to 42-year-old Laurel Eich, who’d worked as a dental assistant
at the cabinet.
Following her arrest, on July the 14th, Eich made one gruesome revelation.
Even though she wasn’t a licensed dentist she, at one point, pulled 13 teeth from a
patient using anesthesia from the office.
She claimed to have performed the extractions “on her own time” but didn’t reveal
the patient’s identity.
Aside from performing surgery on another without a license, Eich was charged with burglary
of a business and grand larceny as well as three counts of violating probation and one
misdemeanor for conspiracy to commit burglary.
Number 4 Alberto Graupera In 2020, a complaint was registered with the
Florida Department of Health after Miami-based dentist Alberto Graupera left part of a hand
file inside a patient’s mouth.
The patient, only identified as J.V., had opted for a root canal, to try and save the
tooth, after Graupera had proposed extraction and an implant.
The patient became upset during the procedure and told the dentist he wanted a second opinion.
Graupera sealed the incomplete root canal but failed to notify J.V. that a piece of
hand file had broken off and was still inside.
An endodontist later found the fragment and J.V. informed the authorities but it’s unclear
what disciplinary action Graupera faced in the aftermath.
Number 3 Bert Franklin In July of 2016, Oklahoma woman Roxanne Randall
found her son, Lincoln, unresponsive and took him to a hospital.
The 19-month-old was in critical condition and had to be airlifted to a medical facility
in Tulsa.
His eyes were bleeding as a consequence of two skull fractures, which one doctor described
as the worst they’d ever seen.
The authorities had been informed as the injuries were deemed too severe to have occurred as
the result of a fall, and staff concluded they were consistent with abuse.
Lincoln would later be pronounced dead.
Bert Franklin, a respectable Tulsa dentist and a married father-of-four had secretly
started seeing Randall, a former patient at his practice, for over a year.
He’d deceived her that he was in the process of getting a divorce when they’d begun dating.
Franklin had spent the night at Randall’s home when her son had sustained the fatal
injuries.
Security footage, from a camera in the kitchen, would show Franklin coming down the stairs
with Lincoln in his arms, alert and awake.
He then walked out of view, but not completely.
He was captured kicking and throwing something in the living room.
Corresponding with his actions, Randall heard a loud thud and came downstairs, but was assured
by Franklin that it was just the dog and that everything was all right.
The camera then captured Franklin, carrying Lincoln’s limp body, back into the kitchen,
and casually grabbing a slice of pizza.
He was arrested, following inconsistencies in his police interview, and charged with
murder.
Oklahoma City investigators believed that Franklin had slammed Lincoln into the ground
or another hard surface, head first.
It was subsequently revealed that Franklin hated the boy’s biological father, whom
he’d threatened to skin and mutilate.
His hatred, as he confessed to friends, was exacerbated by Lincoln’s likeness to him.
With his murder trial fast approaching, there was evidence that Franklin had tried orchestrating
a hit on Randall, from prison, presumably suspecting she’d be able to incriminate
him.
He was found guilty of murder as well as of soliciting murder and sentenced to life without
parole.
It also emerged that his professional career was just as insidious as his personal life.
A number of patients revealed that it was actually Franklin’s dental assistant, Paige
Maples, who’d done most of their work.
She’d repaired at least one patient’s denture and also wrote prescriptions.
Maples pled guilty, in 2017, and received a suspended five-year sentence for unlawful
practice of dentistry, had to surrender her assistant permit and never work in dentistry
again.
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Number 2 Alexandria Pierce-Baddeley In 2021, out of pandemic-related fears, 29-year-old
Alexandria Pierce-Baddeley decided to treat a large abscess in her mouth herself.
Even though she didn’t have the proper medical training, her decision to act as her own dentist
proved fatal.
Pierce-Baddeley feared catching the covid-19 virus, due to previous medical conditions
that included pneumonia, sepsis and hepatitis.
She took pain medication and applied a turmeric paste to the affected area.
The mother-of-one inadvertently overdosed on painkillers which she’d taken with a
considerable amount of alcohol.
Pierce-Baddeley’s mother went to her home and found her lifeless body lying on the bed.
The night of her death, Pierce-Baddeley’s boyfriend had ended their relationship.
Hours before slipping into unconsciousness, she’d sent him a picture of her medication
saying ''In 20 minutes I won't be able to move.''
While it was initially suspected she’d taken her own life, the overdose was ultimately
deemed accidental, a fatal consequence of her treating the painful abscess on her own.
Number 1 Colin Howell On May the 19th of 1991, the bodies of Lesley
Howell and Trevor Buchanan, both in their early 30s, were found in Castlerock, Northern
Ireland, in a fume-filled car.
He was slumped in the front seat while she was in the back, clasping pictures of her
children, with headphones on that were playing religious songs.
Neither could be saved and the authorities concluded they’d agreed to take their own
lives after finding out their respective spouses were having an affair.
Lesley’s husband, Colin, had been secretly seeing Hazel Buchanan, a Sunday school teacher
who’d fallen for his charms as a lay preacher.
Colin was a dentist and, to avoid detection, they’d often consume the tryst at his office,
sometimes in the dental chair.
After their spouses’ deaths, they openly became a couple but it only lasted a few years
before they both remarried.
In 1998, Colin confessed to his second wife, that he’d killed Lesley as well as his mistress’
husband, but the woman didn’t inform the authorities when he threatened to take his
own life.
Colin had run a hosepipe from the exhaust of his car and stuck it into Lesley’s mouth
as she slept.
When she awoke, he suppressed her breathing with a cushion.
Trevor had already been drugged by Hazel, with tranquillizers crushed in a tuna sandwich,
when Colin arrived at their home, with his wife’s body in the trunk.
After a brief scuffle, he stuck the hosepipe into Trevor’s mouth as well, killing him.
He drove their bodies to a property owned by Lesley’s father, set the scene, and then
fled.
In the years that followed, Colin lost a fortune on a scam that tricked him, Yamashita’s
gold, an unconfirmed World War II treasure, had been found and needed to be extracted
out of tunnels in the Philippines.
Then his eldest son died in an accident.
A deeply religious man, he believed that God was punishing him and confessed the killings
to his church elders, who convinced him to go to the police.
In 2010, he pled guilty and was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison.
Dubbed by the media as the “Driller Killer”, he gave evidence condemning Hazel as well.
She claimed to have been acting under duress and that Colin “had all the power” but
was ultimately sentenced to a minimum of 18 years.
In May of 2011, Colin also pled guilty to indecently assaulting nine female patients,
while they were sedated in his dental chair.
Thanks for watching!
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pulled out with no anesthesia?
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