A nurse who was living openly in Ireland while wanted for murder in Florida has been captured in Senegal in West Africa.
Oliver O'Quinn, wanted for allegedly lethally injecting a woman with whom he was infatuated, fled Ireland after an article about his case appeared in The Irish Times last April.
Michael Douglas, a detective with the Gainesville police in Florida, said yesterday that he was glad that Mr O'Quinn had fled Ireland after Florida prosecutors had experienced long delays in the extradition process in Ireland. "Fortunately, the US has very good relations with Senegal and the Senegalese are anxious to return Ollie home," he said.
Mr O'Quinn was captured by Senegalese police on Friday and is in custody while awaiting removal to the US. Det Douglas said that Mr O'Quinn was located after US authorities monitored his flight details.
Gardaí had known for months that Mr O'Quinn was living in Dublin but were unable to arrest him because of delays in the extradition process. Mr O'Quinn lived at a youth hostel in Dublin before finding a room close to the city centre. He had been using a city-centre cafe to send e-mails to his family in Tennessee.
He tried to join the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) after fleeing to Dublin on December 27th last, but the INO was alerted by Det Douglas.
Mr O'Quinn (27) has been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly injecting a lethal drug into Gainesville student Michelle Herndon (24), after promising he was giving her a drug to cure migraine.
Police claim he became angry with Ms Herndon after she announced her engagement and allege that he first tried to lure Ms Herndon to New York before calling to her home.
Autopsy results showed Ms Herndon died of a lethal dose of an anaesthetic used at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where Mr O'Quinn worked. According to prosecutors, she allowed Mr O'Quinn to give her a mild migraine injection, not knowing that she was being injected with a powerful anaesthetic, police allege.
The US department of justice's extradition section expressed frustration with the slow pace of the Irish extradition system after Mr O'Quinn arrived in Ireland last year.