A respiratory therapist working at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, California recently confessed to killing between 40 and 50 elderly patients. The therapist administered large doses of muscle-relaxants that caused patients to suffer respiratory arrest. At one point, Saldivar is said to have called himself the "angel of death."

According to Glendale police, during an interrogation on March 11, 1998 Saldivar confessed to killing the patients. Saldivar later recanted his confession. As part of the ongoing investigation, police have exhumed 20 bodies to test for traces of the muscle relaxants allegedly administered by Saldivar.