Issue 34: Dr John Schneeberger

‘Do no harm,’ the most common part of the Hippocratic Oath, regardless of whether you are a physician or not. Named after Hippocrates who established the foundations of modern medicine. Along with creating this oath he created many words that are used today in medicine; symptoms, diagnosis, therapy and trauma, just to name a few. Above all what set him apart was that he valued reason, observation and medical prediction. All these values today are still held in high esteem by the profession. Unfortunately, there are some cases where people use their position as a trusted professional to take advantage of those who trust them.

Dr John Schneeberger was born in Northern Rhodesia in 1961, at the time this state was under the legal protection of Southern Africa more commonly referred to as a protectorate. Today we know this area as the country of Zambia.

Image from Forensic Tales

Not a lot is known about his life; however we know that at the time the first crime was perpetrated he resided in Kipling, Saskatchewan and was employed at the Kipling Medical Centre.

On 31 October 1992 he sedated one of his female patients, Candice, with a drug called Midazolam, more commonly referred to as Versed. The symptoms include;

• headache

• drowsiness

• nausea

• vomiting

• hiccups

• coughing

• pain, redness, or hardening of the skin at the injection site

• amnesia

Dr Schneeberger’s hope that Candice would not remember the assault were short lived, she had remembered the whole thing and reported it to police. John was not fazed, as he had already got a plan hatched that would help him evade capture.

John was asked to give a sample of his DNA, in this case blood for testing. Schneeberger willingly complied. Confusion; however, was Candice’s response when the blood sample was found not to match the samples of the detected semen. This meant that (for now) he was cleared of suspicion. In 1993, at the victim's request, the test was repeated but the result was negative as well. In 1994 the case was closed.

As a last resort the family employed a private investigator. Though he illegally obtained a cigarette butt that, once tested, would in fact match the doctor’s, it would be thrown out in court because it was illegally obtained. As a result, a third official test was organised. The obtained blood sample was found too small and of too poor quality to be useful for analysis. There seemed like there would be nothing that could be done.

Then in 1997 John’s wife, Lisa Schneeberger, discovered her husbands other aweful secret. John had repeatedly drugged and sexually assaulted her daughter. Lisa, had been previously married and had a 15-year old daughter that was living with them.

A fourth DNA test was ordered by police. It was this time that luck would run out for the doctor. This time it wasn’t just blood that was taken, but also hair and saliva samples as well. They all came back as a match for the seamen that was left on the daughters underwear. He was charged with sexual assault, administering a noxious substance, obstruction of justice.

It was during the trial in 1999 that the truth about the three negative tests came to light. The doctor had implanted a 15cm penrose drain into his arm. A penrose drain is a soft, flexible rubber tube that drains fluid away from a wound. Within that drain John had used another patients blood and antibodies as supplements for his own. By providing the wrong blood sample he was hiding his true identity. Over time the sample had dried up which led to the sample being unusable by the request for the third blood test. Each time John had unwittingly guided the nurses to get the blood right from the sample implanted in his arm.

John Schneeberger was found guilty on all charges. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan stripped him of his medical license. He was sentenced to 6 years in goal, though he was paroled after 4 years. Though a free man, things did not get better for him. His second wife divorced him and all reported him to the Canadian Immigrant Authorities. In December 2003 he was stripped of his Canadian citizenship due to obtaining it illegally - he had lied to the citizenship judge and said he wasn't the subject of a police investigation. As well as being stripped of citizenship they ordered him to be deported. In July 2004 he returned to South Africa to live with his mother.