Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is presented as the setting of Charles Cullen’s private residence and a consequential step in the investigation into him. When police searched his home and car, the familiar domestic space became an investigative site, but the search yielded no drug evidence stronger than ordinary cold medicine.

Home and Investigation

While investigators were questioning Cullen elsewhere, another team went to his home in Bethlehem. They served a warrant at the front door on his girlfriend, Catherine Westerfer, then spent three hours searching the house and car. Their principal aim was to find controlled substances Cullen might have stolen from a hospital.

The search extended the inquiry from hospital records and allegations to Cullen’s personal space and possessions. Its duration and focus made the stakes plain: investigators were looking for physical evidence that could connect suspected drug access to his life outside the hospitals.

What the Search Found

The investigators recovered one blister pack of pills, a bottle of CVS allergy medication, and a bottle of ibuprofen. They emptied the containers, counted and photographed the pills, and bagged them for storage at the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office evidence facility. Analysis found nothing stronger than cold medicine.

That result left the search without the controlled drugs investigators had chiefly sought. Bethlehem therefore marks both an escalation—the warrant reached Cullen’s home and car—and a limit: the items collected there did not supply the expected chemical evidence.

Place in the Narrative

The search gives Bethlehem a specific but concentrated role in the book: it is where investigators test their suspicions against Cullen’s possessions. The contrast between the hours spent searching and the innocuous result sharpens the case’s dependence on other kinds of evidence, including the hospital-related information investigators were pursuing. Bethlehem is not developed as a broad portrait of the city; its significance rests on the brief passage from private residence to searched scene, and on what the search failed to establish.