Charles Cullen and Cathy Westerfer’s romantic and cohabiting relationship

Charles Cullen and Catherine Westerfer’s romantic and cohabiting relationship began at Sacred Heart Hospital, where both were newly hired night-shift nurses. They started dating within a week of meeting, and a few months later Cullen moved into Westerfer’s rented house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The relationship gave him a domestic foothold after another abrupt dismissal, but the book also shows him becoming bored with Westerfer and her two teenage sons.

Meeting at Sacred Heart

Cullen’s move to Sacred Heart followed his departure from Saint Luke’s Hospital. He was able to give a truthful employment history and relied on Saint Luke’s neutral references, while administrators there were privately warning colleagues at other hospitals. At Sacred Heart, he quickly liked his coworkers, especially Westerfer, a young, single mother who was also new to the night shift. Their courtship began almost immediately: they were dating before Cullen had been at the hospital for a week.

The relationship’s early turn came two weeks later, when Cullen received the familiar instruction not to return for shifts. Westerfer felt sorry for her new boyfriend. The book presents the speed of his arrival and departure as lending the episode a romantic cast; it does not describe her as knowing the reasons behind his dismissal. For Cullen, losing the job did not end the connection. A few months later, he loaded his Ford Escort and moved into her rented house.

A Shared Household in Bethlehem

Westerfer’s home was a cozy Cape in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, decorated with small seasonal knickknacks: red paper hearts, singing jack-o’-lanterns, or accordion turkeys. Cullen liked being there, though the account qualifies that comfort: he was growing bored with Westerfer and her two teenage sons, yet still liked the house well enough. The distinction captures an uneven domestic attachment rather than an uncomplicated romance.

The small plot behind the house was one of its particular attractions. On warm days Cullen puttered in the garden, pinching off dead flower heads and staking tomato plants. His life there also included long stretches on Westerfer’s couch, flicking through television channels. These ordinary domestic details establish what cohabitation meant in practice: not a dramatic transformation, but a place to stay, a garden to tend, and a shared household whose daily company could also weary him.

Work, Routine, and the Limits of the Record

By October 2003, Cullen was commuting from Westerfer’s home to Somerset Medical Center. The drive took forty-five minutes each way, and he valued it as time alone with thoughts he could not discuss. The house was therefore both his residence and the starting point of a work routine that carried him across the state line toward another hospital job.

Cullen’s account of their relationship sits beside a wider pattern of instability in his working life: repeated departures from hospitals had not erased his nursing licenses, and he continued to find work. Westerfer’s sympathy after Sacred Heart dismissed him and his later move into her home are concrete parts of that pattern, but the evidence does not establish that she knew about the suspicions circulating among hospital staff. Nor does it describe how or when their cohabitation ended. The relationship is presented through its swift beginning, the practical intimacy of a shared home, and Cullen’s mixed response to the people and routines within it.