Two weeks ago, while under a peace bond that banned her from possessing insulin and visiting nursing homes, Elizabeth Wettlaufer sent an ominous series of texts to a longtime acquaintance.

Wettlaufer, who had told the acquaintance she was in a mental care facility, texted she might be going to jail because she killed eight people and she had told police.

“She said, ‘I am responsible for the deaths of eight people,’ ” said the acquaintance, a Woodstock woman who spoke on the condition she not be named. “I didn’t believe her for a minute.”

She knew Wettlaufer, 49, had experienced tough times and had suffered addiction and mental illness . . . but murder?

About a week and a half later, Wettlaufer texted again to say she was being “escorted back to Woodstock” by police, the acquaintance said.

The Woodstock woman assumed Wettlaufer made up the story. She even told a mutual acquaintance, expressing disbelief. It couldn’t be true, she thought. If someone confessed to eight killings, she certainly wouldn’t have access to her cellphone.

A day after news broke this week that police had charged Wettlaufer with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of nursing home residents in Woodstock and London, the Woodstock woman said she’s still rattled.

“When my friend sent me a link to the news (about the charges) I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” she said.

“Why didn’t I say something? I keep thinking I should have gone to police . . . but I really didn’t believe her,” she said. “The whole thing has me so sick.”

“It really rattles me, when I start to think about it,” she said.

She said she had known Wettlaufer, who doted on her dog and her parents, for years.

By Wednesday, as questions continued to swirl around the investigation — with families of the dead asking what led police to conclude their relatives had been killed, some more than eight years ago — reports surfaced that police had been tipped off by staff of a mental health centre in Toronto.

Officials from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) alerted Toronto police that Wettlaufer had shared information with hospital staff that caused them “concern,” a police source familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.

The source said once Toronto police received the information from the hospital, officers interviewed Wettlaufer and found out that the alleged crimes had occurred outside Toronto police’s jurisdiction.

That’s when Toronto police passed the information to the Ontario Provincial Police and police forces in Woodstock and London, said the source, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The investigation into the alleged murders was launched on Sept. 29. Wettlaufer was arrested on Monday and appeared in an Woodstock courthouse on Tuesday where she was remanded into custody.

The nursing home residents have been identified as James Silcox, 84, Maurice Granat, 84, Gladys Millard, 87, Helen Matheson, 95, Mary Zurawinski, 96, Helen Young, 90, Maureen Pickering, 79, Arpad Horvath, 75.

Lawyers for Wettlaufer could not immediately be reached for comment.

CAMH declined to comment, saying they do not disclose information about their clients due to patient confidentiality.

However, a peace bond Wettlaufer entered into earlier in the month required her to “continue any treatment for mental health” with any physician to whom she was referred by her family doctor or “representatives of CAMH.”

Wettlaufer was also not allowed to possess or consume alcohol and had to obey a curfew and reside in either her apartment or with her parents in Woodstock between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., except to attend alcoholics anonymous meetings, according to terms laid out in the peace bond.

Wettlaufer’s friend, Nancy Gilbert, told The Canadian Press that Wettlaufer had told her she recently completed her second stint in rehab in Toronto and seemed to be in good spirits.

A Facebook page for a Bethe Wettlaufer, whose photo, education and employment records match that of Elizabeth Wettlaufer, makes reference to what appears to be a struggle with substance abuse.

“My own voice called to me in the darkness. Others hands lifted me when I chose the light. One year ago today I woke up not dead. 365 days clean and sober,” says a post from September 2015.

While health-care professionals are generally bound by patient confidentiality requirements, they are obliged in some cases to contact police or other authorities without a patient’s consent, such as in cases where they believe a death is suspicious or other important interests are at stake.

Ontario law, for example, mandates that doctors must contact authorities if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a resident of a nursing or retirement home has suffered harm or is at risk of harm due to “improper or incompetent treatment or care, unlawful conduct, abuse or neglect.”

“Physicians have a legal and professional obligation to maintain the confidentiality of patient information,” Ontario’s doctor licensing body says. “There are circumstances, however, where physicians are either required or permitted to report particular events or clinical conditions to the appropriate government or regulatory agency.”

Wettlaufer is scheduled to appear in court by video on Nov. 2. None of the charges have been proven in court.

with files from Canadian Press