MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A poison specialist and former medical resident at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is charged with fatally poisoning his spouse, a 32-year-old pharmacist who died days after she went to a hospital in August with abdomen misery.
Authorities say Connor Bowman, 30, tried to cease the post-mortem on his spouse, Betty Bowman — arguing she needs to be cremated instantly and claiming she had a uncommon sickness, which hospital checks didn’t affirm.
The health worker’s workplace halted the order for cremation, citing suspicious circumstances, in accordance with a legal criticism, and an post-mortem confirmed Betty Bowman died from poisonous results of colchicine, a medication used to deal with gout.
Medical data point out she was not identified with gout and had not been prescribed the drugs, the criticism states, including that Connor Bowman had been researching the drug previous to his spouse’s loss of life.
Six days earlier than she was hospitalized, he had additionally transformed his spouse’s weight to kilograms and multiplied that by 0.8 — with 0.8 mg/kg thought of to be the deadly dosage charge for colchicine, in accordance with the criticism.
Connor Bowman was charged Monday with second-degree homicide. He was arrested Friday and was nonetheless in custody as of Tuesday. His legal professional didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from The Related Press.
Mayo Clinic spokesperson Amanda Dyslin launched a press release Tuesday that didn’t determine Bowman by identify, however indicated he was a resident on the hospital.
“We’re conscious of the latest arrest of a former Mayo Clinic resident on expenses unrelated to his Mayo Clinic obligations. The resident’s coaching at Mayo Clinic ended earlier this month,” the assertion stated. Dyslin didn’t say why Connor Bowman’s coaching at Mayo Clinic ended.
Betty Bowman was additionally a pharmacist at Mayo Clinic.
In accordance with the legal criticism, the Southeast Minnesota Medical Examiner’s Workplace alerted police to the “suspicious loss of life” of Betty Bowman on Aug. 21, a day after she died.
She had been admitted to a hospital in Rochester on Aug. 16 with “extreme gastrointestinal misery and dehydration the place her situation deteriorated quickly,” the criticism stated. Her preliminary signs had been much like meals poisoning and had been handled that means, however they continued to worsen. She skilled cardiac points, fluid in her lungs and organ failure.
Whereas Betty Bowman was within the hospital, Connor Bowman urged she was affected by a uncommon sickness known as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH. Hospital checks got here again inconclusive for HLH, however Connor Bowman instructed a number of those who she died from that illness, in accordance with the criticism.
He additionally instructed the health worker’s workplace that Betty Bowman’s loss of life was pure and that she “didn’t need to be a cadaver,” and subsequently, the post-mortem needs to be canceled, the criticism stated. He requested an investigator on the health worker’s workplace if the toxicology evaluation could be extra thorough than the evaluation carried out on the hospital.
The night time earlier than Betty Bowman went to the hospital, she instructed a person — recognized as SS within the criticism — that she was ingesting at residence with Connor Bowman. The subsequent morning, she instructed SS she was sick, probably from a drink that was combined into a big smoothie.
Connor Bowman was a poison specialist and answered calls about poisons, utilizing gadgets from the College of Kansas for his work, in accordance with the criticism. A lady from the College of Kansas instructed investigators that Connor Bowman had been researching colchicine, the drug used to deal with gout, although he had not obtained any calls about colchicine, nor had some other staff.
Investigators discovered that Connor Bowman had searched “web searching historical past: can or not it’s utilized in courtroom?” and “delete amazon information police” on Aug. 5. He did calculations that match the deadly dosage charge for colchicine on Aug. 10.
The Minnesota Division of Well being discovered colchicine in Betty Bowman’s blood and urine samples that had been taken on the hospital, and the health worker decided the reason for loss of life to be poisonous results of colchicine, the criticism says.
One lady instructed investigators that the Bowmans had been speaking about divorce, and one other instructed authorities that Connor Bowman stated he was going to get $500,000 in life insurance coverage from his spouse’s loss of life, the criticism says. Authorities discovered a receipt for a $450,000 financial institution deposit inside his residence.
He’s scheduled to look in courtroom on Nov. 1.
Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on under-covered points.
