A former Mayo Clinic medical resident charged with poisoning his wife allegedly started calling himself a widower before she died.
Connor Bowman, 30, allegedly searched for the gender-neutral version of “widow” two days before his wife, Betty, died, according to search warrants obtained by ABC 6 News. The warrant also stated that witnesses had said Bowman was referring to himself as a widower before Betty died.
“There were numerous google searches of evidentiary value, including one on [August 18, 2023], two days before Betty died,” the Olmsted County (Minnesota) search warrant said, referring to Bowman’s cellphone that was collected during the search. “The searches were ‘is widow.gende’ [sic] and ‘is widow gender neutral.’ These searches, and other conversations identified so far appeared consistent with the statements provided by witnesses during the investigation, that Connor was identifying himself as a widower, even before Betty died.”
Other search warrants found that Bowman was matching with women on dating apps not long after Betty died. One woman matched with him on August 29, 2023, nine days after Betty died. This woman told law enforcement that Bowman mentioned the large life insurance payout from his wife’s death.
A second woman told police, according to search warrants, that Bowman implied his wife had died as a result of a morphine overdose a year before they matched on the dating app. And a third woman said Bowman told her that his wife may have died of listeria poisoning. Bowman also allegedly told that woman that Betty had died earlier that summer, and she confronted him when she learned Betty had only died two and a half weeks before they matched on the dating app.
Betty, a 32-year-old pharmacist, died on August 20, 2023, after she was admitted to the Mayo Clinic’s St. Mary’s Hospital complaining of stomach pain, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported. At first, Betty’s symptoms mimicked food poisoning, but her condition worsened in the hospital, with fluid building up in her lungs and heart problems. She also had part of her colon removed. Four days after being admitted, she died due to organ failure.
Bowman immediately pushed to have his wife cremated and tried to keep the Southeast Medical Examiner’s Office from performing an autopsy. The ME’s office contacted the Rochester Police Department to report that Betty’s death was suspicious, CBS News reported. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the office, the ME’s office told the police about Bowman trying to stop the autopsy, claiming his wife “didn’t want to be a cadaver.” Bowman also allegedly contacted a death investigator to ask about the toxicology analysis on his wife.
Staff at the hospital where Bowman worked and Betty’s friends reportedly told investigators that Bowman claimed his wife died from the rare condition hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and even claimed it as the cause of her death in her obituary. However, a friend of Betty’s told investigators that Betty was “a healthy person” and that her marriage was ending due to infidelity and other issues. This friend reportedly told investigators that Bowman and Betty had separate bank accounts because of Bowman’s medical school debts. The friend also said Bowman told them he would collect a $500,000 life insurance policy on Betty.
A man who knew Betty told investigators that, days before she died, Betty had texted him to say she had been drinking with Bowman. The next morning, Betty texted the man that she was sick and blamed a smoothie.
Investigators began looking into Bowman after Betty’s death, focusing on his online history. They found that Bowman checked Betty’s e-health records in the week or so after she died. Bowman also had access to her medical records without needing to enter his credentials, CBS reported.
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Bowman, who worked as a specialist fielding poison-control-related phone calls at the time of his wife’s death, was found to have been searching for information about the gout treatment colchicine and sodium nitrate in the days before Betty died. He allegedly used his work devices for those searches, as well as searches about whether internet histories could be used in court, if police could track package deliveries, as well as the search terms “delete amazon data police,” according to CBS.
Bowman also allegedly used an online tool to convert Betty’s weight into milligrams and then multiply that number by 0.8, which is the lethal dosage for colchicine.
Betty’s toxicology report found colchicine in her system, and Bowman was arrested.
If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.