A former Mayo Clinic resident who was arrested in October 2023 and accused of killing his wife by poisoning her drink has been indicted by a Minnesota grand jury, authorities said.
An Olmsted grand jury indicted Connor Bowman, 30, on Jan. 4 for first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree first-degree murder, the Olmsted County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Bowman was initially charged with second-degree murder after his arrest on Oct. 20, 2023. If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Bowman “will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,” the Olmsted County District Attorney’s Office said.
Bowman, a medical student who also worked as an on-call poison specialist for the University of Kansas, is accused of using liquid colchicine to poison his wife, Betty Bowman, last August, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by PEOPLE.
The National Library of Medicine says the substance is used to treat gout, but can be fatal if administered in high doses — anything over 0.5 mg/kg.
Poison expert charged in wife’s fatal poisoning — as police uncover alleged web searches
Betty was hospitalized on Aug. 16, 2023, with symptoms reminiscent of food poisoning, according to the complaint. She was admitted with severe gastrointestinal distress and dehydration, and her condition “precipitously deteriorated,” according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Betty told a friend that she thought her illness was caused by a smoothie she drank the night before while drinking at home with her husband. Four days later, on Aug. 20, 2023, she died “following a sudden autoimmune and infectious illness,” according to an online obituary, a cause of death that authorities say in the lawsuit involved Connor.
The lawsuit says Connor allegedly suggested to doctors that his wife suffered from hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare autoimmune disease in which white blood cells attack other blood cells and can cause multiple organ failure, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. However, tests for HLH gave inconclusive results.
After Betty’s death, her husband allegedly asked the medical examiner’s office to have her cremated immediately, claiming her death was natural, according to the complaint. Connor also reportedly tried to cancel the autopsy, saying his wife didn’t want to be a corpse, and asked the coroner if the toxicology tests would be more thorough than those usually done at a hospital. The lawsuit goes on to say that Connor also asked for a list of what Betty would specifically be tested for.
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Connor was arrested two months later in connection with his wife’s death. He allegedly conducted Internet searches to determine Betty’s weight in milligrams and then multiplied that by 08.mg before purchasing the drug online, the lawsuit alleges. Authorities say he also accessed his wife’s medical records while she was in the hospital using his hospital credentials.
In late September 2023, police searched Connor’s home and seized a University of Kansas laptop. His Internet searches allegedly turned up inquiries to buy substances five days before Betty’s death, as well as inquiries about whether Internet searches could be used in court and about deleting Amazon data, the lawsuit alleges.
Betty’s toxicology results, taken while she was hospitalized on August 17, 2023, showed that her blood colchicine level was 29 ng/mL, measured about 24 hours after she began showing the symptoms that sent her to the hospital , according to the complaint. Her medical records did not show that she had been diagnosed with gout or HLH.
The pathologist ultimately determined that the cause of Betty’s death was the toxic effects of colchicine and that the manner of death was homicide, the complaint states. At the time of Connor’s arrest in October 2023, authorities searched his home again and reportedly found a $450,000 bank deposit receipt.
According to the complaint, Betty allegedly told others that Connor was in debt, so they had separate bank accounts. At one point, Connor allegedly told the woman who spoke to police, identified in the lawsuit as SEL, that she suffered from HLH and that he would receive $500,000 in life insurance as a result of her death.
Authorities said in the complaint that another witness claimed the couple had marital problems and discussed divorce after infidelity.
A GoFundMe page organized by Sarah Leeser remembered Betty as “a light to so many people.” Leeser is raising funds for Betty’s mother, Nancy Sponsel, to help with memorial costs, legal fees and other bills, according to the GoFundMe description.
“I would like to sincerely thank everyone for their generous support on the GoFundMe page,” Sponsel wrote in an Oct. 27 update. “The donations have been overwhelming and I feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful people.”
“This has exceeded more than I could have ever imagined,” added the grieving mother. “I want to thank everyone again for your generosity. Betty was an amazing person and we miss her very much.” The fundraiser has raised more than $13,000 in donations since January 8.
Connor is expected to be arraigned on Jan. 16, according to the Olmsted County Prosecutor’s Office. In a statement shared with PEOPLE last October, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota said Connor was a former resident of the facility.
“We are aware of the recent arrest of a former Mayo Clinic resident on charges unrelated to his Mayo Clinic responsibilities,” the statement said. “Resident training at the Mayo Clinic ended earlier this month.”
It is not clear whether Connor has retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
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