Will former Mayo Clinic doctor face first-degree murder charges?

Oct. 24—ROCHESTER — Connor Fitzgerald Bowman is charged with felony second-degree murder and prosecutors accuse him of poisoning his wife, a local pharmacist. He is currently

being held on $2 million conditional bail

in the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center.

His charges state that the act was not premeditated but readers could be forgiven for not understanding why that is, considering the criminal complaint lists weeks of internet searches the drug colchicine and others related to hiding information from police on the laptop before Betty Bowman died.

The Post Bulletin reached out to Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostem after readers (and the Post Bulletin) wondered why Bowman is not facing first-degree murder charges.

"It's a complex investigation," Ostrem told the Post Bulletin. There is a mountain of evidence his office still needs to process and that still needs to be given to Bowman's attorney, Michael Schatz.

Ostrem would not confirm nor deny if his office will seek first-degree murder charges against Bowman.

When a life sentence can be imposed following a conviction, that charging decision must go to a grand jury for approval, Ostrem said.

It is his office policy for that information not to be telegraphed to the entire community or the criminal justice system. If his office charges someone with first-degree murder, the office has 14 days before convening a grand jury, he said.

"We need to maintain control of the proceedings and control of our case," he said. "Many times in those cases where we think a life sentence is appropriate and in particular when it involves a homicide premeditation, that's a very complex element to prove and we need to have our ducks in a row."

Bowman is accused of poisoning his wife, Betty Bowman, earlier this year with colchicine, a drug used to treat gout.

Several witnesses came forward to authorities following her death, which Connor Bowman blamed on an auto-immune disease that his wife did not have. Bowman also attempted to stop an autopsy of his wife, prosecutors say.

The University of Kansas, where Connor Bowman was working as a researcher, notified authorities that he had made suspicious searches regarding colchicine on a work computer. He had no reason to search for the drug, the university told police.

Betty Bowman died on Aug. 20 after she went to an emergency room days earlier complaining of diarrhea and dehydration. She told a friend that she had been drinking with her husband the night before she went to the hospital and that a smoothie he gave her made her sick.

Connor Bowman's internet searches listed in the criminal complaint suggest he bought a liquid form of the drug.

"Unfortunately, there are things like this that happen that we sometimes say 'Gosh, that doesn't happen here,' Ostrem said. "This is one of these complaints that is just beyond what we normally expect happens in our town."

The Mayo Clinic declined to confirm or deny if there were any complaints against Bowman while he was doing his residency there.

"The charges are unrelated to his Mayo Clinic responsibilities. We have nothing further to share," Mayo Clinic spokesperson Amanda Dyslin told the Post Bulletin.

The couple lived in Rochester, where Betty worked as a hospital pharmacist while Connor went through an internal medicine residency. Both worked at Mayo Clinic.

A

former coworker of Betty's described her as smart and funny.

"She (was) smart, experienced, she's hard-working and just a really good asset to Mayo," he told the Post Bulletin. "And also, she was just really really nice."

A

GoFundMe account

has been set up for the family to pay for transportation costs to and from Rochester. As of Tuesday evening, $4,800 has been raised.