Colin Bouwer

Colin Bouwer is a South African-born doctor, who rose to become Head of Psychiatry at the University of Otago. He is serving a life sentence for the murder of his third wife Annette.^[1] His crime was dramatized in the TV movie Bloodlines, with Bouwer being portrayed by Mark Mitchinson.^[2][3] His son via a previous marriage, was also convicted of murder in 2003.^[4] His first wife was also convicted of helping their son cover up his crime.^[5] A Murder in Mind episode entitled 'Mercy' resembled the case.

Early life

Bouwer was born in 1950. He married his wife in 1981 and migrated to New Zealand with her and their children in 1997. He left South Africa, shortly after being declared an impaired doctor by the South African Health Professions Council due to a pethidine addiction.^[4] He later claimed he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and had been imprisoned for resisting apartheid.^[4] He was formerly the head of psychological medicine at Dunedin hospital.^[6][7]

Murder

Bouwer drugged his wife to emulate the symptoms of a tumour. He used a combination of sedatives and hypoglycaemia-inducing drugs obtained with forged prescriptions. Annette was subjected to months of medical tests, including an operation.^[8] She was declared dead on 5 January 2000.^[9]

Police investigation

Dr Andrew Bowers who had treated Anne refused to sign her death certificate without a post-mortem.^[6] Bouwer objected to a post-mortem but was overruled. He claimed that his wife was Jewish and therefore had to be buried within 48 hours of dying, but her funeral was conducted in an Anglican church. The Vicar was puzzled by Bouwer's behaviour and stated that the house seemed to have been disinfected.^[10] Significant levels of sedatives and insulin were found in her blood, and a further investigation showed they had been obtained via 11 forged prescriptions.^[11] Bouwer claimed he was suffering from cancer and depression and had obtained the drugs to commit suicide.

The police found a string of emails he had sent to hypoglycaemia experts, claiming he was a forensic psychiatrist. In particular he asked how likely an insulin injection was to be determined as the cause of death. ^[4]

The police established that Bouwer started having a relationship with Dr Anne Walshe. Within weeks of their relationship beginning, he began obtaining the forged prescriptions. Walshe was not suspected of being involved (or even being aware) of Bouwer's activities.^[4] Walshe claims she did not sleep with Bouwer until after Anne died. She believes he is innocent stating: "He did not murder his wife and he is not a cold, calculating murderer. He's a very gentle man." ^[10]

Trial

The prosecution argued he had killed his wife to obtain her life insurance and presented over 150 witnesses.^[12] His sister-in-law revealed that he claimed New Zealand was an ideal place to commit the perfect murder.^[13] Bouwer claimed he had undergone treatment for cancer in a South African hospital, however the doctors he had claimed had operated on him, testified that they had never met him. It was revealed also that Bouwer had previously told students, that injecting someone between the toes with insulin, was the perfect way of committing a murder.^[4] The jury took less than two hours to find him guilty (one of the fastest murder verdicts in history ^[14])and he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 13 years. This was increased to 15 years following an appeal by the crown.^[15] Bouwer's appeal was denied. He has since been described as a psychopath.^[1] His children asserted their belief that their mother committed suicide.^[16]

Release

On September 18, 2015, Bouwer was refused parole. He will have to serve at least another year before another parole hearing. At his parole hearing Bouwer changed his original defence, stating that his wife's death was assisted suicide and he had been advised against using this defence at his trial.^[17] If he is granted parole, he will be deported to South Africa.^[18] He declined to apply for parole in 2016, stating he was too ill to travel.^[19]

References