A Minnesota doctor who worked at a poison control center was charged this week with the poisoning death of his wife, who died from a fatal dose of drugs. Colchicine, a highly toxic gout drug.
Connor Bowman, 30, was arrested last Friday. He will be charged with second-degree murder on Monday. Betty Bowman, 32, who worked as a pharmacist at the Mayo Clinic, has died.
During the investigation following her suspicious death on August 20, police learned that the two had been having marital problems, including a deteriorating relationship and an affair, and were discussing divorce. They also learned that Connor Bowman was in debt and intended to obtain a $500,000 life insurance policy when his wife died.
Connor Bowman initially claimed that Betty died of a rare hyperinflammatory disease called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), but tests for the unusual disease were inconclusive and officials said He told police that Betty had previously been in good health before rapidly deteriorating.
On August 21, the day after Betty’s death, the coroner’s office deemed the death suspicious and notified the Rochester, Minnesota police. Connor Bowman told the coroner’s office that Betty should be cremated immediately and tried to stop the planned autopsy. When it wasn’t stopped, he became suspicious of the toxicology tests being done and emailed a death investigator asking for a list of all those tested.
Toxicology tests performed as part of the autopsy revealed very high levels of colchicine in her blood and gout drugs in her urine. Betty had not been diagnosed with her gout, and no doctor had prescribed her colchicine. In retrospect, her death is a classic case of colchicine poisoning.
Drugs with a “dark side”
Colchicine is a centuries-old treatment. gout– A type of arthritis in which high levels of uric acid in the blood cause needle-like crystals to form around the joints, causing severe, painful inflammation. Colchicine, two flowering plants (colchicum autumntail and Gloriosa superba), has a weak anti-inflammatory effect and is effective for gout. But it’s surprisingly toxic. And despite years of use, the line between non-toxic and toxic doses remains unclear.
The reason is that colchicine’s action is fundamentally destructive. This drug binds to the intracellular protein tubulin, preventing the formation of microtubules, an important structural component of cells. The microtubule network is required for separating chromosomes during mitosis, among many other functions. Thus, in sufficient doses, this drug stops all cell division, impairs protein assembly, reduces endocytosis and exocytosis, changes cell shape, and reduces cell motility. .
Colchicine is rapidly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and equally rapidly distributed to all tissues in the body. Therefore, at toxic doses, the damage is systemic. The downstream effects of disrupted microtubule function then lead to multiple organ failure.
