Murderer Colin Bouwer
Bouwer was born in 1950. In 1981, he married his third wife, Annette, and in 1997, they moved to New Zealand with their children. He left South Africa shortly after being declared an “unqualified” doctor by the South African Health Professions Council due to a pethidine addiction. He claimed to be a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and imprisoned for resisting apartheid, although these claims later surfaced as untrue. After moving to New Zealand, he became the head of psychological medicine at Dunedin Hospital.
Bouwer drugged his wife to simulate the symptoms of an illness. He used a combination of sedatives and hypoglycemia inducing drugs obtained with forged prescriptions. Annette underwent months of medical tests, including surgery. She was declared dead on January 5, 2000.
Dr Andrew Bowers, who treated Annette, refused to sign her death certificate without a post-mortem examination. Bouwer objected to a post-mortem examination, claiming that his wife was Jewish and therefore had to be buried within 48 hours of her death. However, her funeral was held in an Anglican church. The priest was surprised by Bouwer’s behaviour, noting that the house seemed sanitized. Significant levels of sedatives and insulin were found in her blood, and further investigation revealed they were obtained through 11 forged prescriptions. Bouwer claimed to suffer from cancer and depression and obtained the drugs to help her take her own life through suicide.
Police found a series of email inquiries he sent to hypoglycaemia experts, claiming to be a forensic psychiatrist. In particular, he asked how likely an insulin injection would be determined as the cause of death.
The police determined that Bouwer had a relationship with Dr Anne Walshe.
Within weeks of their relationship starting, he began obtaining forged prescriptions. Walshe was not suspected of being involved (or even aware) of Bouwer’s activities. Walshe claimed she only slept with Bouwer after Annette’s death and believed he was innocent, saying, “He did not murder his wife, and he is not a cold, calculated murderer. He is a very gentle man.” His children also asserted their belief that their mother died by suicide.
The prosecutor argued that Bouwer murdered his wife to obtain her life insurance and presented more than 150 witnesses. His sister-in-law revealed that he claimed New Zealand was an ideal place to commit the perfect murder. Bouwer claimed to have undergone cancer treatment in a South African hospital; however, the doctors he claimed operated on him testified that they had never met him. It also emerged that Bouwer told students that injecting someone between the toes with insulin was the perfect way to commit murder. On November 19, 2001, the jury took less than two hours to find him guilty (then one of the fastest murder verdicts in years), and he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 13 years. The sentence was increased to 15 years after an appeal by the Crown. Bouwer’s appeal was denied. He has since been described as a psychopath.
On September 18, 2015, Bouwer’s parole was denied, and he had to serve at least another year. During his parole hearing, Bouwer changed his original defence, stating that he assisted his wife in her suicide, contrary to advice not to use this defence during his trial. Although he indicated his intention to apply for parole again the following year, his attorney said that his poor health prevented it. At the end of 2016, he requested that the Minister of Immigration, Craig Foss, intervene and cancel his deportation order, but Foss refused. In 2017, Bouwer was released on parole and deported to South Africa. In 2018 Bouwer died of natural causes.
