Category: Age: Adult

Age 30-59

Annette Bouwer

Photo of Annette Bouwer, a middle-aged woman with light, tanned skin and short, silver-gray hair.Name: Annette Bouwer.
Died: January 5, 2000.
Age at death: 47.
Cause of death: Sedative and insulin poisoning.
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand.
Disability: Chronic kidney disease.

Details:
Annette was poisoned with sedatives and insulin by her husband, who had just taken out a life insurance policy on her.

Case status:
Colin Bouwer (Husband), convicted of murder, sentenced to 15 years to life, paroled after sixteen years.

Source:
Colin Bouwer
Colin Bouwer remains defiant over wife’s murder
Poison murderer Colin Bouwer: ‘I’m a changed man’
Psychiatrist who poisoned wife to be with lover died after being deported

James Cummings Jr.

No PhotoName: James Joseph Cummings Jr.
Died: November 16, 1999.
Age at death: 46.
Cause of death: Stabbed.
Location: Red Bank, New Jersey, USA.
Disability: Autism; Stroke.

Details:
James was stabbed to death by his father, who went to the care facility where he was staying and killed him with a kitchen knife to the heart.

Case status:
James Cummings Sr. (Father). Sentenced to five years in prison.

Source:
Autism Memorial: James Joseph Cummings Jr.
Father Admits Killing Autistic Son

Jillian Thomas

Photo of Jillian Thomas. She is a woman with ruddy skin and short brown curly hair, wearing a white blouse and earrings.Name: Jillian Thomas.
Died: October 4, 1999.
Age at death: 45.
Cause of death: Unspecified; possibly fire.
Location: Canterbury, New Zealand.
Disability: Multiple sclerosis.

Details:
Having found a new girlfriend, Jillian’s husband killed or incapacitated her before putting her body into the family car and setting it on fire.

Jillian had a Master’s degree in English and a teaching certificate; she worked for years teaching English and French.

Case status:
Kevin Harmer (Husband), convicted of murder, out on parole after 14 years in prison.

Source:
A killer in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens
Canterbury man jailed for burning his wife to death out on parole
Injustice Trust – Jillian Faye Thomas
The farmer, the dead wife, the escort and the murder trial
Wife killer Kevin Harmer released from prison

Julie Jensen

Photo of a woman with fair skin and short, wavy brown hair styled to frame her face; she is smiling for the camera. She is wearing white pearl drop earrings and a neatly buttoned white blouse.Name: Julie Jensen.
Died: December 3, 1998.
Age at death: 40.
Cause of death: Antifreeze poisoning.
Location: Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, USA.
Disability: Depression.

Details:
Julie died from antifreeze poisoning. Before her death, she had sent a letter to a friend in which she explained that she was worried about her husband’s behavior, and to suspect him if she died. When her husband was arrested, he claimed that Julie had killed herself because of her depression. While prosecutors pointed out that Julie’s husband had discussed poisoning his wife with co-workers and fellow prisoners in jail, and had searched the Internet for information on poisoning and murdering one’s spouse, defense attorneys claimed Julie had killed herself and framed her husband.

Julie’s husband had the means to hire private lawyers, so the case has been a complex one. Though he was initially convicted and sentenced to life, the verdict was overturned after lawyers argued that the letter which Julie had written to her friend was inadmissible as evidence due to being “hearsay”. In circuit court, the verdict was reinstated; but in appeals court, that decision was reversed and the case sent back to circuit court. More than twenty years after Julie’s death, her husband is now getting a new trial on the same murder charge.

Case Status:
Mark Jensen (Husband), convicted of first degree murder, sentenced to life without parole; verdict overturned, new trial granted; convicted of murder, sentenced to life without parole.

Sources:
Wisconsin man convicted by second jury in antifreeze murder of wife
Wisconsin man again found guilty of killing wife with antifreeze at retrial
Wisconsin man’s retrial begins in wife’s antifreeze death
A ‘letter from the grave’ and a 2-decade long legal battle: 20-year-old murder case goes back to a jury
Mark Jensen Kenosha murder trial: Childhood friend of Jensen’s son takes stand
Second trial date set in Jensen murder case
Murder of Julie Jensen

Tammy Proulx

No PhotoName: Tammy Proulx.
Died: November 28, 1997.
Age at death: 34.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: Franktown, Ontario, Canada.
Disability: Depression.

Details:
Tammy’s boyfriend shot her, and claimed to the judge that she had wanted to die because she had depression. In reality, he shot her and dumped her body along the side of the road.

Tammy was the mother of two girls, aged six and fourteen when she died.

Case status:
Dennis Mitchell Whalen (Boyfriend), pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Source:
Remembering the names of the women carved in stone at Ottawa’s Women’s Monument
1997 Homicide Stats – western Quebec/eastern Ontario

Mary Carlson

Photo of a woman with fair skin, slightly suntanned, wearing a white tank top and sitting in a wheelchair. Her shoulder-length hair is straight and gray. The photo is somewhat blurry.Name: Mary Lynn Carlson.
Died: April 21, 1997.
Age at death: 53.
Cause of death: Stabbed.
Location: Maricopa County, Arizona, USA.
Disability: Multiple Sclerosis.

Details:
Mary Lynn’s son and daughter-in-law had promised to care for her in exchange for room and board, but instead neglected her and spent her money. When Lynn moved into an assisted-living facility, they took out a life-insurance policy on her and hired two fellow lodgers to kill her. They stabbed her to death.

Case status:
Doris Ann Carlson (Daughter-in-law), convicted of murder, sentenced to death; sentence reduced to life without parole.
David Carlson (Son), conspiracy to commit murder, life sentence.
Scott Smith, second degree murder, 10 years.
John McReaken, first degree murder, life sentence.

Source:
Woman Hires Men to Brutally Kill Bedridden Mother-in-Law with Multiple Sclerosis
Darling Doris was a Deadly Daughter-in-law
Doris Carlson | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Jeanette Williams

No PhotoName: Jeanette Williams.
Died: March 24, 1997.
Age at death: 47.
Cause of death: Stabbing.
Location: Harris County, Texas, USA.
Disability: Paraplegic.

Details:
Jeanette lived with a couple she considered friends. They took out a life insurance policy on her and hired a man to kill her. They brought Jeanette to be ambushed by the hired killer, who stabbed Jeanette to death.

Case status:
Bruce Gillmore (Housemate), convicted of murder, sentenced to life.
Michelle Gillmore (Housemate), convicted of murder, sentenced to life.
Richard Williams (Hired killer), convicted of murder, sentenced to death, executed February 25, 2003.

Source:
Richard Head WILLIAMS

Ronald Blevins

Gravestone for Jean and Ronald Blevins.Name: Ronald Blevins.
Died: February 20, 1997.
Age at death: 52.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: California, USA.
Disability: Disabled, diabetic.

Details:
During an argument over Ronald’s care, his father shot him and his mother, Jean Blevins, to death.

Case status:
Reed Blevins (Father), pleaded to voluntary manslaughter, sentenced to 24 years, 4 months.

Source:
“Do This In Remembrance of Me” Volume 4 Part Two

Dominic McCarthy

Photo of Dominic McCarthy. He is a large, middle-aged man wearing a sweater and sitting in a wheelchair. He has short brown hair, fair skin, and a mustache.Name: Dominic McCarthy.
Died: February 9, 1997.
Age at death: 34.
Cause of death: Insulin overdose.
Location: Stonely, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
Disability: Paraplegic, from motorcycle accident.

Details:
Dominic was given a massive overdose of insulin by his wife; then when he was hospitalized in a coma, she tampered with his IV. He died without ever waking.

Case status:
Deborah Winzar (Wife), convicted of murder, sentenced to 15 years to life; released by 2017.

Source:
Nurse jailed for murdering Peterborough husband loses legal bid to overturn conviction
Life for nurse who killed disabled husband
Is this nurse a killer?
“No one else killed your husband, so you must have done” (2000)
REPORT: A marriage made in hell
Killer nurse will serve 15 years
Nurse convicted of murdering husband battles to clear her name
New evidence casts doubt on murder conviction of nurse locked up for killing husband
Nurse jailed for injecting husband with insulin could have murder conviction quashed, court hears

Andrea Halpin

No PhotoName: Andrea Halpin.
Died: November 21, 1996.
Age at death: 35.
Cause of death: Gunshot.
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Disability: Intellectual disability.

Details:
Andrea liked eating out, going to the mall, and getting her hair done. She was in a job training program until her father removed her from it.

She was shot by her father in a murder-suicide.

Case status:
Bernard Halpin (Father), deceased.

Source:
Andrea Halpin Murdered by Father