Scott Pettigrew and the Murder of Mimie Cowen

Scott Pettigrew is a California man convicted of the first-degree murder of Anita “Mimie” Cowen, his 66-year-old roommate and landlord, in Cathedral City on June 14, 2016. He killed her the same afternoon a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy served him with a restraining order she had obtained to force his dogs out of her home. A jury convicted him in August 2019, and he is serving 25 years to life in state prison.

How Pettigrew Came to Live With Mimie Cowen

Cowen had lived in a home on Heritage Court in Cathedral City since 2002, where she occasionally rented rooms to boarders. Neighbors described her as a “sweet old lady” who “wouldn’t hurt anybody.”¹ She and Pettigrew, then 50, were co-workers. She let him move in around February 2016 at $640 a month.²

He paid the first month, then stopped. In court filings, Cowen said Pettigrew threw trash in the sink, damaged her computer and phones, stole food, and kept two dogs confined in his bedroom in unsanitary conditions. The house began to smell of dog urine, and feces were found throughout. Both she and Pettigrew took to hoarding food and essentials behind locked bedroom doors. Neighbors heard him yell threats about his dogs and call Cowen a “senile old bitch.”³

The Restraining Order Served Hours Before the Killing

In early June 2016, Cowen asked the Riverside County Superior Court for a restraining order and an eviction, describing Pettigrew’s conduct as an “escalating path of alarming behavior.”² On June 10, Judge James A. Cox granted part of what she asked for. The order required Pettigrew to remove his dogs by the end of the day it was served and to stay at least five yards from Cowen. Judge Cox denied a move-out order, finding “no showing of assault or threat of assault” against the elder, and set a follow-up hearing two weeks out.⁴

A sheriff’s deputy served the order on Pettigrew after 1:00 p.m. on June 14, 2016. It was set to take full effect at midnight. Cowen was dead before then.³

The Night of June 14, 2016

Pettigrew bought a 750-milliliter bottle of vodka at 3:44 p.m. Defense experts later estimated his blood-alcohol concentration reached between 0.22 and 0.23 percent by late evening. At 7:35 p.m., Cowen had to call police to get back into her own house. The officer who responded found the home neat but smelling of dog urine, with dogs barking behind Pettigrew’s locked bedroom door.³

Later, Cowen called her son. He heard Pettigrew yelling in the background. “Scott’s there. He is doing it again,” she told him, and then he heard glass breaking and items being smashed. Cowen managed to record part of the confrontation, telling Pettigrew to stay away and get out. Between about 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., neighbors heard groaning and moaning from the backyard and a splash in the pool.³

Her son called for a welfare check. Officers arrived at 11:39 p.m., found signs of a violent struggle in the kitchen and backyard, and found Cowen floating face down in the swimming pool. Paramedics could not revive her. She was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m. on June 15, 2016.⁴

Cowen, 5 feet 4 inches and 117 pounds, had been struck with blunt objects including a salt or pepper mill, had clumps of hair ripped out, had been strangled, and had suffered two broken ribs. The autopsy gave the cause of death as asphyxiation, with drowning listed as a possible contributing factor.³

Officers found Pettigrew in his bedroom, naked and curled in a fetal position. He was arrested and booked into the Banning jail.¹ In custody he attempted suicide twice, first trying to hang himself with his clothing and then removing his paper suit while on suicide watch.³

Charges and Conviction

On June 17, 2016, Riverside County prosecutors charged Pettigrew with first-degree murder, elder abuse with force likely to cause great bodily harm or death, and misdemeanor violation of a protective order.⁵ Trial began August 19, 2019. On August 27, 2019, the jury convicted him on all three counts.⁴

Sentence

On November 15, 2019, Judge Johnnetta Anderson sentenced Pettigrew to 25 years to life in state prison for the first-degree murder. “The victim was particularly vulnerable. The defendant did take advantage of the position of trust or confidence to commit the offense,” Judge Anderson said at sentencing.⁶ The elder abuse term was stayed under Penal Code section 654. The one-year misdemeanor sentence for the protective order violation runs concurrently with the murder term.³

The Appeal

The California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 2, affirmed the conviction on March 25, 2021, in People v. Pettigrew, 62 Cal.App.5th 477.³

Pettigrew argued the evidence did not support premeditation. The court held that the “multistage” and “multiple-method” nature of the attack, striking Cowen with objects, pulling out her hair, strangling her, and leaving her in the pool, was substantial evidence that he reflected on his actions rather than acting on impulse, and that the jury could reasonably find he acted out of anger and revenge over her effort to have his dogs removed.³

Pettigrew also challenged the trial court’s “flight” instruction, which told jurors they could consider his two jail suicide attempts as evidence of consciousness of guilt. The appellate court agreed that suicide attempts in custody do not legally qualify as flight, but held the error harmless.³

The Netflix Episode

The case appears in Season 2, Episode 2 of the Netflix series Worst Roommate Ever, titled “Housemate from Hell.” The season was released on June 26, 2024.²

1
The Desert Sun. Homicide Under Investigation Cathedral City Police
2
The Desert Sun. Scott Pettigrew Anita Cowen Cathedral City Netflix Worst Roommate Ever
3
FindLaw. People v. Pettigrew, E074122
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NBC Los Angeles. Riverside Man Guilty of Killing Roommate in 2016
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The Desert Sun. Cathedral City Homicide Victim Restraining Order
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Patch. Man Who Beat Roommate Death Learns His Fate