Lowell Edwin Amos was a convicted murderer whose mother and three wives all died under suspicious circumstances. In 1996 Amos was convicted of murdering his third wife, Roberta Mowery Amos.
The Murder of Roberta Amos
In December 1994, After attended a company executive party at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit. Lowell and Roberta Amos went to their suite at around 4:30 am. Lowell called Bert Crabtree, another executive from the party, four hours later, seemingly in a panic. Crabtree and Daniel Porcasi, another hotel guest, went to the room to see what all the panic was about. Lowell told them that Roberta had had an accident and died. Lowell said he needed to clean up before calling police. He asked Porcasi to take his coat for him. while driving home that morning, Porcasi looked inside the breast pocket of the coat, he found a small black leather case with a syringe missing a needle, and a horrible-smelling washcloth inside. Amos later reclaimed his coat, and its contents disappeared.
Amos told police that he and his wife had engaged in sex involving cocaine. He claimed she was still taking the cocaine when he fell asleep, and told police that she could not snort the cocaine due to a sinus issue, so she took it "inside" her body instead. He said that when he woke up, she was dead
It’s said that Roberta's body contained over fifteen times the lethal dose of the drug. An autopsy revealed that there was cocaine inside Roberta's vagina, but none externally. Police suspected that Amos had washed the body off before calling police. Forensic scientist Dr. Phyllis Goode found lipstick and toothmarks on a pillowcase, and other makeup residue, but Roberta did not have any makeup on her when police arrived. Also, bedsheets were slightly soiled, although Roberta's body was extremely clean.
Investigation Into Previous Wives', and Mother's Deaths.
Because of lack of evidence to convict Lowell. The police began a surveillance and investigated his background. Two days after Roberta's death, Lowell spent over $1,000 on dinner and drinks with two women with whom he proceeded to have sex. After the story of Roberta's death had gained publicity, several women came forward and told investigators that they thought they had once been drugged by Lowell before having sex. Investigators found out that Lowell's first wife Saundra also died under suspicious circumstances at age 36, in 1979. Saundra was found dead in her bathroom. Lowell's statement to police at that time was that Saundra had mixed wine with a sedative and hit her head when she collapsed.
The cause of death was ruled indeterminate, and Amos received a $350,000 insurance payout. Not long after Saundra's death, Lowell married a woman named Carolyn. According to friends, Lowell and Carolyn argued frequently over the large insurance policies Lowell had bought on her life, and since he would not cancel the policies, she left him in 1988.
Lowell moved in with his mother, who was rushed to the hospital a few weeks later, seemingly stupefied. No specific diagnosis was found, and she was released. Several days later, she died. Lowell had told Carolyn over the telephone that his mother had died and when she arrived at the house, Lowell was throwing his belongings into the car. He told her that he did not want people to know that he was living with his mother. Because she was 76 years old, no autopsy was performed, and authorities presumed she died of natural causes. Lowell inherited more than $1,000,000.
Carolyn allowed Lowell to move back in with her despite their differences. Nine months later, she was found dead in her bathroom. Lowell's statement to police was that he had taken her a glass of wine to the bathroom, where she was blow drying her hair next to the full bathtub. Later, he found her dead in the bath, apparently electrocuted. No cause of death was ever determined. The wine glass that Lowell claimed to have brought Carolyn was not in the bathroom, but was found rinsed clean and in the dishwasher. Lowell received $800,000 from the insurance policies, and Carolyn died intestate.
Conviction and Death
Lowell was arrested for the murder of his third wife. Due to a 1994 change in Michigan law, the prosecution was allowed to enter details of previous incidents into the trials. Prosecutors also argued that although Lowell lacked a financial motive for killing Roberta, as he had for the other three deaths, his marriage was about to end. Roberta had already bought a house and had told friends and family that she wanted to leave Lowell and wanted him out of her life for good. The prosecution surmised that Lowell killed her because he didn’t like rejection. They said that he first gave her a glass of wine with two crushed sedatives in it, then when she was passed out, he injected her vagina with the cocaine, dissolved in water, and then smothered her with the pillow when she began to panic and convulse. On October 24, 1996, Lowell was convicted of premeditated murder and murder using a toxic substance (considered separate charges of first-degree murder), and on November 4, 1996, was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was held in security level II at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Michigan. Charges were never made in the cases of the other three deaths.
