In 2016, 66-year-old Anita Cowen filed a restraining order against her roommate Scott Pettigrew, alleging that he was terrorizing her in her own home. Days later, Cowen’s dead body was found floating in her pool.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and/or images of violent, disturbing, or otherwise potentially distressing events.
Cathedral City Police Department Scott Pettigrew, the man responsible for the murder of 66-year-old Anita Cowen.
In the Spring of 2016, Anita Cowen rented out a room in her California home to her younger coworker Scott Pettigrew. But what started as a favor for a friend quickly morphed into a nightmare rental situation for the 66-year-old woman.
Pettigrew often left the house in a state of disarray, throwing trash out in the sink, allowing his dogs to defecate all over the home, and not cleaning up the bathroom after throwing up. Meanwhile, Pettigrew became increasingly threatening toward his elderly roommate, causing her to feel unsafe in her home.
Things escalated to the point where Cowen filed a protection order against her nightmare roommate. Then, five days later, he brutally murdered her.
This is the story of Scott Pettigrew, the “Tenant from Hell” who bludgeoned Anita Cowen to death in her own home.
Scott Pettigrew Moves Into Anita Cowen’s Home
In 2016, 50-year-old Scott Pettigrew moved into the Cathedral City, California home of his friend and coworker, Anita Mimie Cowen. Cowen had offered to rent a room to Pettigrew after he was evicted due to an “altercation with a neighbor,” according to the Desert Sun.
Almost immediately, the two had serious issues.
Pettigrew reportedly stopped paying rent after the first month and left the home an absolute mess. He threw trash into the kitchen sink, allowed his dogs to urinate and defecate all over the house, stole Cowen’s silverware, cut the batteries from her phones, poured water over her computers, and refused to clean up after he vomited in the bathroom.
Eventually, on June 9, 2016, Anita Cowen sought a protection order from Pettigrew and requested that the judge evict him.
“I am being terrorized daily in my own home,” Cowen said. “Escalating each day. I need help.”
In her request, Cowen detailed how Pettigrew had become increasingly threatening over time, often exploding into angry “tirades.”
“Scott is initiating this to keep me in constant fear of him and what he will do next time,” Cowen wrote, according to KESQ News. “I don’t want a next time.”
On June 10, Riverside County Superior Court Judge James A. Cox granted the protection order, stating that Scott Pettigrew had to remain five yards from Cowen and move his dogs out of the house. However, he stopped short of requiring Pettigrew to move out, as there was “no showing of assault or threat of assault (to) elder.”
Four days later, Anita Cowen was dead.
The Day Of The Murder
Personal photoAn undated photo of young Anita Cowen.
On June 14, 2016, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department officers arrived at Anita Cowen’s home to serve Pettigrew the restraining order. Cowen escorted the officers to Pettigrew’s room, where they delivered him the papers. According to court records, Pettigrew acknowledged the documents and returned to his bedroom.
Later that evening, Cowen was on the phone with her son when an argument broke out between her and Scott Pettigrew. Cowen’s son would later report hearing “yelling” and “ranting” in the background of the call, as well as the sounds of glass shattering.
“Scott’s there,” Cowen reportedly told her son. “He is doing it again.”
Worried about Cowen’s safety, her son instructed her to turn on her audio recorder and told her that he and his wife were on their way and would be at the house soon. As they drove to Cowen’s home, Cowen’s son called the police, asking that they send someone to check on Cowen.
Officers arrived at 11:42 p.m. There, they discovered Cowen floating in her backyard pool, unresponsive, with cuts and bruises all over her face and body and chunks of hair pulled out of her head.
In the house, they discovered Cowen’s roommate Pettigrew lying on his bed, completely naked. He had scratches all over his body.
Police officers quickly secured the area and arrested Scott Pettigrew.
The Scene Of The Crime
The Cowen home was in a state of total disarray when police arrived at the scene.
“Cowen’s house smelled of dog urine, and there was dog feces throughout the home,” court documents state. “The kitchen was messy with dirty dishes, and the refrigerator was mostly empty. A black rug had been laid over the threshold to the French doors, and there appeared to be skid marks from blood or some other fluid across the concrete from the kitchen to the steps of the pool.”
In Anita Cowen’s bedroom, police found evidence that she stored all of her belongings there, including kitchen items and food.
Scott Pettigrew’s bedroom was the worst of all. There, police found trash and dishes strewn about and wet clothes on the floor. The bed was bare, and bottles of alcohol, food containers, and over-the-counter sleeping pills littered the room.
While searching the house, police also found a digital audio recorder on the kitchen floor amid shattered glass and clumps of Cowen’s hair. Cowen, it appeared, had managed to tape her own murder.
In the recording, a woman’s screams can be heard over the sounds of a physical scuffle.
“Stay away from me,” Cowen says in the tape. “Stay the f– away from me. You bastard. You bastard. Now you’re gonna start beating up an old lady, huh?”
“You’re an old c–t, aren’t ya,” Pettigrew responds. “Are you recording me? You don’t know? Huh? C–t.”
Google EarthThe California home where Scott Pettigrew murdered landlady Anita Cowen.
During Cowen’s autopsy, the examiner determined that she most likely died from blunt force trauma. A case report details the full extent of her injuries:
Cowen had large patches on her head where the hair was missing or sparse. An internal examination revealed hemorrhaging or bleeding on the underside of her scalp and to the surface of the brain caused by blunt force trauma. Cowen also had hemorrhaging on the inside of her eyelids and to the internal neck tissues that were consistent with asphyxia from strangulation. An examination of the heart revealed Cowen had approximately 90 percent blockage in her right coronary artery. She also had two broken ribs.
The Hand Of Justice Falls Hard On Scott Pettigrew
At his trial, Scott Pettigrew pleaded not guilty to first degree murder.
Toxicology tests taken the morning after Cowen’s murder indicated that Pettigrew had been drinking and was likely “immensely impaired” at the time of the attack. Pettigrew’s lawyers would later argue that he was in an emotional state that night and did not premeditate Cowen’s murder.
However, prosecutors argued that evidence from the scene showed that Pettigrew did not attack his roommate entirely out of the blue. Instead, he approached Cowen in the kitchen and began arguing with her. After throwing items around the house, he came back to attack and kill her in a prolonged assault that “span[ned] the length of the interior” of the home and “extend[ed] back into the backyard area.”
What’s more, Pettigrew had reportedly threatened to kill Cowen on multiple occasions prior to her murder.
Following Scott Pettigrew’s initial arrest, he attempted suicide twice. Some members of the jury took this as further evidence of guilt or a sign that he was trying to avoid prosecution.
Despite fighting hard to lower his charges, Pettigrew and his council could not convince a jury that the murder wasn’t premeditated.
In August 2019, Scott Pettigrew was convicted of first degree murder, elder abuse, and violating a protective order. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He currently rents a room from his new landlord — the California State Prison, Corcoran.
“The victim was particularly vulnerable,” Judge Johnnetta Anderson said during Pettigrew’s sentencing hearing, according to NBC News. “The defendant did take advantage of the position of trust or confidence to commit the offense.”
Those who knew Anita Cowen remarked how kind and polite the 66-year-old had been.
“I feel sad for her, man,” Ausencio Rocha Jr., a neighbor, told the Desert Sun in 2016. “She was just a sweet old lady. She wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
After reading about Scott Pettigrew, dive into the story of Jamison Bachman, the “worst roommate ever.” Then, read about Dorothea Puente, the “Death House Landlady” responsible for the deaths of at least nine tenants.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or use their 24/7 Lifeline Crisis Chat.
