Episode 2, titled “Housemate from Hell” is the tale of a small desert town called Cathedral City. It’s a peaceful place where crime rates are relatively low and where people live quiet lives. In this town, an elderly woman named Anita Cowen lived in her home with two roommates, Scott and Darrell. But something terrible happened—Anita was killed by one of them. Who did it? Why did they do it? What was their motive? We will get answers to all these questions in the second episode of Worst Roommate Ever. It teaches an important lesson: always do a background check before you take in roommates or decide to live with strangers. Otherwise, you might invite danger into your home. So, let’s dive into the story of what happened to Anita.
Why did Anita rent her rooms?
Anita Cowen was divorced and lived most of her life alone. Her son Steven and his wife lived three hours away; they were the only people she had in her life. Anita ran her own successful business, where she recruited nurses for hospitals. With the money Anita had saved, she bought a beautiful three-bedroom house with French doors, lovely furnishings, and a backyard pool—a dream home she was very happy to live in. But in a desert city like Cathedral City, utilities were costly, and the house needed frequent maintenance. Without a steady income, Anita found it hard to manage everything on her own. That’s when she decided to rent out her rooms. She needed the extra money and also felt lonely as she grew older. Anita put up an ad on Craigslist and started looking for roommates. But she had a bad habit of not doing background checks on them. She was just happy to get the rent money on time; that was all she needed. Even though her son and daughter-in-law told her multiple times to check people’s backgrounds, she didn’t bother. She thought, why would anyone want to hurt an old lady like her? She wasn’t nosy and didn’t interfere in people’s business, so she believed they wouldn’t have any reason to harm her. Sadly, Anita didn’t realize how wrong she was about people’s intentions.
Who is Scott?
Scott was one of the roommates Anita had. He was a good friend of Anita, someone she knew from work but not that well. Scott was gay, lively, and entertaining, and Anita thought he would be a perfect roommate. However, Scott had a dark side. After interviewing his ex-boyfriend of 12 years, Rob, Sergeant Olsen, and the other police officers found out the truth about Scott. Scott was an aspiring lawyer who wanted to go to law school. He always wanted to be independent, but he had a terrible childhood. His father abused him, and his mother was so cruel that she euthanized their pets because they made him happy. Scott was happy living with Rob in New York, but things started to change. Rob noticed how Scott claimed he was taking bar exams to become a lawyer, but Rob knew he hadn’t applied. Scott started lying and began taking high doses of drugs and drinking heavily. He even acted crazy, doing things like running after Rob with a knife to terrorize him. Rob was scared for his life and knew Scott needed help. He also had to protect himself, so he decided to break up with Scott.
Meanwhile, Scott had lived with a girl named Janice. At first, she thought Scott was the life of the party—charming and outgoing, like the best roommate ever. But when she left for work, she noticed her dogs were getting hurt. At first, she didn’t understand because Scott pretended to be a dog person. However, this happened regularly, and she realized it was no coincidence. Scott had been torturing her pets. Eventually, Scott stopped paying rent and acted so weird around her that she had to involve the landlord to change the locks and get him out of the house. When they entered his room, they were shocked. It was filthy, with clothes and food everywhere. They couldn’t believe someone could live like that. But the sad thing was, Anita knew nothing about it. She was fooled by his charm, just like the others, and let him stay in her home. Little did she know what was waiting for her.
What happened to Anita?
Darrell was Anita’s first roommate. He was divorced, quiet, and had three cats. They got along very well, and neither interfered with the other’s lives. Darrell even helped Anita get rid of other horrible roommates and made sure they didn’t hurt or disrespect her. When Scott moved in, Darrell was initially happy because Anita knew Scott from work. However, things quickly took a turn. Darrell noticed strange behaviors from Scott, like him entering Darrell’s room without permission and terrorizing his cats. Scott went to the extreme of lying, doing things like puking in the bathtub every day, blaming Darrell for it, and even claiming Darrell was using a flashlight with a hidden camera in the bathroom to spy on him. Anita believed Scott’s lies over Darrell, and it was clear that Scott was a master manipulator. Scott made false accusations that Darrell had a criminal record. One day, Darrell found himself locked out of his own house. When he involved the police, he was shocked to learn they were coming there to arrest him. Darrell was falsely charged with torturing an elderly woman and damaging property. He knew he was innocent, but Scott and Anita had conspired against him. Darrell felt scared, hurt, and alone in jail, with bail set at $150,000, an amount he knew no one would pay.
After Darrell went to jail, Scott’s behavior toward Anita escalated. He acted crazy, and Anita had to lock herself in her room, too afraid to go outside because of Scott’s torment. Imagine feeling unsafe in your own home! She realized her mistake and talked to her son and daughter-in-law. They advised her to go to court and tell the truth, which she did. Anita felt truly sorry for Darrell, and her statement helped get him out of jail. Anita then got a restraining order against Scott because she was scared and tried to feel safe. But then tragedy struck. Scott found out about the restraining order and became furious. He wanted to get his revenge. When Anita came home and saw that Scott had superglued her room door shut, she knew she was in grave danger and called 911. Scott took the phone away, but the call was still recording. Despite Anita’s pleas for her life, Scott brutally beat that old woman to death. Later, she was found facedown in her backyard pool, murdered by Scott.
The scariest part? Scott acted innocent when the police arrived and claimed as if he didn’t know what happened to Anita. He tried to blame Darrell for her murder. Luckily, Darrell had an alibi—he was in the hospital during Anita’s murder. When police learned of Darrell’s past experience with false accusations, they saw the truth and realized what kind of manipulative person Scott really is. Scott was terrified when he learned Anita’s phone recorded the murder. He went from being innocent to devastated and eventually requested the death penalty to show his remorse and guilt for what he had done to that poor old woman. It seemed like something took over Scott’s mind, and he didn’t realize what he’d done. In the end, Scott got 25 years for first-degree murder and elder abuse. This case shows how vulnerable you can be at your own home when you don’t know who you are living with.
