Minister Bill Guthrie drowning murder of wife Sharon Guthrie

Benzodiazepines are a class of psychotropic medication used for a variety of conditions, taken for ailments from anxiety to insomnia. They come in a variety of forms, all available only by prescription. Depending on the patient's needs, some can be used interchangeably. On the upside, benzos (for short) can help ease suffers' symptoms when used appropriately. But when taken long-term, physical dependency can develop. Worse, after using a benzodiazepine for an extended period of time, suddenly discontinuing can cause adverse effects from sweating to seizures. And of course certain ones are bought and taken recreationally. I was prescribed Xanax on and off for years, at a very low dosage. But I weaned myself off (and onto therapeutic lifestyle changes) once I realized the deleterious downsides.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The episode's image of the Sharon's medications showed that she was on two different benzodiazepine drugs: oxazepam and lorazepam. The latter is a fairly common drug used to mostly assist individuals with anxiety disorders, and it goes by the better-known brand name Ativan. But oxazepam is a lesser used medication for either anxiety, insomnia or the withdraw symptoms from quitting alcohol. Apparently, Sharon's doctor felt it was appropriate to prescribe two different benzos, and each's bottle indicated "for sleep". And the refills shown on the bottles indicated that no one was concerned with the long-term effects. Did Sharon's commonly used benzos make matters worse when the drug Bill chose to add to her cocktail was temazepam – another benzodiazepine alternatively known as Restoril?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

It wasn't like the combination of these three psychotropic medications that led to Sharon's drowning, but rather the dosage of the one prescribed to, filled, and purchased by Bill. The concentration of temazepam in Sharon's system was thought to come from 5-10 capsules, which by itself was not considered a lethal dose. But various information in the episode indicated that Bill filled the prescription a total of four times. Did all of this medication end up missing? It's reasonable that Bill could convince his doctor to prescribe him temazepam, but between 1999 and now, I have to imagine (or at least hope) it's become a lot harder to fill the same prescription so many times. By simply telling his pharmacy that he'd "lost his prescription", he was able to get it filled several times.

It was interesting that daughter Jenalu still believed that her father might not have cause her mother's death. Jenalu mentioned that Sharon had overdosed on Benadryl just a few weeks prior. While that's not a death sentence, it's certainly a cry for help, and Sharon had required medical attention. But all the other evidence was oddly not enough to convince Jenalu of her father's guilt. How does she explain away the over-filled prescriptions? Or the computer evidence of the faked suicide note? On the other hand, daughter Suzanne seemed more focused on just finding the truth – recall she recorded a conversation where she confronted her father about his involvement in the suspected murder. And she had turned over the second computer to investigators, where the suicide document fragments were located.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

There's no shortage of stories where church officials (seemingly mostly of the Catholic faith) know of problematic ministers and help them relocate to alternate parishes when troubles arise. It's not known that Bill's Presbyterian church council helped or even encouraged him to move from Nebraska to South Dakota, but the episode indicated that his amorous relations with a mistress may have been among the reasons. Jenalu indicated that she knew of this "other woman", though didn't indicate knowledge of an actual affair – only to say that her mother Sharon "didn't like her". But a woman's intuition is often accurate, and I'd bet Sharon did suspect Bill's affair. I'm curious if Sharon shared any of these feeling with any of her three daughters.

But if Sharon knew about the woman Bill left behind in Nebraska, what did she think of Bill's trips for "medical assistance"? Did she know his road trips were to Nebraska, or did Bill lie to her about the destination? And how did he convince anyone that the only doctor he could see about his supposed (and apparently fabricated) impotence was out of state? Were there no competent doctors near Wolsey?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

A staged suicide to cover up a murder is often incorporated from the crime's inception – it's integral to the coverup and usually not an afterthought. In Bill Guthrie's case, suicide on Sharon's part didn't seem likely, at least at first. It was three months later and only after Bill had been charged with Sharon's murder that a suicide note magically surfaced. To investigators, all indicators immediately signaled foul play. From where the note had been found to the fact that it was typed and not signed didn't (or in Jenalu's case shouldn't have) fool anyone. In fact, evidence of the note's creation found by the computer forensic expert was very strong in the case against Bill Guthrie. One wonders if he'd have been better off not trying to fabricate a suicide note and going to trial with less evidence against him.

Finally, it was interesting to hear the narrative from Judd Robbins, the computer expert talking about a 1999 case in 2003, when this episode first aired. Computers have evolved quite a bit since then, but the fundamentals Robbins describe really haven't. Recall the Chris Marquis murder case against Christopher Dean where an instance of a mailing label sent to a printer was recoverable after being deleted. As much as I know about computers, the fact is I know very little. Did you have a computer in 1999? What kind and what did you use it for?

Where is Bill Guthrie now in 2024?

The former Presbyterian minister had been sentenced to life in prison in 2000. In July 2011, Dr. William Boyd Guthrie died in the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Bill Guthrie's sentence offered no chance of parole. His appeal had been denied.