Kriti Mehrotra
When Anita Cowen was found dead in the swimming pool of her Cathedral City home on the evening of June 14, 2016, it left not only her loved ones but the entire community baffled to the core. That’s because, as explored in Netflix’s ‘Worst Roommate Ever: Housemate From Hell,’ the 66-year-old woman had been beaten to death by her co-worker and friend turned co-habitant Scott Pettigrew. They did have a third roommate until just a short time prior — Darrell Hatfield — yet he’d moved out owing to the extensive civil turned falsified criminal issues that had ended up arising between them.
Darrell Hatfield Moved into Anita Cowen’s Home in 2014
It was back when Darrell was going through a bitter divorce, living in a shack out in the middle of nowhere, and facing travel issues with his car nearly falling apart that he logged onto Craigslist. He was desperate to find an apartment/room he could immediately move into so as to be closer to his workplace, protect his cats, plus begin rebuilding his life, only to find Anita’s room-for-rent ad. He was actually lucky she was in dire need of a roommate, too, to help pay her bills since she didn’t run a background check; otherwise, she would have noticed his bad credit because of the divorce.
But alas, this backfired on them a couple of years down the line as Anita welcomed her co-worker Scott into their space to occupy the then-empty third bedroom directly across from Darrell’s. Though little did either of them know this newcomer would quickly turn the former against her distant yet stable tenant by consistently accusing him of being unhygienically messy plus theft. And the 66-year-old believed him despite never having had any issues with the latter in the past — they usually kept out of each other’s way and just conversed in passing whenever necessary.
Darrell Hatfield Spent Time in Jail Because of Anita and Scott
As per Darrell’s account, Scott’s behavior towards him was odd as well as frustrating from the moment he moved in, especially since it boiled down to disturbing his sleep and terrorizing his cats. It was only after this that the friend began convincing Anita their co-habitant wasn’t good for the house, just for it to culminate in them going as far as to file a false police report against him. However, prior to this, they’d also purposefully locked him out so many times that when he and Anita finally had a chance to talk calmly, they already knew it was time for him to move out for good.
Darrell, hence, asked Anita to give him a few weeks to find a new place and requested she return his substantial security deposit before soon leaving town for a couple of days with some friends. He returned on March 7, 2016, to find himself locked out once again, only to then be arrested for cruelty towards an elder — they said he’d pushed Anita — residential burglary, as well as threats with the intent to terrorize.
His bail was subsequently set at $150,000 since it was his word against both Anita and Scott’s, as a result of which he remained detained in jail until the former realized her mistake around June. She not only admitted to perjury prior to even helping Darrell move out — his cats had sadly been euthanized — but she also finally filed for a restraining order against Scott, unaware it would lead to her murder on June 14.
Darrell Hatfield is Dedicated to Sharing His Story While Also Moving On
Since Anita Cowen was heinously killed merely three days following Darrell’s release from jail on June 11, 2016, he submitted himself for questioning at the local police station the minute he found out. He was actually a suspect, considering everything to have transpired between the housemates months before, yet was cleared quite quickly with a confirmed alibi and then the fact that Anita had recorded Scott’s attack on her.
Coming to Darrell’s current standing, it appears that he has since been doing his best to move on in life, all the while sharing his story with the world to spread awareness about all the possible red flags of a roommate. He also does this to make it clear that although he still is quite angry at Anita for “what happened to me and what she did to me,” he knows that she, too, “did not deserve what happened to her.”
As for Darrell’s personal as well as professional whereabouts, from what we can tell, he’s currently enjoying every aspect of his freedom-filled life as an outdoor enthusiast while serving as a steward at Marriott International too. He thus prefers not to be very active on social media but hasn’t ever deactivated his accounts because it is from where he admittedly receives offers to appear in true-crime shows to detail his ordeals with Anita and Scott. The only other way this proud cat dad utilizes these online platforms is for their intended original purpose — to keep in touch with new and old friends alike while communicating his interests with them/the world.
