Murder Suspect Owen Morris Played Wheeler LAX, Dropped Out Of URI

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI — Owen Morris, 21, of Warren, has been arrested in connection with Dr. Clive Bridgham's murder, the state Attorney General's office has confirmed. Police said he was arrested Monday but initially did not release his name or details about the death. The Providence Journal reported the doctor had been stabbed and said Morris was a dean's list student at the University of Rhode Island.

URI confirmed Morris started at URI in 2013 but did not graduate. He took a leave of absence in February 2017 and formally withdrew from the school in September. According to sports records, Morris played one game of Lacrosse for the varsity and was an attackman. The school could not confirm if he suffered a sports injury and said the coaching staff is new and none of them knew Morris. Morris was one of Dr. Bridgham's former patients, East Providence police have confirmed.

Morris was graduated from The Wheeler School in Providence, according to the Men's College Lacrosse Association website. Wheeler did not immediately return calls asking for comment. The Journal picked him for its second All-State LAX team in 2013. Morris was listed at 6'2" and 170 pounds on the Men's College Lacrosse Association website. According to his Facebook page, he manages a sporting goods store, Lacrosse Shoot LLC, on Child Street in Warren. The site indicates Morris designed Lacrosse attack stick handles made from bamboo.

Morris's father, Spencer Morris, did not immediately return a message asking for comment. He is an apple farmer, according to an Internet search, and a past president of the Warren Preservation Society. His mother, Allison Newsome, is a sculptor.

Dr. Bridgham's body was found in his home, which was originally reported as 170 Pleasant St., Riverside. However, land evidence records indicate he owned property at 1 Bridgham Court, which is off Pleasant Street and near Morra Way. The property is connected to the Bridgham Farm, which is on the National Register. According to Wikipedia, Dr. Bridgham was descended from the family that originally owned the historic property. It was deeded to them by King George III. An ancestor, Samuel Willard Bridgham, was the first mayor of Providence. Another ancestor was an eighteenth-century president of Harvard University.

According to online records, he was the Chiropractic Physician of the Year in 2015. In 2016, he was chosen to attend the Olympic games in Rio for his sports-medicine expertise. He was director of the Barrington Chiropractic & Sports Medicine Clinic.

In 2003, the state health board put him on probation for three years. According to the consent order, he treated someone suffering from depression after the death of a sibling and engaged in sexual conduct with the client. He also counseled the client in matters on which he had no training, according to the order.

He surrendered his license last fall voluntarily after a 19-year-old patient complained he had violated the physician-patient relationship. East Providence police have confirmed Morris is the same person who made the complaint.

A Patch contributor wrote a complimentary piece about Dr. Bridgham in 2011.

East Providence police Lt. Raymond Blinn said Tuesday police are confident they have arrested the right man for the crime, but the investigation is far from over.

"The doctor's life had many chapters," he said. Police have not revealed the motive for the murder yet but called the slaying "brutal."

Photo Caption: Owen Morris appears in district court in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, to face a first-degree murder charge. He is charged in the slaying of Clive Bridgham, who was found dead in his East Providence home, the police announced in a statement Monday night. (Steve Szydlowski/Providence Journal via AP, Pool)