2 Girls Found Encased In Ice In Freezer

Maryland Adoptive Mother Suspected Of Killing 2 Children In Her Care

(AP)  A bruised and starving 7-year-old girl walking alone on a gravel road led investigators to an even grimmer discovery: remains in a basement freezer that her adoptive mother said were the youngster's sisters.

Authorities said Monday they believe the mother, Renee Bowman, is responsible for killing her other two daughters. The three girls were foster children in Bowman's care before she adopted them.

Sheriff's deputies were investigating an abuse complaint Saturday when they discovered the child-sized remains encased in ice. The mother told investigators they had been in her southern Maryland home's freezer for at least seven months and police said they are considering the case a homicide.

"We have reason to believe that's the two children in the freezer," said Lt. Bobby Jones of Calvert County Sheriff's Office. "We believe that the mother, who adopted the two children, is responsible for it."

Autopsies would need to be completed before authorities know for sure whether it is the girls, who would be 9 and 11. Deputies made the gruesome find in Lusby, about 50 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. They were at the home with a search warrant to investigate what happened to a runaway 7-year-old girl who was found wandering the neighborhood, injured and hungry in a blood- and feces-soaked nightshirt.

Bowman, 43, has been arrested, and a judge ordered her held without bond. She is charged with first-degree child abuse in the beating of the 7-year-old.

"I asked if she was OK. She said no," said neighbor Phillip Garrett, who found the girl walking down the street. "She said, 'My mother beats me to death all the time."'

She escaped from a locked bedroom by jumping out a second-story window, and Bowman admitted beating her with a "hard-heeled shoe," officials said.

Bowman told detectives she brought the remains of her other daughters with her when she moved in February from Rockville, about 60 miles away. Montgomery County Police said they are investigating whether the deaths took place in Rockville and that detectives are trying to pin down when the older girls were last seen alive. Bowman has not been charged in the deaths.

The medical examiner's office in Baltimore planned to examine the freezer and its contents, but it was unclear how long it would take for the remains to thaw sufficiently.

Bowman was a foster mother to all three before adopting them in the District of Columbia, officials said at a news conference.

According to charging documents in Calvert County, the youngest girl went door-to-door looking for help Friday night.

The girl had open sores and lesions on her buttocks and lower thighs, marks on her neck made by a cord, rope or other item and bruises on her hands and lips, police said.

The girl was brought to a hospital. The Maryland Department of Human Resources planned to petition the court Tuesday to gain custody, said Nancy Lineman, an agency spokeswoman.

Garrett, 21, who lives two houses down from Bowman, said he brought the girl to a neighbor's house, called 911 and ordered her a pizza. She indicated she had last eaten on Tuesday when her father was at the home, said Garrett, who realized he had met her mother once and described her as "frazzled."

"She didn't seem like all her pieces were there," Garrett said.

Later Friday, authorities went to Bowman's modest, single-story house in the secluded, heavily wooded subdivision but nobody was home. Bowman showed up later at the sheriff's office and said she had locked her daughter in the child's bedroom.

She told the deputy who interviewed her about the 7-year-old's abuse "that she knew what she did was wrong," according to the charging documents. "She advised she (Bowman) was out of control and needed help."

Sheriff Mike Evans said the surviving girl was never enrolled in Calvert County Schools and that no trouble had ever been reported at the house. Bowman's only contact with the sheriff's department since she arrived was a traffic stop.

Lineman said her agency had no records to indicate the involvement of child-protective services with Bowman's family, but a review of statewide records has been ordered.

Evans said Bowman had a boyfriend who was cooperating with investigators. The boyfriend was a potential witness, but Evans would not comment on whether he was a suspect. He said the man did not live with Bowman and was not a father to her children.

No attorney had entered an appearance on Bowman's behalf Monday afternoon.

Bowman adopted the oldest girl in July 2001, D.C. officials said. Three years later, she adopted the girl who would now be 9 and her 7-year-old sister. She is not biologically related to them.

[ladyteresa39]

We can all sit and pass judgement on this woman but her fate has already been decided by someone more powerful than any of us. We should be focused on our communities and the other children out there needing help.(remember the 4 little girls). Stop passing the blame on why this happend to social services and place where it should be. Our communities, schools and ourselves. Know who is in your neightborhood. These children need a voice and if we speak before the tragedy rather than after then maybe we can save the forgotten child. Stop passing the blame and put it where it should be. On us all. Not just for these litttle girls but the ones who will follow.

[ladyteresa39]

We can all sit and pass judgement on this woman but her fate has already been decided by someone more powerful than any of us. We should be focused on our communities and the other children out there needing help.(remember the 4 little girls). Stop passing the blame on why this happend to social services and place where it should be. Our communities, schools and ourselves. Know who is in your neightborhood. These children need a voice and if we speak before the tragedy rather than after then maybe we can save the forgotten child. Stop passing the blame and put it where it should be. On us all. Not just for these litttle girls but the ones who will follow.

[ladyteresa39]

We can all sit and pass judgement on this woman but her fate has already been decided by someone more powerful than any of us. We should be focused on our communities and the other children out there needing help.(remember the 4 little girls). Stop passing the blame on why this happend to social services and place where it should be. Our communities, schools and ourselves. Know who is in your neightborhood. These children need a voice and if we speak before the tragedy rather than after then maybe we can save the forgotten child. Stop passing the blame and put it where it should be. On us all. Not just for these litttle girls but the ones who will follow.

[ladyteresa39]

We can all sit and pass judgement on this woman but her fate has already been decided by someone more powerful than any of us. We should be focused on our communities and the other children out there needing help.(remember the 4 little girls). Stop passing the blame on why this happend to social services and place where it should be. Our communities, schools and ourselves. Know who is in your neightborhood. These children need a voice and if we speak before the tragedy rather than after then maybe we can save the forgotten child. Stop passing the blame and put it where it should be. On us all. Not just for these litttle girls but the ones who will follow.

[ladyteresa39]

We can all sit and pass judgement on this woman but her fate has already been decided by someone more powerful than any of us. We should be focused on our communities and the other children out there needing help.(remember the 4 little girls). Stop passing the blame on why this happend to social services and place where it should be. Our communities, schools and ourselves. Know who is in your neightborhood. These children need a voice and if we speak before the tragedy rather than after then maybe we can save the forgotten child. Stop passing the blame and put it where it should be. On us all. Not just for these litttle girls but the ones who will follow.

[kristy2784-2009]

You would think that since they were former foster children and adopted that someone would have checked up to see if the girls were even enrolled in school. Do they not do followups every once in a while to see how things are going? That is just terrible. I don''t understand how people can act like this to children. Mine are terrible sometimes, but I could never ever even think of hurting them.

[welshwoman-2009]

People who do this are sick and I would love to believe that "an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" routine would work but it won''t. Much as I hate to say it I firmly believe an abortion would be better than having children die like this. There aren''t enough resources or interest on the part of those in the social work world to really deal with this problem. Women need to stop giving it away and wait for someone who truly loves them to marry. Men need to keep it in their pants and be responsible adults before they have these children. Couples who want children then can have families and parents can raise them together in a healthy happy home. That was the American dream. Now''s it''s drugs, *** and rock and roll, a big house and car and proving you are someone you really aren''t.

[ahrats]

Child Services in Maryland sure needs some looking into. How do give children to a women who is obious out of control.

[gaye5]

Gidday brianbwb, I also ask myself how could neighbours and relatives not see this... Shouldnt they be counted as guilty as well, just as an accomplice does. They stood by, saw what was going on and did nothing.

[hoomyaj]

This is some crazy sh*t! Dam you crazy people who take advantage of little children.

[brianbwb-2009]

I am usually pretty jaded about most things, but even I found this story difficult to read. The horrors endured by these children are unimaginable.

It is obvious that the "mother" has some serious mental issues, and a plea of insanity would be hard to disprove.

I ask myself, how could such a person pass a screening for adoption? Are the agencies so desperate to unload the kids that they give them to just about anyone, without thorough checks?

It is difficult to imagine that there were no red flags, were the children ever seen outside the home? Did no one notice sounds of violence? Did the agency do any kind of follow up to check on the situation of the children? Didn''t the department of Social Services have any data on them, and notice they were not being schooled?

That the "mother" is a monster is not likely to be disputed, but it seems that general negligence by the immediate local society also played a part in this nightmare. My goodness, this woman has a "boyfriend", how could he possible be unaware of the hell that existed for these children.

Even more chilling, how many of these kinds of things are happening to children that we don''t yet know about, or will never find out because the children are already dead?

[erasmus81]

"Hope that she is able to recover and have a good life." Posted by httpwwwnews at 11:19 PM : Sep 30, 2008

I don''t think they ever recover. They only pretend to recover. It''s always with them.

[sly_lilfox]

ok now i just read some of the comments made by a bunch of you regarding woman and their treatment here in the US? I''m sorry....was I reading a different article here? Was there perhaps a glitch that occurred on this site where your comments about a topic that HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CHILD ABUSE AND MURDER and THE MORONS WHO ALLOWED AN OBVIOUSLY UNSTABLE PERSON TO HAVE ADOPTED CHILDREN.....got mixed in with those comments belonging to the handful of us with the intelligence to see this exactly as it is? How the Hell can you babble on about "women acting out" Acting OUT?!?!? Punch a wall. Scream into a pillow. Breathe. Count to 10. Maybe even overreact when your husband doesn''t call exactly at 1pm..yell at a fellow driver on the street from your car..THATS ACTING OUT. CHILD ABUSE AND MURDER IS DISGUSTING UNEXCUSEABLE BEHAVIOR OF A MENTALLY ILL PERSON. End of story. Morons.

[feedthakidz]

I live in MD, so this story (along with the terrible Medevac crash) has been all over the news for days now. It seems Renee Bowman told police she beat the child because of "her mental capacity." I took that to mean she told police she beat the kid because "she was so stupid." I''m surprised there''s no photograph of her here, but the woman is completely nuts. She said that when the girl needed medical attention she wanted to take her to a hospital but Bowman knew what she had done was wrong and was afraid of getting into trouble. The whole thing is so very sad. I don''t care what happens to Renee Bowman, but that little girl doesn''t stand a chance.

[squeakof2006]

Oh, and the whole "women are inferior to men" thing, it''s getting old. And Muhammad was just a cold blooded murderer who enjoyed womanizing. I''m sure he''d have enjoyed what this freak did. Just leave Allah out of it, huh!

[squeakof2006]

Why would you go through the time and money of adoption only to kill the child? And the youngest to live, knowing her older sister is dead, and their adoptive sister as well. This kid is going to have a long, hard road ahead. I just hope she is able to recover and find a home where someone actually LOVES her the way she deserves. This is just horrible and sickening that anyone would hurt a child, let alone lock 2 corpses in their freezer and continue to abuse another. Sick!! Agreed, lethal injection. No, wait, beat her severely, lock her in a freezer until she finally dies. Make it slow, terrorizing, and brutal, like what her innocent children felt. They trusted her!

[sly_lilfox]

Excuse me but from the little I do know about foster families who then go through the adoptive process..I am quite sure that an extensive background check, and psychological evaluation, and other pertinent tests are to be administered BY LAW before anyone is EVER given the luxury of caring for children in the system.
Am I wrong? This disgusting display of incompetent, poor excuses for a human beings, that are in an official position to have the power and control over the fate of these neglected children is outrageous and MUST be investigated and brought to Justice. I am outraged as I type this, my mouth open as I read the horrible details...HOW DID THIS WOMAN PASS THROUGH THE SYSTEM?!?!?!? Outrageous. Believe me I am going to press the matter as many places as I have the freedom to do so. The Government should be ashamed.

[cbsblogger]

What kind of country do we now live in? Every day we hear of these scum living amongst us. The death penalty is too good for some.

[rwsmith29456]

This is a truly pitiful story. I''m so glad that at least one of the kids broke away and is, hopefully, safe. Why do people abuse children so horribly? And why are agencies that are created to help them hog-tied into ineptitude?

[rwsmith29456]

colonyNY said, "Because of the anti Women sentiments in today''''s society - e.g. women are forced into our military for war even battle fronts by the draft - of course women are under the pressure to act out." Am I reading you right?? There is no draft and women fought long and hard for the opportunity to serve in the military in roles that weren''t just rear-guard clerical jobs.