Bowman Murder Trial & verdict(Cold Ohio Case)

[NightOwl]

Front page Toledo Blade Ohio story what a sick sick bastard this is! The poor little girl.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2011/0...egins.html

[Lady Cop]

the victim




Eileen Adams, a freshman in high school, was abducted from Toledo on December 19, 1967, as she left school. Her frozen body was found in a field in Whiteford Township, Michigan on January 30, 1968. It had been wrapped in a rug and mattress cover, and tied with an electrical cord. The girl had apparently been left alive but bound in such a way that her struggles to get free had tightened a telephone cord looped around her neck and tied to her ankles, which strangled her. Her shoes and coat were missing, and she had been raped. Police believed that her abductor had held her somewhere for up to two weeks before leaving her in the field in southeastern Michigan.

Although the case went unsolved for nearly forty years, Eileen's relatives had not forgotten. According to the Toledo Blade, Eileen's father raised the issue at dinner one day with an off-duty police officer, Sergeant Mike Mcgee. In ordinary circumstances, they'd never have crossed paths, but McGee's in-laws were in the habit of inviting the elderly from area nursing homes to join them; Eileen's father was one of them, and he took the opportunity to tell Mcgee the terrible story.

McGee alerted Lucas County cold case detectives, who'd recently received a considerable grant to investigate murders and sexual assaults, so they decided to re-open the case. They looked at evidence from the crime scene and managed to isolate DNA from semen found on the girl's underwear. They were also already aware of a potential suspect against whom to compare it.

[Mickeymouse]

Sick, dirty old pervert!

[NightOwl]

Thank you!! Lady Cop Great job as always!

[Lady Cop]

thankyou.


what an awful case. too bad he won't live long enough for Ohio to execute him. he's a horrible twisted creature. why isn't DA seeking death? his age?

video report:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/video?id=8294210



TOLEDO, Ohio -- TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A man accused of snatching a teenager on her way home from school in 1967, holding her captive for up to two weeks in his basement and strangling her is about to go on trial in a case that was all but forgotten until five years ago.

Investigators first connected Robert Bowman, now 75, with the killing in the early 1980s, but they didn't have enough evidence before Bowman, once a successful businessman, disappeared into a life on the streets in Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

After a bit of luck, police took another look at the case. A DNA sample linked Bowman to the crime, investigators said, and police in California arrested him in 2008.

He faces life in prison if he's convicted of killing 14-year-old Eileen Adams almost 44 years ago. Her body was found in southern Michigan, a few miles north of her home city of Toledo, Ohio, tied with telephone and drapery cords. A nail had been driven into her head.

Bowman has pleaded not guilty to murder. Jury selection begins Monday in Toledo.

The key witness is likely to be Bowman's former wife, who told investigators a chilling account of finding Adams alive in their basement in the days after she vanished.

Margaret Bowman said she had been married less than a year when she heard moaning while hanging clothes to dry in the basement. She opened the door to a fruit cellar and found the girl naked and bound with ropes.

She testified during a pretrial hearing in May 2010 that she tried to help the girl, but her husband came home and told her that he now had to kill the girl and threatened to kill her as well if she told anyone what she saw.

Margaret Bowman testified that she didn't see him kill the girl, but he made her ride along when he dumped the body in a field.

She said she left her husband as soon as she saved enough money to get away.

Bowman's court-appointed attorneys argued that she shouldn't be allowed to testify because police used hypnosis during one interview with her. A message seeking comment was left for defense attorneys.

Before police investigated Bowman, he had owned a construction company in Ohio and later ran a business that made high-end purses in Florida and sold them in Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

But when detectives tracked him down in Florida in 1982, he was living in an abandoned restaurant, wearing a tattered shirt and jeans and a scruffy beard.

Hanging from the restaurant ceiling were three dolls, their feet bound with string, investigators said. A nail had been driven into the head of one - eerily similar to how a hunter had found the body of Adams.

Bowman would say only that Adams had been in his home, according to a police report. He said he didn't remember what happened and told police it was up to them to prove he killed the girl.

Three more decades passed until Eileen Adams' ailing father had a chance meeting with a police officer and asked him to take another look at the killing.

Cold-case detectives took DNA samples from Bowman's ex-wife and their daughter and compared those samples with DNA found on Eileen Adams. Investigators said they found a match and charged Bowman even though they had no idea where he was living or even if he was still alive.

All they knew was that he had spent part of the last four decades living on the streets in the southern and western U.S. Bowman was profiled on the "America's Most Wanted" and two more years passed before he finally was arrested when police officers spotted him riding a bicycle in southern California.

[Lady Cop]

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Robert Bowman, 75, joined an "offbeat" religion and mutilated dolls after he kidnapped and killed a 14-year-old Toledo school girl back in 1967, that's according to the opening statements in his murder trial Thursday.

Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Chris Anderson told the jury Eileen Adams, 14, was supposed to go to her sister's west Toledo home after school on December 18 of 1967 – but she never got off the bus.

Adams' sister Mary Ann Brimmer testified that their father came to her place to pick Eileen up at 3:45pm. When Eileen wasn't at the school or the bus stop, her father filed a missing person's report.

"He was getting very, very jumpy. It was making me nervous. She was never late," Brimmer testified.

A month and a half later, two Michigan brothers found a rolled up rug tied up with a lamp cord in a field. Prosecutors say Adams was inside wearing the suit she had on the day she disappeared. She had a three inch nail drilled in the back JESUS!! of her heard and cord wrapped around her neck.

"Around her neck, down her back and to her ankles were bound," Anderson stated. An autopsy concluded Adams had been strangled.

Prosecutors say police at the time went to the media and released information on the murder to gain leads. They say no leads turned credible and the case grew cold in April on 1968.

In 1981, prosecutors say Bowman's ex wife went to police and said Bowman killed Adams and she was a witness. Officers found Bowman in Florida living in a shell of a burned out building. His attorney stated he joined a religion in which he was to possess no material things.

They say he quit his job as a businessman and spent all of his money. Inside the burned out building, officers found Bowman had suspended a Spider man doll from the ceiling upside down with string binding the dolls ankles. The string was also wrapped around the doll's neck and down its back. There was also the head of a Ken doll.

"That Ken doll had a nail in the back of his head," Anderson stated.

Police went to prosecutors who said there wasn't sufficient evidence in the case. The case went cold for another 15 years.

In 2006, police reopened the case again at the request of Adams' parents. This time, detectives tested for DNA. The conducted a reverse paternity test on Bowman's daughter to come up with Bowman's DNA and compared that to semen found on Adams' skirt.

Prosecutors said it was a partial match. Bowman was found in 2008 in California living in the desert, underneath a tarp. Officers checked him for warrants, discovered his murder warrant and placed him under arrest.

Bowman's attorneys started there were other suspects in this case including Adams' father. Retired Detective Merritt Higbie testified he went to the father's workplace and checked his alibi.

He testified Adams' father was ruled out as a suspect. Bowman's attorneys also questioned Higbie about one of the brothers who found Adams' body, Larry Knaggs.

"Larry Knaggs made the remark that he was going to drive a nail in someone's head, " Defense attorney Pete Rost said.

Rost also questioned Higbie about an anonymous note sent to Brimmer's addressed to Adams, sent after her disappearance but before her body was found.

"Dear Eileen. I'm glad my plan worked but after I thought about it I think it would have been better if you were to jump in the river and drown yourself," Higbie read the note on the stand.

It also discussed money, sticking to the plan and meeting at a certain place and time. Higbie did not call the note credible to the investigation.

Testimony resumes in the case Friday morning.



Bowman's old house

[NightOwl]

Murder victim's sister testifies.....

http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2011/0...ifies.html

[NightOwl]

Spiderman Doll used at murder trial.... The Toledo Blade 8/12/2011



With gloved hands, retired Monroe County Sheriff’s Detective Peter Navarre held out a Spiderman doll in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Friday – its ankles and wrists tied together and a needle protruding from its head.

“It was hanging upside down on the door that led to where he was residing,” the retired detective said Friday of the burned-out Florida restaurant where investigators found Robert Bowman living in 1982. “We collected it as evidence.”

Fourteen years after Eileen Adams’ body was found in a frozen Monroe County field with her hands and feet tied and a nail driven through her skull, detectives traveled to southern Florida in search of Bowman, Detective Navarre testified Friday during the second day of testimony in Bowman’s trial that began Monday with jury selection. He then testified about the first interaction police had with the man now on trial for murder in the first degree for the slaying of the 14-year-old Sylvania Township girl.

Detective Navarre referred to a lengthy report he wrote after his interviews with Bowman. In it, he said the defendant did not admit to the 1967 slaying, but did not deny it either.

“During the course of the interview, the defendant stated, ‘To my knowledge, the murder of Eileen occurred in my house. I was there,’ ” the detective read from his report. “He then clarified his statement. ‘I was living there at the time.’ ”

But although several dolls were collected that day — including the head of a Ken doll with a nail protruding from it — and reports were written, Bowman was not arrested, the detective acknowledged when questioned by defense attorney Pete Rost.

In response to Mr. Rost’s questions, the retired investigator also acknowledged that the knots used to tie the Spiderman doll were not similar to those used on the victim and that Bowman did not react to photos of Miss Adams that were shown to him.

“If Robert Bowman admitted in 1982 that he killed Eileen Adams, wouldn’t you have arrested him?” Mr. Rost questioned, generating an affirmative answer from the detective.

“And you didn’t do that?

“No.”

The cold case was revived in 2006 after authorities used DNA results from a reverse paternity test to get an arrest warrant for Bowman. They found him in Riverside, Calif. two years later.

Detective Navarre was one of six witnesses to testify over the two days of testimony. The trial is expected to resume Monday with the testimony of Bowman’s ex-wife, Margaret, who first approached police in 1981 naming her husband as a suspect.

Prior to her testimony, Judge Gene Zmuda is expected to rule on issues of spousal privilege.

The first to testify Friday was Sandra Snoad Jakubec, who rode the Cherry Street bus to school at Central Catholic with her friend, Miss Adams. A freshman at the time of her friend’s disappearance, Mrs. Jakubec recalled riding the bus home on Dec. 18, 1967, with her friend and getting off at her stop as normal.

Her friend was still on the bus talking to someone as the bus drove off, she testified. But she acknowledged that because her stop was first, she never saw Miss Adams exit the bus and did not know where she traveled to that day.

Miss Adams did not make it to her destination. Her body was found was found 43 days later wrapped in a mattress cover and oval braided rug in a field in Monroe County’s Whiteford Township.

As Mrs. Jakubec walked to the witness stand Friday, members of Miss Adams’ family commented in the gallery that they were glimpsing how old she would have looked if she lived.

Miss Adams would have turned 58 years old next month, her older sister noted.





Just horrible!!

[NightOwl]

Stumbled upon this this article about Bowman's ex-wife it is absolutely shocking! I was stunned!!

The Toledo Blade 5/15/2010

Man's ex-wife testifies against him at hearing

She said she was hanging wet laundry to dry in the basement of her West Sylvania Avenue home when she heard a muffled noise from behind the closed door to the fruit cellar.

Margaret "Margie" Bowman opened the door to find a naked girl, silenced with tape across her mouth and bound by her outstretched limbs to mattresses that lined the walls.

She struggled to free the girl, but said she was interrupted by her husband, Robert.

"He just started going crazy, yelling and screaming, saying he had to kill her now," Ms. Bowman, 64, told Judge Gene Zmuda during a pretrial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

That was 40 years ago. Ms. Bowman's testimony yesterday marked her first public discussion of the cold-case murder of Eileen Adams - a 14-year-old girl who was missing for more than a month before her body was found in a frozen Monroe County field in January, 1968.

Her ex-husband, Bowman, 73, is accused of raping and killing the girl. Bowman sat with wrists shackled as his ex-wife recounted the day in December, 1967, that she said she discovered the girl in the basement.

Judge Zmuda told Ms. Bowman before she testified Friday that her marriage to the suspect meant that she could not be compelled to participate in the trial.

"Do you understand that you do not have to testify about these events?" Judge Zmuda asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Ms. Bowman was just 21 and a couple of months from celebrating her first wedding anniversary. She and Bowman, then a 30-year-old business owner, shared a two-bedroom house, a dog, and an infant daughter.

Her husband was out and the baby was sleeping in her crib as Ms. Bowman handwashed the family laundry in the kitchen sink, then headed down the steps to hang the wash to dry.

She almost ignored the sound she heard on the other side of the cellar door. She thought it was rats. She was frightened of rats.

Instead, Ms. Bowman opened the door and found the girl whose name she would learn only days later from news reports and the set of textbooks she found in the house marked "Eileen Adams." The girl was naked and suspended with ropes, arms spread "like Jesus Christ on a cross," Ms. Bowman testified.

She was still alive.

"I screamed, and I tried to help her down," Ms. Bowman said. She couldn't.

Bowman came down the stairs "ranting and raving," and threw her across the room, she said.

"Did you fight back or resist?" Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Tim Braun asked.

"No, I was scared to death of him," Ms. Bowman said.

That's when he announced he would have to kill the girl, Ms. Bowman said. He threatened to kill his wife and daughter if Ms. Bowman told anyone what she'd seen. She went upstairs and held her infant daughter on the living room couch until her husband returned upstairs.

Ms. Bowman said she didn't see him kill the Adams girl, and she didn't see him put her in the trunk of their car. "He told me he strangled her and put a nail in the back of her head," Ms. Bowman said.

She testified that she was forced to ride with him to Michigan where he planned to hide the body. She said she "closed her eyes" as he disposed of the girl.

She kept the secret for a short time. She first told her mother, now deceased, and later her siblings. No one believed her, she said. "They thought I was an old drunk."

She added later that she left her husband about three years after the crime, She saved money "until I could get away." She moved across the country several times with her daughter to elude Bowman, she said. After moves from Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami, and Hollywood, Fla., she now lives in St. Petersburg, Fla.

She didn't file for divorce until the 1980s, after she was interviewed by now-retired Toledo Police Detective Daniel Brimmer.

Ms. Bowman has been a key witness for generations of police detectives who investigated the murder of the Adams girl. It was 13 years after the murder that she first spoke with Detective Brimmer.

Prosecutors in the 1980s weren't convinced that Ms. Bowman's testimony would be enough to convict her ex-husband, Mr. Brimmer testified yesterday.

The advent of DNA evidence in the 1990s created new opportunities for investigators, said Detective Bart Beavers, who helped when the case was reopened in 2006.

A warrant was issued for Bowman's arrest in November, 2007, after a reverse paternity test using samples from his ex-wife and daughter were used to match Bowman to DNA found on the victim's body.

Ms. Bowman was asked by defense attorney Jane Roman why she didn't go to authorities until the 1980s.

"I was frightened and scared and in shock. I was very naive then," Ms. Bowman said. "I was afraid. Am I on trial here?"

Another hearing in the case is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 23.

[IMaDick]

Her testimony should convict her also, she knew what happened to this girl and did nothing, she is IMO as guilty as her husband.

[NightOwl]

Her testimony should convict her also, she knew what happened to this girl and did nothing, she is IMO as guilty as her husband.

Yes Sir IMaDick I agree with your opinion.

[Lady Cop]

dolls hogtied and hung up in his Miami home.




the girl's body tied with phone cable.

[NightOwl]

How does this ex-wife live with herself? The child was held captive in the basement not for a day or two but, up to three weeks are we serious.



Ex-wife says she saw Ohio girl before 1967 killing
by Brian Schwartz
Posted: 08.15.2011 at 2:08 PM

TOLEDO -- The ex-wife of a man on trial in the 1967 killing of an Ohio schoolgirl says she found the teen tied up and alive in their basement before the 14-year-old was killed.

Robert Bowman, who's now 75, is charged with murder in the killing Eileen Adams who disappeared on her way home from school in Toledo.

Bowman's ex-wife, Margaret Bowman, told jurors Monday that she found the girl naked in a fruit cellar in their basement. "She was still alive. I looked into her eyes," Margaret Bowman testified.

She said Adams was suspended with wires to the wall, "Hanging like Jesus." Ms. Bowman said Adams was naked.

Margaret Bowman said that when she discovered Adams in the basement, she fled upstairs where Robert Bowman intercepted her. Ms. Bowman says Robert Bowman confronted her and threatened to kill her baby if she said anything.

Ms. Bowman also testified to being with her then-husband when he disposed of Adams' body. She recollected, "It was someplace in Michigan because I saw 'entering Michigan' signs." Ms. Bowman remembered seeing water and trees in the area where Robert Bowman allegedy dumped Adams' body.

According to the prosecution, Robert Bowman kidnapped Eileen Adams from a bus stop on December 18, 1967 and held her prisoner in his basement for up to three weeks before killing her and dumping her body. Adams' body was discovered in a Monroe County field in January 1968.

Robert Bowman has pleaded not guilty. Police arrested him three years ago. Investigators say DNA evidence links him to the killing.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story)

Have you been following the Bowman trial? Are you old enough to remember when the young girl disappeared?

http://www.toledoonthemove.com/news/stor...?id=651758

Click on the above link for comments.

[NightOwl]

Detective Dan Brimmer on this case married the victims older sister!

The ex-wife was married to a Big Rat!! (rats in the home excuse)




The Toledo Blade 8/15/2011
Ex-wife says Bowman threatened her to keep secret

1967 incident is described at murder trial

After hearing noises she thought probably were rats, Margaret Bowman found a girl — naked, tied, and with tape over her mouth — in the basement of her home, the former wife of Robert Bowman said Monday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

“I saw the young girl. There were mattresses all around the walls. She was hanging like Jesus,” she testified, describing what she saw in 1967 in a small closed-off fruit cellar in the basement. “ … I got so upset and crazy I think. I ran up the stairs. … And then he confronted me.”

Ms. Bowman was among 10 witnesses who have testified over three days during the murder trial of her former husband.

Bowman, 75, is charged with murder in the first degree in the slaying of 14-year-old Eileen Adams more than 44 years ago.

Ms. Bowman testified about finding the young captive in her basement and her husband “ranting and raving” upstairs in their home on West Sylvania Avenue. It was there, she said, that he yelled at her to keep her nose out of his business.

“[He said,] ‘I [am] going to have to kill her,” she testified. “ … He threatened me that he would kill me and my baby if I went to police.”

Ms. Bowman said her husband then forced her and her baby to accompany him “while he disposed of her body.” Later, she found school books belonging to “Eileen Adams” in her kitchen, she testified.

Before the jury of nine women and three men heard Ms. Bowman’s testimony, Judge Gene Zmuda ruled that spousal privilege did not preclude her from testifying in the case with certain exceptions. Specifically, Ms. Bowman testified about what she observed, threats made against her and her then-newborn child, and statements Bowman made that the victim might have heard.

At Ms. Bowman’s request, the judge did not allow photos to be taken of her during her testimony.

Ms. Bowman, who has since divorced Bowman, said she called Toledo police in 1981 about what she saw that night. Prior to that, she testified that she had been too frightened to come forward.

When questioned by the defense, she acknowledged having moved several times with her husband and daughter in the ensuing years and that during those times, Bowman had been employed and successful. She said she separated from him in the mid-1970s, and that his success had crumbled after he became involved in what had been described as an “off-beat religion.”

According to witness testimony given late last week, the teenager was on her way to her sister’s West Toledo house after school Dec. 18, 1967, when she disappeared. Her body was found in a frozen Monroe County field Jan. 30, 1968.

Retired law enforcement officers testified during the first days of the trial that the victim was found bound in a rug with her hands tied and a cord connecting her neck to her ankles. A nail had been driven into the back of her skull.

Retired Toledo police Detective Dan Brimmer testified Monday that he was assigned the Adams murder case after Ms. Bowman came forward in 1981. He said he and retired Monroe County sheriff’s Detective Pete Navarre — who has testified — traveled to Florida in early 1982 to question Bowman.

At the time, Bowman was living in an abandoned, burned-out restaurant, Mr. Brimmer said. There, they found a Spider-Man doll with its wrists and ankles bound and a needle protruding from its head. They also found the head of a Ken doll with a nail driven into the back of its head, he testified.

Mr. Brimmer, who after retirement in 1988 married the older sister of Eileen Adams, Mary Ann, said Bowman teased the detectives with information, but “none of [his statements] amounted to a confession.”

Bowman was not arrested at the time, he acknowledged.

Years later, in 2009, the teenager’s body was exhumed and examined by several forensic anthropologists, including Steven Symes, a bone-trauma expert who testified via video Monday.

Mr. Symes testified in the video recorded July 27 that he was asked to examine the victim’s skull. He noted that it had at least three impact points in the front and four or more in the rear. The impacts were with such force that it caused a fracture that, in essence, split the skull in two, he testified.

Mr. Symes noted when questioned by defense attorney Pete Rost that his examination could not determine whether the victim was alive at the time the skull was fractured or who inflicted the injuries.

More witnesses are scheduled to testifyTuesday. The trial is expected to last through next week.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2011/0...ecret.html

Click above for comments......

[kitty1]

I was speed reading through this. I don't recall the crime..way before my time. Does anyone know the address on Sylvania? I googled it and found nothing. There are really no houses left on West Sylvania..just businesses. Just curious.

[NightOwl]

I was speed reading through this. I don't recall the crime..way before my time. Does anyone know the address on Sylvania? I googled it and found nothing. There are really no houses left on West Sylvania..just businesses. Just curious.

No idea the address (thanks to lady cop putting the photo up we see it was a sweet little bungalow). Kitty1 there are houses still on West Sylvania you need to cross over Secor Road that is still West Sylvania I know because I shop at Phoenix Earth Co-op. If you find it let us know!

[kitty1]

No idea the address (thanks to lady cop putting the photo up we see it was a sweet little bungalow). Kitty1 there are houses still on West Sylvania you need to cross over Secor Road that is still West Sylvania I know because I shop at Phoenix Earth Co-op. If you find it let us know!

Yeah, now that I really think about it, there are a few houses here and there. The house just looks very familiar to me. That would be spooky if it was still around, but I doubt it. Phoenix Co-op..are you one of those tree- hugging, organic eating health nuts? We eat alot of that stuff and shop there often, but I still need my Rudy's or White Tower fix down the road. And, of course, Boyd's retro candy!!!!!

[NightOwl]

No idea the address (thanks to lady cop putting the photo up we see it was a sweet little bungalow). Kitty1 there are houses still on West Sylvania you need to cross over Secor Road that is still West Sylvania I know because I shop at Phoenix Earth Co-op. If you find it let us know!

Yeah, now that I really think about it, there are a few houses here and there. The house just looks very familiar to me. That would be spooky if it was still around, but I doubt it. Phoenix Co-op..are you one of those tree- hugging, organic eating health nuts? We eat alot of that stuff and shop there often, but I still need my Rudy's or White Tower fix down the road. And, of course, Boyd's retro candy!!!!!

I like to shop small Markets including Anderson's Market on W Sylvania - may have news for you to-night on house.

[kitty1]

may have news for you to-night on house.

I hope you can get a location. I actually lived on a street off of W.Sylvania for several years. I would have lived there at the time of the murder.

[NightOwl]

Kitty1, How I found the house location was thanks to an old web site 2008
here is an excerpt of what was said...

"Another good article on the case about the detective who never gave up.
Monroe County ex-detective never quit on cold case.

For Pete Navarre, the 1967 murder of Eileen Adams became an obsession. The retired Monroe County sheriff's detective used to sit in the driveway of the house on the corner of Sylvania Avenue and Douglas Road where the 14-year-old allegedly was held and replay the details of the case over and over in his mind."

Then there was a link to the Toledo Blade but, the link goes to home page only damn and it would have been an interesting read about the Detective -I will put the link for the blade up maybe someone else out there can help.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll...WS02/810290363

The House is still there I believe a Douglas Sylvania Medical Building is at the corner of Douglas & Sylvania the first house on south side after medical building on Sylvania across street is an Auto Connection Repair Shop. I went by it to-day its remodeled some and that tree is cut down the tiny little model T Car Driveway is gone the tiny garage is still there all new blacktop. Check it out! Let us know.