ALLEGAN, Mich. (WOOD) — A man who killed his teenage daughter in 1989 has been sentenced to a decadeslong prison term — one he will never serve in Michigan because he’s already serving life for a case in Norfolk, Virginia.
In Allegan County Circuit Court Monday morning, Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker sentenced 75-year-old Dennis Bowman to 35 to 50 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of his adopted daughter Aundria.
State sentencing guidelines would have given Bowman a life sentence. The judge said it would have made him eligible for parole in 15 years. Noting this was an especially heinous crime, the judge went beyond those guidelines.
“Mr. Bowman is not safe to be in our community,” the judge said. “His numerous assaults, his behavior in this case, other convictions all indicate Mr. Bowman is a serious, dangerous man that has harmed many communities, many families. It’s impossible even to articulate the words to describe what he has done. Reading what he has done is sickening.”
Bowman pleaded no contest to Aundria’s murder in December. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated the same as any other conviction at sentencing.
He is already serving two life sentences plus 20 years for the 1980 murder of Kathleen Doyle in Norfolk, Virginia. She was a 25-year-old wife of a U.S. Navy pilot who was deployed at the time of the murder. Following that murder, Bowman was charged with other crimes against women.
Allegan County Prosecutor Myrene Koch said Bowman will be sent back to Virginia to serve out his sentences there.
GENEALOGY, CHANCE MEETING LED TO CHARGES
Bowman and his wife adopted Aundria as a baby. She vanished from the family’s Fillmore Township home, northwest of Hamilton, on March 11, 1989. Investigators had been looking for her since then.
“The major break in this case came at a chance meeting between a detective from the Michigan State Police and a detective from the Norfolk Police Department who both just happened to be attending a cold case homicide conference in Virginia,” Koch said during a press conference following Bowman’s sentencing hearing.
Norfolk police also released a partial video of the press conference on Twitter Monday.
She said they soon realized that Bowman was a suspect in both Doyle and Aundria’s cases.
“Dennis Bowman was the suspect in Aundria’s disappearance for many years; however, despite numerous search warrants, interviews and searches of his property by law enforcement, no evidence was located at those times to link him to her murder,” Koch said. “The Norfolk detective had DNA evidence from the scene of a homicide in Virginia, but no suspect to compare it to. The Michigan State Police detective had a sample of (Bowman’s) DNA, but no evidence suitable for comparison from the body of Aundria.”
MSP Detective Bryan Fuller said genealogy testing — the use of public DNA databases to identify victims, like in West Michigan’s ‘196 Jane’ and ‘Ada bones’ cases; and develop suspects, like in the Golden State Killer case — had given Norfolk Police Department Detective John Smith a lead on the Allegan County connection. Fuller said when Smith approached him, he was already familiar with Aundria’s case.
“That was the catalyst that moved us forward,” Fuller said.
They tested Bowman’s DNA against the sample left behind at Doyle’s murder. It was a match.
Koch said the renewed investigation into Doyle’s murder allowed police investigating Aundria’s disappearance to gather more information.
“This joint endeavor eventually culminated in the confession of Dennis Bowman for the death and dismemberment of Aundria,” Koch said.
She said Bowman knew he was going to be charged with murder in Virginia, which has the death penalty, and that his wife was pressuring him to tell her where Aundria’s body was.
He ultimately did tell police exactly where to find Aundria’s remains, buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of his property in Monterey Township, east of Hamilton. Investigators recovered them in February 2020.
AUNDRIA WAS LOVING, COURAGEOUS
Koch said Aundria’s friends and family described her as sweet and a protective older sister.
“Aundria was courageous and strong. She was someone who stood up for herself even in the face of abuse,” Koch said. “Aundria lost her life, she lost her potential and was given only a series of nevers: She would never go to prom or graduate high school; she would never go to college or find a career that she loved; she would never get married or have children of her own; and she would never enjoy growing up and growing old surrounded by family and friends who loved her.”
Koch said she hopes Bowman’s conviction will allow Aundria to rest in peace.
In February 2021, police said Bowman confessed to a rape and assault in 1979. The victim was a 27-year-old woman from Holland.