Western Michigan man pleads guilty to the 1989 killing of his adopted daughter
Crime Scene File Photo.
ALLEGAN, Mich. - A former western Michigan man has pleaded no contest in the 1989 killing of his 14-year-old adopted daughter, whose body was found buried in his backyard.
Dennis Bowman, 72, pleaded no contest Wednesday in an Allegan County courtroom to second-degree murder in Aundria Bowman's death, The Holland Sentinel reported.
His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 7.
Aundria Bowman was last seen in March 1989. Her body was discovered in February 2020 under a concrete slab in the backyard of Bowman's Hamilton home after he confessed to her killing.
Bowman told police he pushed the teen down stairs, killing her, in March 1989 after she threatened to report that he had molested her. The same day, Bowman called police to report that his daughter had stolen $100 from the couple and run away from home.
After Aundria's death, Bowman used an axe to cut off her legs so her body would fit in a barrel, he told police. Bowman said he buried that barrel at he and his wife's Holland-area home and later reburied it at their new home in Hamilton after they moved.
Bowman is already serving two life sentences for the 1980 rape and murder of a 25-year-old woman -- Kathleen Doyle, who was the wife of a U.S. Navy pilot -- in Norfolk, Virginia.
Bowman confessed to concealing Aundria's death in late 2019 while he was being held in the Allegan County Jail after his arrest for the Virginia murder.