ALLEGAN Co., Mich. - A 70-year-old Michigan man accused of the 1980 homicide of a Norfolk woman was charged Friday with the murder of his adoptive daughter.
Allegan County Prosecuting Attorney Mylene Koch charged Dennis Lee Bowman with Open Murder, Felony Murder and Child Abuse - 1st Degree and Mutilation of a Body.
On March 11, 1989, 14-year-old Aundria Michelle Bowman was reported as having run away from her home in Fillmore Township in Allegan County, Michigan. Over the course of 31 years, law enforcement officers from the Allegan County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police, Allegan City Police and the Village of Douglas investigated the case and followed on a number of leads.
In the fall of 2019, detectives from the Allegan County Sheriff's Office and Michigan State Police began working on a joint investigation with the Norfolk Police Department and Naval Criminal Investigations Service regarding a homicide that happened in Norfolk in 1980.
In November 2019, Bowman was taken into custody for charges in connection with the death of Kathleen O’Brien Doyle. Doyle was 25 when she was found murdered in her Norfolk residence on September 11, 1980. Boyle’s husband, a U.S. Navy pilot, was deployed at the time of the homicide.
Bowman was then extradited from Michigan to Virginia to face those charges.
On February 4 of this year, new information led law enforcement to skeletal remains found in a shallow grave in Allegan County. After extensive medical and DNA testing, the remains were positively identified as belonging to Aundria Bowman.
Dennis Bowman faces life in prison if convicted. He will be extradited back to Michigan.
Koch is reiterating that Bowman is only charged with these crimes and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
"I want to thank all fo the law enforcement teams both from Michigan and Virginia who have worked diligently on this case with my office over the years," Koch wrote. "I also want to assure Aundria's family and friends that even though this has been a very long road, this is the first step in seeking justice for her."
