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Adoptive Mother Jailed After Bodies of Two Children Found in Freezer

Posted Oct. 2, 2008 – An adoptive mom in Maryland has been jailed after the bodies of two children were found entombed in a block of ice in her freezer. But that’s only the beginning of what must be one of the sickest stories in a long time.

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Turns out that the bodies – whom the 43-year-old mother of three says are those of her daughters – have been frozen for more than a year, and she has been moving them from house to house in various Maryland counties near Washington, D.C., authorities said.

Renee D. Bowman, who is suspected of killing them, told police that the bodies were in the freezer when she left Montgomery County last October or November, The Washington Post reports. She then had brief stints in Prince George’s and Charles counties before moving to Calvert County.

At this point in time, everything is looking like she left Montgomery County with the freezer," Detective Sgt. Michael Moore of the Calvert County Sheriff's Office, told the newspaper. Despite an autopsy on Wednesday, authorities said they are still unable to determine the identities of the children or even how they died.

Despite Bowman’s acknowledgment that the dead children are hers, and the fact that police say they have no reason to doubt her, she has yet to be charged with anything other than child endangerment after her youngest daughter, a 7-year-old, was found wandering a street half naked.  Bowman is being held without bond.   Her 9- and 11-year-old are officially listed as “missing.”

For many familiar with the case, the real question is how Bowman – who was convicted nine years ago of threatening to hurt an elderly man, recently lost her home to foreclosure and had filed for bankruptcy – was able to pass muster to adopt three children.

We want to know how did this person . . . qualify to become an adoptive parent?" D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Committee on Human Services and a former social worker, told the Post. "Is there anything we don't know or should have known that would have prevented the adoption?"

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