October 9, 2008
Police Identify Girls Found in Freezer
Montgomery County Police say they have tentatively identified the two bodies found in Renee Bowman's freezer as two of Bowman's adopted daughters. They also released this undated photo of Jasmine Nicole Bowman, who would now be 9, and Minnet Cecila Bowman, who would be 11. A family friend made the identification, though as the Post points out, it's not yet an official identification. Still, police don't expect to discover the bodies belonged to anyone else once the autopsies are completed.
It's still totally unclear how long the girls have been dead, though officials have said that they may have died in Montgomery County, even though the bodies were found in Calvert County. Bowman and her daughters lived in Aspen Hill up until last fall. Bowman continues to be held on charges of child abuse related to her third daughter. No one has yet been charged in the two deaths. Police are asking anyone who had contact with any of the girls to call them at 240-773-5070.
Image courtesy Montgomery County Police
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That picture can only make one feel sadder than sad.
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I'm with erahk0. I saw that and was devastated.
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Sad yes, but angry as well. It's so outrageous that this woman was allowed to adopt children in the first place, and then take advantage of a system that (while intended to provide support to new parents) pays people to adopt kids. This woman was making more than my yearly take-home salary off of these poor kids. It seems clear to me that she was adopting this kids for the $800/month they'd bring in. How was she able to do it three times?
Was it just a faulty system -- or was it a desperate system that needed kids to be adopted so badly they were willing to give them to single, bankrupt people in unstable homes with unstable minds? Maybe some of both.
Either way -- I say 1) it's time to make it easier for gay couples to adopt, and 2) if you're going to give your kids up for adoption, don't do it here, because around here "adoption" can possibly mean "38th trimester abortion."
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it almost sounds like a sitcom, if you take away the "com" part.
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I work for DCPS and have known for a while that families adopt kids, especially special needs ones (often with mild learning or emotional disabilities) so they can collect a check. I didn't believe it at first, but it's true. As for kids being given up in DC, they are often taken away from susbstance abusing addicted women who can't raise them and no other family member is around to take them. Then they go into foster care or a group home. As for gay couples adopting, my school, not a predominantly white west of the park school, btw, has had several gay men and women as parents. At first, some of the teachers didn't really like it, but over time, these families began to make sense and were accepted by some very conservative, narrow-minded teachers.
But this paying people to adopt must be very carefully monitored. She actually received taxpayers' money to care for these babies and killed them. And what darling little girls they were, may they rest in peace.
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I'm just astonished that there wasn't any oversight for adoptive parents receiving financial aid. Actually, I'm more shocked that people that need financial aid are allowed to adopt at all.
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And yeah, why can a single parent adopt, but not a gay couple? Our society is so sick, I think it's beyond a cure.