On March 11, 1989, Dennis Lee Bowman and his wife Brenda reported that their 14-year-old daughter, Aundria, had run away from their Michigan home. The case of the missing teen remained open for decades. The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office and the Michigan State Police handled the ongoing investigation.
Investigators never eliminated Bowman as a potential suspect in Aundria’s disappearance. He had a criminal record that included assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct in 1980 and breaking and entering into a female coworker’s home in 1998. But it wasn’t until Bowman’s arrest in another cold case that authorities were finally able to locate Aundria.
Dennis Bowman Admits He Killed His Daughter
In November 2019, Bowman, then 70, was taken into custody in Michigan. Thanks to DNA evidence, he was charged with the 1980 murder of a woman in Norfolk, Virginia. Catching Bowman meant long-delayed justice for the family of Kathleen Doyle, the 25-year-old who’d been killed almost 40 years earlier.
While behind bars in Michigan awaiting extradition to Virginia, Bowman began to open up about Aundria’s 1989 disappearance. During a visit with Brenda in December 2019, he told her he’d slapped Aundria during an argument, and she’d died after falling down the stairs. Bowman said he’d then disposed of her body in the neighbor’s trash.
However, this wasn’t the complete truth about what happened to Aundria.
[Stream an episode of Interrogation Raw about Aundria Bowman’s case in the A&E app.]
Detective Lieutenant Todd Workman of the Michigan State Police, who worked on Aundria’s case since 2018, tells A&E True Crime via email, “Dennis Bowman did give several different versions regarding his involvement with Aundria’s death.”
David Carter, a professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University and an expert on policing, says it’s “not unusual for the stories to change” when police talk to a suspect. He notes that skilled interrogation can help uncover the truth. “If you don’t have DNA, if you don’t have any other forensic evidence, [a confession is] your only hope,” he tells A&E True Crime.
Trying to Learn the Truth About Aundria Bowman’s Death
Bowman continued to talk to investigators and his wife in 2019 and early 2020. “Our team made a concerted effort to build rapport with Dennis Bowman,” Workman says. “We did a lot of listening and trying to understand his background before asking any direct questions about his potential wrongdoing.”
At one point, Bowman told police he’d pushed Aundria down the stairs after she’d said she would publicly accuse him of molesting her. He claimed after she died from the fall, he cut up her body with a machete, and said investigators could find the weapon under his bed.
However, Bowman did not reveal what he’d done with his daughter’s body until a February 4, 2020, conversation with Brenda, according to MLive. During a phone call, he told her he had buried Aundria in their backyard. He said he also transported her remains from their old house to the new house they moved into after Aundria vanished.
On February 5, 2020, authorities announced they had found human remains in Bowman’s yard. A genetic sample from Aundria’s biological mother—the Bowmans had adopted Aundria when she was a baby—and DNA testing determined that the remains were Aundria’s.
Workman says of Bowman’s confession, “It can be difficult to sift through what is truth and what is a lie. Ultimately, we do whatever we can to corroborate what we are being told with independent facts. In this case, we were able to locate Aundria’s remains, which helped us corroborate at least some of what he had admitted.”
What Prompted Dennis Bowman to Confess Decades Later?
But why would Bowman ultimately confess? Forensic psychologist Joni Johnston saw Bowman’s confession on an episode of A&E’s Interrogation Raw.
“Dennis Bowman is 70 years old, and he knows he is going to prison for the rest of his life, given the DNA evidence against him,” Johnston says via email. “I think at the end of his life, [he] is trying to find some way to redeem himself.”
The episode of Interrogation Raw about Bowman, entitled “Demon Inside,” also features audio of Bowman telling Brenda, “Now you know where [Aundria] is. At least you’ll have her in a tin jar on a shelf.”
Johnston believes revealing the location of Aundria’s remains to his wife was just a way for Bowman to “feel better about himself.”
The Holland Sentinel reported that Bowman was extradited to Virginia on February 7, 2020, just days after he told Brenda where to find Aundria.
Where Is Dennis Bowman Today?
In June 2020, Bowman pleaded guilty in a Norfolk, Virginia court to the rape and murder of Kathleen Doyle. He received two life sentences for those crimes, as well as another 20 years for burglary. His sentence left no possibility for parole.
In December 2021 in Allegan County, Michigan, Bowman pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in Aundria’s death. With that plea, Bowman did not officially admit his guilt, but did accept that he would be punished for the crime. A judge later sentenced him to 35 to 50 years for Aundria’s murder.
Bowman is serving his sentence with the Virginia Department of Corrections. He is currently listed as an inmate in River North Correctional Center.
Did Dennis Bowman Make a Full Confession?
“The focus of our investigation from the outset was to bring some justice for Aundria Bowman and all of the other victims we discovered as the investigation developed,” Workman says.
“Unfortunately, there are some facts [in Aundria’s case] we may never have the complete story on because Bowman is the only person who knows the full truth.” However, Workman remains “optimistic that someday we will get to that point.”
Related Features:
What Happens When Teens Go Missing? Not Much
Why Are There More Serial Killers in the U.S. Than Any Other Country?
