LUSBY, MD - On the evening of Friday September 26, 2008, Calvert County Sheriffs Office units responded to a residence on Pawnee Trail in Lusby in reference to a found child. Phillip Garrett of Lusby saw, what appeared to be a young girl in distress stumbling up Pawnee Trail.
"It was like something out of a movie", recalled Mr. Garrett. "I've never seen anything like it. I asked the little girl if she was OK and she told me that her mother had been beating her to death", said Mr. Garrett.
Mr. Garrett stated that the girl defended her dad, saying that he was the one who treated her nicely but her mom beat her all the time. Her dad, known only as "joe" to those few neighbors that had talked to him, was only a visitor on weekends for the most part according to witnesses.
The child, a 7-year-old, African American female, showed signs of extreme abuse and neglect. Upon further investigation the officers determined that the child had escaped from her residence on Buckskin Trail., Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland, by jumping out the second story window. The victim had been left unattended in the home and locked in her room.
The victims adopted mother, Renee Bowman, a 43-year-old female from Lusby, responded to the Sheriffs Office after learning they had picked up the victim. She confessed to beating the victim with a hard heeled shoe. Renee Bowman is currently incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center on first degree child abuse charges.
While members of the Calvert Investigative Team were executing a search warrant on the residence to locate evidence of the abuse, they found human remains inside a drop freezer in the basement of the residence. It was learned that Renee Bowman had adopted three female children from the District of Columbia. The whereabouts of two of the children are unknown. While interviewing Bowman she indicated that the remains located within the freezer were that of her two other adopted daughters. Bowman advised that the remains had been in the freezer since she moved from Rockville, Montgomery County. Renee Bowman moved to Lusby, Calvert County, in February 2008.
Due to the condition of the remains frozen within the freezer the Medical Examiners Office requested the entire freezer be brought to Baltimore so the evidence could be removed. At this time investigators are unsure whose remains or how many remains are contained in the freezer. The Calvert Investigative Team is working in conjunction with the Montgomery County Police who are assigning investigators from their Major Crimes Division Homicide/Sex Crimes Section to continue the investigation.
