Montgomery County police took the lead Wednesday in the investigation into the suspicious deaths of two adopted daughters who were put in a freezer by their mother as the Maryland medical examiner said it could be weeks before autopsies are complete.
The bodies were found frozen in Renee Bowman’s Calvert County home on Saturday, but police say their investigation has led them to believe the two girls, ages 9 and 11, were killed in Rockville last fall. Police said Bowman moved from Rockville to Lusby in November.
The frozen bodies were discovered after Bowman’s 7-year-old adopted daughter was found caked in mud and wandering the streets. When Bowman was questioned, she told police she killed her other two daughters and froze their bodies about a year ago.
Meanwhile, police said Montgomery and Calvert county authorities have interviewed Joe Dickerson, who lived with Bowman on and off for years, adding that he’s not a suspect.
But police wonder “what did [Dickerson] know and when did [he] know it,” Montgomery police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks said.
Between 2003 and 2005, Dickerson repeatedly listed Bowman’s former Landover address as his own when stopped for traffic violations, court records show. That was before Bowman lost the home to foreclosure and moved out in 2005, property records show. She adopted the girls through the District of Columbia — the eldest daughter in 2001 and the youngest two, who were sisters, in 2004.
Nickolas Pantazes, Dickerson’s jail bondsman, said he had listed Bowman as Dickerson’s “common law spouse” in his personal files.
Dickerson could not be located to comment for this story.
Questions also continue to swirl around how Bowman was able to adopt the children after she filed for bankruptcy and was convicted of a misdemeanor for physically threatening a 72-year-old man. District officials said they do not believe the information regarding Bowman’s past was included in a report by private contractor Board of Child Care, which cleared her for adoption.
The contractor said they’ve reviewed Bowman’s file and “we have determined that all legal, financial, medical and emotional requirements in effect at that time were met.”
Bowman also continued to receive a $2,400 monthly adoption stipend from the federal government even after she failed to comply with a District requirement for proof the children were in school.
Montgomery and Calvert county schools said the children were never enrolled.
