Child Abuser Gets 25 Years - Updated

(Prince Frederick, Maryland) In September 2009, 44-year-old Renee Bowman pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse.

Yesterday Bowman was sentenced by Judge Marjorie L. Clagett to 25 years in prison in a court proceeding which included testimony from her scarred 8-year-old daughter. The girl told Bowman, "I do not think you will be going to heaven."

The abuse was graphically described.

Feces and urine were found in the girl's bedroom and in a closet because she had been locked in both places, Calvert County State's Attorney Laura L. Martin said.

The child had human bite marks and shoe marks on her body, a piece of her lip was missing, and she had broken bones that improperly healed, Martin said. The girl could not read, and authorities found no evidence that she had ever been to school.

Bowman still faces murder charges for the two frozen dead children. Notably, all three children were adopted by Bowman, ostensibly for support subsidies.

Bowman expressed remorse to the judge and to her victim. In Bowman's defense, attorney Dorothy Gardner-Hodge said that the woman experienced abuse as a child and Bowman's mother and sister suffer from mental illness. Bowman also endures chronic pain.

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Mom Arrested After Frozen Bodies Found
[Previous 9/29/08 post]
(Lusby, Maryland) A 43-year-old local woman, Renee Bowman, has been arrested by Calvert County Sheriff's deputies for the alleged extreme abuse of her three adopted daughters, two of which were found dead in a basement freezer.

Police were investigating an abuse complaint Saturday when they discovered the remains encased in ice.

The mother told investigators that they had been in her southern Maryland home for at least seven months, and police said they are considering the case a homicide.

"We have reason to believe that's the two children in the freezer," Lt. Bobby Jones of Calvert County Sheriff's Office said Monday. "We believe that the mother, who adopted the two children, is responsible for it."

Autopsies would need to be completed before they know for sure the remains are of the girls, who would be ages 9 and 11.

Deputies made the gruesome discovery in the home in Lusby, about 50 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. They were there with a search warrant to investigate the treatment of a girl who had run away and "showed signs of extreme abuse and neglect," the sheriff's department said.

A 7-year-old daughter was found wandering through the neighborhood after escaping out a second-story window. She had sores, lesions and bruising indicating seemingly relentless beatings.

Bowman was booked into custody without bond.

Tip: SuidaeEmpathy