Md. Mother Jailed After Bodies Of 2 Children Found in Freezer

Six men carried the freezer out of the house, and it was transported to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore.

Many neighbors near Bowman's beige ranch-style home in Lusby and at her former residence in Rockville said they had never seen children at her home and were unaware that she had any. Authorities in Calvert and Montgomery County -- and in Prince George's County, where she lived for a time -- said they could find no record of the children being enrolled in public schools.

Neighbor John Baroniak, 59, said Bowman told him that she had moved to Lusby to escape an abusive husband. He said she rented the house and seemed happy. He said it seemed to him that a man was staying with her recently.

"When I talked to her and everything, I thought at least I got a nice neighbor," Baroniak said. "I'm just kind of shocked and blown away."

Bowman was being held yesterday on charges of child abuse in connection with injuries to the 7-year-old. The girl escaped from her locked bedroom Thursday by jumping out a window, police said.

Bowman admitted beating the girl with a "hard-heeled shoe," the sheriff's office said. The girl told police her mother beat her with a white shoe to the point that it was covered in blood, officials said.

The child had "extensive open infected sores and open lesions," several injuries to her feet and knees, and ligature marks and extensive scarring on her neck, according to charging documents filed in court.

Investigators said they believe the other girls died in Rockville. Any criminal charges related to their deaths would probably be filed in Montgomery, not Calvert, they said.

Montgomery police yesterday searched the small house where Bowman lived in Rockville, in the 13100 block of Vandalia Drive.

Neighbors said she lived with a man named Joe who often lifted barbells in the back yard, near a child's red plastic toy car. They did not recall seeing children.

"During the day, it was like no one was there," said Rivelino Valdiva, 29.

Neighbors said they think that Joe worked as a pressure washer and did odd maintenance jobs and that Bowman worked as a secretary. A few months before moving out, Bowman complained of back pain and said she had cancer, according to neighbor Shirley Knapp.

After Bowman moved to Calvert, the landlord complained to Howard Knapp, Shirley's husband, about the mess that had been left behind. "They were pigs," he recalled the landlord saying. "They trashed the house, and there was at least one dead cat in there."

The Maryland Department of Human Resources will file a petition in court today to gain custody of the 7-year-old.

Staff writers Aaron C. Davis, Hamil R. Harris, Nelson Hernandez, Philip Rucker and Paul Schwartzman and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.