Minnet (age 9) and Jasmine (age 7) Bowman were murdered in 2006 by their adoptive mother, Renee Bowman, and their bodies were stored in her basement freezer. The murders were discovered in 2008 when their then-7-year-old sister escaped from the house where she was imprisoned by jumping out of a second-story window. She was found by authorities with open sores and lesions on her buttocks and lower thighs, marks on her neck made by a cord, rope or other item and bruises on her hands and lips. She reported that she and her sisters were locked in their room and not allowed to come out. The girls were forced to use a bucket in the bedroom to go to the bathroom and were beaten and choked repeatedly by their mother.
After serving as their foster mother, Renee Bowman adopted Minnet in 2001 and Jasmine and the youngest girl (who were biological siblings) in 2004. She received $2,400 total per month in adoption subsidies for the girls since they were considered to be special needs children, and continued to collect subsidies after their deaths. Minnet was originally enrolled in day care at Douglas Memorial Church. According to a family friend, “The daycare lady asked Renee why is she eating so much for a little girl.” As a result, Bowman pulled the girl out of day care and decided to homeschool all three of the girls, who were never again enrolled in public school. Bowman claimed that Minnet died in Rockville (Montgomery County) of starvation and that Jasmine died in an argument when Bowman pushed her and her head hit the wall. However, Bowman later told a cellmate that she had smothered both of her daughters with a pillow, and autopsy results showed both girls had died of asphyxiation. Minnet died with broken bones in her arms and hand, while Jasmine suffered lacerations to her scalp. Though the dates of their death are unknown, Bowman’s boyfriend Joe Dickerson claimed that Minnet disappeared in May 2006 and Jasmine followed in June 2006. Bowman told Dickerson she had sent the girls to another state to live with a friend. With her daughters’ bodies in the freezer, Bowman moved first to Charles County under an assumed name, where CPS investigated her on an anonymous tip and found no evidence to substantiate abuse of the remaining daughter. Then Bowman, freezer still in tow, moved to Lusby (Calvert County), where her neighbors were unaware that a child was living in her house. When the girl finally escaped, she was wearing only a t-shirt stained with excrement and she reported that she had been beaten with a hard-heeled shoe. She was taken to the hospital and eventually placed in foster care. Police investigating the abuse reports discovered the other girls’ bodies in the freezer.
Renee Bowman pled guilty in September 2009 to charges of first-degree child abuse in Calvert County and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2010, she was tried in Montgomery County and convicted of two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse and sentenced to life without parole.
Date: September 27, 2008
Location: Lusby, Maryland
