Woman Sentenced to Life for Killing, Freezing 2 Daughters

(March 22) -- A Maryland woman has been sentenced to life without parole for killing two adopted special-needs children and storing their bodies in a freezer so she could collect more than $150,000 in subsidies for their care.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Algeo called Renee Bowman's crimes "horrific, reprehensible and despicable" and said they were the worst he had seen during his 25 years as an attorney and a judge.

Bowman, who did not testify at her trial, addressed the courtroom today to apologize. "I am very sorry for the abuse of the girls," Bowman said. "It haunts me. It haunts me every day."

Bowman, 44, was arrested in September 2008 after a third adopted child, a 7-year-old girl, escaped her Lusby, Md., home by jumping out of a second-story bedroom window. Half-nude and covered in blood and feces, the girl told a neighbor, "My mother beats me; she just beats me to death." The neighbor called 911 and reported the abuse.

When authorities conducted a search of Bowman's home, they were shocked to discover the bodies of two young children inside a large freezer.

Bowman later admitted they were the bodies of her two other adopted daughters, 8-year-old Jasmine and10-year-old Minnet. Bowman said their bodies had been stored in the freezer since February 2008 when she moved from Rockville to Lusby. One of the girls died from a stomach virus, and the other died from injuries she sustained from a fall, Bowman said.

The explanation Bowman gave police did not match the findings of the medical examiner, who concluded that both girls had died of asphyxiation and were wrapped in plastic and duct tape before they were put in the freezer.

Bowman adopted Minnet in July 2001 and the other two girls, who were biological sisters, in 2004. Each of them had been identified as "special needs" children. Bowman had been receiving approximately $2,400 a month in government subsidies to care for the three girls.

During the trial last month, Bowman's attorney, Alan Drew, did not deny his client had abused the children but tried to convince the jury that she was not guilty of first-degree murder.

"Was this a horrendous crime? No doubt. Was this a terrible crime? No doubt," Drew said during the trial. "Renee Bowman did not kill either of those children with premeditation."

Speaking to the jury, he said, "I'm not going to insult your intelligence and say she did not hurt those children. We accept that responsibility for what she did. We also ask you to find us guilty of what we in fact did."

Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy disagreed with Drew and pointed to the roughly $150,000 in subsidies Bowman collected.

"This woman was in it for the money, and by killing the children, keeping them literally on ice, the money continued to flow," McCarthy told the jury.

On Feb. 22, the jury of 10 men and two women deliberated less than three hours before finding Bowman guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse.

The girl who survived the ordeal is living with a foster family in Calvert County. In September, Bowman pleaded guilty to a first-degree child abuse charge relating to that girl and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.