Article published November 26, 2009
New evidence reported in 1960s murder inquiry
Trial delayed after teen's body is exhumed
Robert Bowman, 73, is accused of kidnapping, raping, and killing Sylvania Township teenager Eileen Adams.
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By ERICA BLAKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The body of a 14-year-old murder victim from the 1960s has been exhumed because the original medical examiner in the case has since died.
Lucas County prosecutors requested to have the body of Eileen Adams exhumed in the murder trial of Robert Bowman, 73, who is accused of kidnapping, raping, and killing the Sylvania Township teenager, whose body was found in a Monroe County field on Jan. 31, 1968.
Prosecutors said the exhumation produced new evidence and, as a result, the trial date for Bowman was pushed back to March 22 yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
A warrant was issued for Bowman's arrest in November, 2007, after a reverse paternity test was used to match Bowman to DNA found on the victim's body.
Assistant County Prosecutor J. Christopher Anderson said yesterday that the Monroe County medical examiner who conducted the initial autopsy on the
14-year-old victim had since died. Because he is no longer available for cross-examination, the prosecutor's office moved forward with exhuming the body to have another examination done.Mr. Anderson did not say in court when the body was exhumed or what sort of information was available from the initial autopsy report. He added that after the body was reviewed by the county deputy coroner, the office decided to send the bones to a forensic anthropologist.
"[The deputy coroner] looked at the body. … Defense experts came out to examine the body. And based on the findings, we are seeking out a new expert, a forensic anthropologist," Mr. Anderson said.
Judge Gene Zmuda agreed that those tests, and any subsequent investigation by the defense, would take time and so vacated the Jan. 25 trial date that had been scheduled in the case.
Dr. Diane Barnett, a Lucas County deputy coroner, said the coroner's office conducts about three to four exhumations annually. Not all are cold cases such as the one involving Eileen Adams.
But one other notable cold case where a body was exhumed involved Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. In that case, the body was removed on May 20, 2004, to obtain DNA samples and conduct forensic tests.
Sister Margaret Ann was found slain on the sacristy floor in Toledo's Mercy Hospital on April 5, 1980. Toledo priest Gerald Robinson was arrested on April 23, 2004, and convicted in the nun's death two years later.
The Adams teenager was last seen Dec. 18, 1967, getting off a bus after school in a West Toledo neighborhood. Authorities believe she was held captive in Bowman's former home on West Sylvania Avenue for as long as two weeks before she was killed.
The case went unsolved for years.
Bowman first became a suspect in 1981 when his ex-wife came forward with a statement, but he was not arrested at the time because of lack of evidence.
In 2006, cold-case detectives reopened the case. He was arrested in 2008 in Cathedral City, Calif., and extradited back to Ohio.
The grand jury indicted Bowman Oct. 31, 2008, with murder in the first degree.
The testimony offered to the grand jury also is the subject of a motion filed by the defense.
In the motion to dismiss the indictment, attorneys Pete Rost and Jane Roman contend that spousal privilege would come into play because Bowman's now ex-wife was an integral part of the evidence. Prosecutors countered that because she did not testify before the grand jury, privilege doesn't come into play.
The judge will rule on the issue.
Also set to be examined in the case is new evidence discovered with the use of more modern equipment, Mr. Anderson told the judge. DNA was detected on clothing the Adams teenager wore at the time and it was sent to the state lab for analysis, he added.
Contact Erica Blake at:
eblake@theblade.com,
or 419-213-2134.
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