Skip to main content

Kids' bodies kept in freezer, mom tells police

  • Story Highlights
  • Police find frozen remains while searching for evidence of abuse of another daughter
  • Mother tells officers corpses of two daughters were in freezer since February
  • Third child leaped out of window, showed signs of abuse
  • Mother admits hitting third child with "hard-heeled" shoe
  • Next Article in Crime »
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

(CNN) -- A Maryland woman told investigators that human remains found inside a freezer in the basement of her home are the bodies of two of her three adopted daughters, police said Monday.

Renee Bowman, 43, told police the bodies of two of her children were in the freezer since February.

Renee Bowman, 43, said the bodies of her daughters, born in 1997 and 1999, had been in the freezer since February, said Lt. Bobby Jones of the Calvert County Sheriff's Office.

In February, she moved to Lusby, in Calvert County, from Rockville, in Montgomery County, Jones added.

An autopsy is slated for Tuesday. Any decisions on charges would be made by the Montgomery County state's attorney's office, Jones said.

Bowman adopted the children in 2004, police said.

The bodies were found Saturday, when the sheriff's office searched Bowman's home after receiving a report that her third adopted daughter, age 7, had been found alone outside and showed signs of abuse and neglect.

The girl had jumped from a second-story window after being left unattended in the house, locked in her bedroom, police said in a news release. She was taken to Children's Hospital in Calvert County.

After learning that her daughter was in police custody, Bowman admitted having beaten the girl with a "hard-heeled shoe," police said. Bowman was charged with first-degree child abuse and held without bond at the Calvert County Detention Center.

As sheriff's deputies searched for evidence of abuse, they found the the human remains inside a freezer in the basement, police said.

The state medical examiner's office ordered the freezer taken to Baltimore so the evidence could be removed. "At this time investigators are unsure whose remains or how many remains are contained in the freezer," police said.

CNN Radio's Liz Kennedy contributed to this story.

All About Child Abuse

  • E-mail
  • Save
  • Print