HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Cathy Terkanian was surprised by the news of Bowman’s arrest and impending charges related to charges related ot the rape and brutal murder of Kathleen O’Brien Doyle in Norfolk, VA, on Sept. 11, 1980.
Terkanian, who lives in Massachusetts, says she knows police are searching Bowman’s property and questioning his wife. And she realizes the Doyle case is taking precedence over any investigation into another disappearance — that of her daughter, Alexis Miranda Badger.
Terkanian was just 17 when she fled New Orleans and a bad marriage in 1975, arriving with her 5-month-old baby at her mom’s Virginia home, only to find her own mother had breast cancer. Shortly after that, Terkanian made a life-changing decision to relinquish her 5-month-old daughter for adoption.
Bowman and his wife adopted the baby the following year, renaming her Aundria M. Bowman. At 14, she disappeared shortly after she’d told school officials that her adoptive father was molesting her — information Terkanian says she got from the private investigator she hired. No one has heard from Aundria Bowman since. Her Social Security number has never been used. Terkanian didn’t learn any of that for more than 20 years.
Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker told WHTC Dennis Bowman has not been charged related to Aundria Bowman’s disappearance. Police were searching Bownman’s Hamilton property Friday. (See Eric Rash’s photo gallery.)
Dennis Lee Bowman is, as of Saturday, Nov. 23,2019, awaiting extradition to Virginia for the Doyle case.
Missing person’s data indicates Aundria, who vanished a few months before her 15th birthday, was a slender white girl, with dark hair, who may have dyed her hair to a lighter color. She had pierced ears, and a small birthmark on her hip.
Terkanian prefers to use the name she gave her daughter, Alexis, but sometimes slips and calls her Aundria. She doesn’t correct people who use “Aundria.” Either way, after the adoption was finalized — Terkanian didn’t know anything of the adoptive parents — she’d hoped to one day reconnect with her only child, but was content to wait for her daughter to reach out. The call from the adoption agency nearly a decade ago, though, was not what she expected.
Instead of a request for a reunion, the woman on the other end of the call told Terkanian police wanted her DNA to idenitfy the remains of a girl’s body found in Racine, WI. Carl Koppelman, a volunteer with the DNA Doe project, had suggested to police the body may have been Aundria’s.
Terkanian has been in touch with Allegan County Sheriff’s detectives ever since she donated her DNA sample to the case. (The Racine Jane Doe, has since been identified as a developmentally disabled woman, Peggy Lynn Johnson. Her suspected murderer, Linda LaRoche, was arrested and charged earlier this year.)
“I’ve learned something about police,” Terkanian said. “Just because you don’t hear anything, doesn’t mean they’re not doing anything.”
Terkanian also hired a private investigator, who learned that Aundria disappeared shortly after accusing Dennis Bowman of molesting her. Terkanian started visiting Michigan. She became relentless about handing out fliers, creating online accounts appealing for help in finding her daughter, making T-shirts with appeals to help, event renting a billboard in Allegan County. There’s a $25,000 reward for finding out what happened to Aundia.
On Saturday, exhausted from a series of media interviews, messages from the many amatuer sleuths involved in searching for missing people, and her own racing thoughts, Terkanian, 61, found herself speculating about what happened to Alexis. She’s certain her girl is murdered. She’s hoping police find some shred of evidence that will answer the outstanding questions — and possibly recover her daughter’s remains, so she can bring Alexis home for a proper burial.
She cannot stop trying to puzzle out what happened.
“In my mind, it’s resolved,” she said. “I want all of the details. All the details — and I won’t settle for anything else. I hope that she’s alive. I pray that she’s alive. But you have to weigh things — what is more likely here? — just to keep your sanity.”
She is eager to see Kathleen O’Brien Doyle‘s family and friends get closure. She hopes Doyle’s case, and Virginia’s existing death penalty for convicted murderers, causes more details about Aundria disappearance to be revealed.
“That he’s in jail means there’s crack in the darkness,” she said, adding that police can take all the time they need to crack her daughter’s case. While she’s been relentless in asking questions, and doing whatever she can to get answers as a civilian, she also said, “I’m used to waiting.”
Cathy Terkanian feels like she’s close to some kind of finish line, and hopes anyone who knows anything contacts police.
Learn more about Aundria M. Bowman: On Facebook, Twitter, and The Charley Project, an online clearinghouse of missing-person cases, or on the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office page dedicated to Aundria M. Bowman‘s case.
To share information with police, call Allegan County Sheriff’s Office at (269) 673-0500, or Silent Observer: (800) 554-3633 or email SilentObserver@allegancounty.org.
