14-Year-Old Disappears

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14-year-old Eileen Adams was on her way home from Central Catholic High School in Toledo when she disappeared. Her raped and murdered body was found a month-and-a-half later.

December 18, 1967. Eileen Adams, 14, a freshman at Central Catholic High School in Toledo, Ohio vanishes just one week before Christmas, abducted when she stepped off the school bus and headed towards her sister's home in West Toledo.

Eileen told a friend she was going Christmas shopping, but she was never seen again.

About six weeks later, on January 31, 1968, Eileen's frozen body was found in a field in nearby rural Monroe County, Mich.

The body was clothed, wrapped in a mattress cover with bound hands and feet.  She had telephone cord looped around her neck and a forehead wound from where her attacker had hammered a nail into her skull postmortem.

The horrific crime shattered the Toledo community, which was more used to "Ozzie and Harriet" than Hitchcock. For months, it was all anyone could talk about. No one came forward.  No one knew anything, or so it seemed.  And for years, the case was unsolved.

Woman Comes Forward After 14 Years

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This picture of Robert Bowman was taken in 1982 by the Toledo Ohio Police who went to Florida to speak with him. Note how he is wearing all white, something police think he may still be doing.

Then, in December 1981, a woman came forward to the Toledo Police. She had an unbelievable story for them. She told police that her husband murdered a girl in 1967.

She remembered every detail.  Including how she walked in to the fruit cellar in her basement one day and found Eileen naked and bound to her wall.  Cops say she told them her husband had had Eileen down there for days, maybe even weeks.  She says that when she saw her, "hanging like Jesus," she was alive.  Eileen's eyes pleaded for a rescue and she tried to talk through the gags in her mouth.  But before Mrs. Bowman could help the young girl down off the wall, her husband heard her scream.

When she asked Bowman about it, she says he went downstairs and killed the high school freshman.  Then, she says, he made her help dump the body in a farmer's field in Michigan.

Fear of prosecution and her husband kept her away all those years, but after 14 years she finally fessed up to police.  They found her story very credible.

Her husband, Robert Bowman, had never before been mentioned in the investigation.  But, as police looked in to it, it seemed that Mrs. Bowman's story was true.  

In February 1982, detectives tracked down Bowman to Miami, Fla.  They went and interviewed him about Eileen Adams' murder. 

They met a truly bizarre man.  Bowman was living as a homeless man in a burnt out shell of a former restaurant.  He lived with roaches, rats, and snakes which he named and treated like pets. 

Cops say he was filthy, but he wore only white.  He told them he believed in the power of the pyramid to keep him healthy, pure and clean.

They tried to engage him in a conversation about his wife's allegations about Eileen.   But, they never got a straight answer out of him.  He never confessed to the crime, but he never denied it.

After several days visiting with the strange man, it was time to go home.  Police were still certain that Mrs. Bowman was telling the truth.  However, armed with little evidence and no technology, they left Bowman and went back to Toledo.  The case once again languished.

Science Finally Catches Up To Suspect

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This picture in 1996 is the last one anyone has of murder suspect Robert Bowman. Cops think he probably still looks like this, perhaps with thinner and grayer hair.

Then, in September 2006, off-duty Toledo Police Sergeant Mike McGee went to dinner at his in-laws' home.  It was Labor Day, which meant his family would be hosting several people from a nearby nursing home.

When he got to the dinner, Mike's mother-in-law introduced him to the seniors as her son-in-law, a cop.  Soon, Mike was approached by Eileen Adams' father, who was one of the dinner guests.  Mr. Adams told Mike he had a story to tell him. 

"But," he said, "if I get off-topic steer me back on.  I have Alzheimer's and I get confused easily." 

Mr. Adams told Mike McGee about his daughter's abduction, rape and murder and the fact that in 1981 a suspect was identified.  He made Mike promise to look into the case.  Sgt. McGee was so moved that he agreed.  Mike left dinner and went to work.

By chance, Mike worked with Bart Beavers that night, a detective from the TPD Cold Case Unit.  Mike brought up the murder to Bart and passed the baton.  Bart agreed to look into it for Mike.

When Bart got back to the squad, he pulled out the Adams murder case file and called the former detective.  As he poured through the evidence, the retired investigator told him all about Mrs. Bowman and the bizarre encounter in Florida.

Bart discovered there was DNA in the evidence left behind.  Eileen's underwear had semen in it.  In the 80s, the technology couldn't handle the small sample.  But now, maybe it could.

Investigators submitted the sample to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and they were able to type the DNA.  Next, cops tracked down Bowman's daughter and did a reverse paternity test on her.

Almost 40 years later, it was a hit and Toledo PD had finally solved Eileen's murder.

On November 27, 2006, Toledo police issued a murder warrant for Robert Bowman.

Since the 1982 encounter in Florida, police believe Bowman has continued to live on the streets.  In 2002, investigators think he left Florida for San Diego, Calif.  Records show that Bowman had run-ins with police in California twice in 2003 on vagrancy charges, but hasn't been seen since.

Toledo police think he may still be living on the streets in California or in some other warm location, and he may not even realize that he's wanted.  After an AMW airing in late 2007, police say that tipsters pointed them in good directions.  A lot of sightings linked Bowman to Sin City, where tipsters say he is living on the strip as a homeless man.  So far, cops have not confirmed the Las Vegas sightings, but they continue to follow up on each and every tip.

Because Eileen was tortured and raped and violently killed, they worry that Eileen's murder was not a one-time event.  Detectives say that Bowman is a sociopath, very intelligent, and has likely done it again over the past 40 years. Cops need to get him in custody to find out and to prevent any other family from going through what the Adams family experienced.

Bowman Nabbed In Calif., Living Life Of A Vagabond

They say he murdered a teenage girl in 1967, and 40 years later, he's finally in custody.

Last time we told you the story of accused killer Robert Bowman, tips came in from all over the nation, placing him everywhere from Florida to California and many points in between. 

The manhunt was on as detectives actively hunted down leads. 

But on the afternoon of October 2, 2008, Bowman happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the law caught up with him when he least expected it.

From what police tell us, two investigators from the Riverside County District Attorney's Office in Riverside, Calif. were attempting to serve a subpoena to a man in Cathedral City, a suburb of Palm Springs. 

They say they came upon a man casually riding a bicycle who resembled the man they were seeking, and they pulled him over.  When detectives asked for the man's name, birthday and social security number, Robert Bowman promptly gave it up without hesitation.

The investigators then entered the information into their in-car computer system and learned there was an arrest warrant out in his name, and they immediately placed him under arrest. 

He was booked in the Cathedral City Jail that afternoon, and if convicted, may remain behind bars for the rest of his days.

Whether or not Bowman was aware of the warrant is unknown at this time, but stay tuned to AMW.com for updates as they become available.