Dennis Bowman’s daughter Aundria Bowman was a cheerful young girl turned into a victim of parental abuse and mur*er.
Key Takeaways
- Adopted by Dennis and Brenda Brown, she was subject to physical and emotional abuse throughout her childhood.
- Dennis mur*ered her in 1989 and was convicted in 2021.
Dennis Bowman is a convicted criminal, charged with the ra*e and mur*er of his adopted daughter Aundria Bowman, in 1989.
Netflix’s Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter delves into the life and death of Dennis Brown’s adopted Daughter Aundria Bowman.
Let us take a deep dive into Dennis Bowman’s late daughter Aundria Bowman, her life, death, and the events that followed.
Aundria’s Abusive Childhood In The Bowman Household
Aundria Brown was born Alexis Miranda Badger on June 23, 1974.
Aundria’s biological mother Cathy Terkanian had her when she was just 16 years old.
As a result, Cathy’s parents pressured her to give her baby up for adoption.
Dennis and Brenda Bowman, a couple in Hamilton, Michigan eventually adopted her.
Aundria’s friends and family described her as a ‘sweet young girl who loved to talk with friends‘ and ‘fiercely protective of her sister’.
Growing up in the Bowman household, Dennis constantly subjected Aundria to physical and emotional abuse.
Jennifer Jones, Aundria’s teenage friend, said that Aundria did tell her that her adoptive father was sexu*lly abusing her.
Kim Payne, another friend of Aundria, recalled having dinner once in the Bowman household.
She said that while the rest of the family ate hamburgers, Aundria had just a ‘leftover sandwich‘ consisting of only bread and condiments.
Payne further stated,
“(Aundria) made a comment that that’s all she was allowed to eat … so Dennis came across the table, right in front of me, and hit her so hard he almost knocked her out of the chair. he started bawling her eyes out, of course. Brenda sat there and did nothing about it.”
VIA NETFLIX
During Bowman’s trial in 2021, Brenda testified saying that Aundria did confide that Dennis was molesting her.
However, she shook them off as lies, which went to have severe repercussions.
She told me one morning that dad molested her, and I told her, ‘That’s a lie and you know it’.
VIA NETFLIX
Although many friends and close people suggested and even urged Aundria to escape her abusive home, she refused, for the sake of her little sister Vanessa who was just an infant at the time.
Jennifer Jones stated,
We encouraged her to leave, to get out of the situation, get out of her house. And she didn’t want to leave the baby there. She said, ‘Nope, I’ve got to take care of Vanessa’.
VIA NETFLIX
Aundria’s abuse escalated very soon and very sharply.
Dennis m*rdered Aundria on March 11, 1989, when Aundria was just 16 years old.
After murdering their daughter, Dennis and his wife reported her to have run away; the couple moved shortly after.
30 years later, when Dennis was arrested in 2019 for the unrelated 1980 murder of Kathleen Doyle, he also confessed to mu*dering his adoptive daughter Aundria in 1989.
He pleaded guilty and was convicted of r*ping and m*rdering Doyle.
As a result, he is currently serving two life sentences at the River North Correctional Center, a men’s prison in Independence, Virginia, at 75 years of age.
How Did Cathy Terkanian Help Find Her Daughter’s Murderer?
In a twist of fate, Aundria’s biological mother was the one who helped solve her daughter’s mystery.
Cathy Terkanian began the search for her daughter in 2010 after she learned that her daughter had disappeared over two decades ago.
The adoption agency where Cathy gave her baby up requested a DNA sample to compare with the remains of a young girl in a Michigan backyard.
Terkanian, who wasn’t willing to wait any longer, started her search for Aundria with just her birthdate.
Cathy and her husband Edward found Aundria’s profile on the Michigan State Police missing person website.
Terkanian immediately felt that the 14-year-old girl in the photo resembled her daughter.
To further her search, she created a Facebook page “Find Aundria M Bowman” to gather further information. The page no longer exists.
This page turned out to be useful however, as people who knew Aundria began sharing their stories.
This led Cathy to team up with amateur sleuth Carl Kopperman, to strengthen her search.
During their investigation, they found that Aundria’s adoptive father Dennis had a criminal history, including a 1981 assault conviction.
Knowing this info, she said,
Nobody was there to protect my daughter. She wasn’t adopted into a good family. I mean, just look at Dennis’ history. So at this point, I was convinced Dennis had done something to Alexis. I was convinced he’d murdered her.”
VIA NETFLIX
In 2013, the DNA test she had sent three years ago came back negative.
Regardless, Terkanian didn’t lose hope; she instead put more effort into her search.
She even used drones and Google Maps to study the Bowmans’ backyard after they moved.
During her search, she believed a cement structure in the Bowmans’ backyard linked to her daughter and focused on it.
Later in 2021, when Dennis admitted to mu*dering Aundria, he said he moved Aundria’s remains and buried them under the same cement structure in their backyard.
Aundria’s story and Cathy’s hard work are presented in Netflix’s Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter, which aired on September 12, 2024.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- When Dennis reported his daughter running away, he claimed that she had stolen money.
- When Aundria was put up for adoption, she was just 9 months old.
- In 1998, Dennis Bowman was arrested for breaking into the home of a coworker in Ottawa County.
