Oct 1, 2008 9:37 am US/Eastern
DC Welfare Agency Questioned About Adoptions
LUSBY, Md. (WJZ) ―
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Calvert County sheriff's deputies have discovered the bodies of two small children in a freezer in a Lusby home.
CBS
Police find two adopted girls dead in the family freezer and a third abused. Many question how this could have happened. But many questions may not be answered until police complete the investigation.
The tragedy surfaced Monday, in the southern Calvert County town of Lusby.
Alex DeMetrick reports on how three young girls virtually vanished from the outside world.
It's not as if this Calvert County house were remote. It sits in a neighborhood, where 43-year-old Renee Bowman moved to last February.
Neighbors rarely saw her or an apparent boyfriend and they nearly never saw any children.
"I never once saw kids from the time they moved in," said Melinda Miller, neighbor.
Until this past weekend, when an eight-year-old girl kept locked away and beaten escaped.
Phillip Garrett found her wandering and was shocked at what he saw.
"Wounds, injuries, scars, scrapes, the smell. None of this could have happened overnight. It definitely was something that developed over time," said Garrett.
It did. Police found the frozen bodies of two other girls, aged nine and eleven, in a basement freezer. It seems they were moved here by Bowman from Montgomery County.
All three had been foster children of Bowman's before she adopted them in Washington, D.C. beginning in 2001.
To adopt children, Washington, D.C. requires a background check.
In charging documents, Bowman reportedly told police about the bodies.
Phillip Garrett heard it first from the abused eight-year-old.
Bowman is being held without bail on child abuse charges in Calvert County.
Meanwhile, police are investigating the deaths of her two other daughters in Montgomery County.
In a statement, the Department of Human Resources said, "Earlier today, the Maryland Department of Human Resources successfully petitioned the court for custody of the surviving adopted child of Renee Bowman.
Once this little girl is discharged from the hospital, she will be placed with an especially nurturing and loving foster family.
DHR has completed a comprehensive review of all data systems and have found no records to indicate that we received any child abuse or neglect complaints about this family.
Understandably, there has been an outpouring of concern for this little girl from the public, but we certainly hope that the media will respect her privacy as she has been through more than most of us could ever imagine."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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