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Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647

February 11, 2023 / 50:48

This episode covers the unsolved case of Gaither Bowman, who went missing in 1993 and was later found murdered. The discussion includes details about her background, the timeline of her disappearance, and the investigation's challenges.

Gaither Bowman, a 37-year-old mother and business owner, was reported missing after leaving work on February 15, 1993. Her van was discovered the next day outside a Best Western motel, and her body was found a month later in a gravel pit in Delaware County, Ohio.

The hosts discuss the complications arising from the involvement of two sheriff's departments, Richland and Delaware County, and the difficulties in determining the timeline of her death due to weather conditions. They highlight the lack of clear suspects and the investigation's missteps, particularly concerning the handling of her van.

Key points include the argument between Gaither and her husband Gary on the day she went missing, the potential business meeting with a local physician, and the lack of evidence linking either Gary or the physician to her murder.

The episode emphasizes the ongoing investigation into Gaither's homicide and urges listeners to provide any information that might help solve the case.

TLDR

Gaither Bowman went missing in 1993; her unsolved murder remains under investigation with no clear suspects identified.

Episode

50:48
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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with
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a reminder that a muffin can be very filling here is the captain I prefer the tops it's good to be seen and good to
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see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] today we still have this fine double IPA
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called Green City by the good folks over at other half Brewing Company featuring
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three different kinds of hops this American IPA is both smooth and hoppy with some Citrus garage grade four and a
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five bottle caps and this week helping us fueling the garage we have Shiloh from Long Beach California and a big we
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like your trip to Kristin nasty in Nederland Colorado and last but certainly not least we have Jacob
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Aguilar from Seguin Texas everybody we just mentioned helped us fill up the fridge for this week's beer run and for
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that we thank you yeah say with me pwr you win Beer Run make sure you follow us on social media Facebook Twitter
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Instagram all that stuff at True Crime garage and also we've been adding a lot of content to the YouTubes so check us
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out on YouTube at True Crime Garage in Colonel that's enough of the his ass all right everybody gather around grab a
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] Katha Bowman was 37 years old when she
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went missing authorities were not able to charge anyone in her slang and that remains True to this day here Captain 30
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years later gatha was well liked she was a 1974 graduate of Utica high school she
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attended Ashland University here in Ohio she earned an associate degree and in her career she was a director of
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respiratory therapy at a hospital this before the early 90s when she started a medical business named pre-medica she
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was the mother of two children and the stepmother of two more before she went missing the general timeline and we went
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through some of the details of this in our coverage yesterday but on February 15 1993 gatha Bowman left work
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the business that she owned pre-medica Health Care at 6 45 pm she supposedly had a business meeting
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that evening or that night but never disclosed where or with whom the following day February 16th gatha's
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ex-husband Greg reports her as missing saying that she never picked up her children from the babysitter's home
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the following day on the 17th of February gatha's snow-covered van was found outside of the Best Western motel
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on Laver Road this again just one and a half to two miles away from her home and
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not terribly far from her business either then we fast forward to March 16th of the same year 1993 when a Delaware
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County engineer finds gatha Bowman's body in a gravel pit or near a gravel pit in Delaware County as we said
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yesterday this is a county that is separated by another County from Richland County where she
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went missing about 50 miles away from home someone had attempted to conceal the body there and police said outwardly
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right from Jump Street that they had no reason to believe that she was killed where she was found in fact they had
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reason and such evidence to suggest that maybe she was killed elsewhere and this
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for a lack of a better term was simply a Dumping Ground so like the colonel was saying she went missing from one County
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her body her remains are founded in different counties so now we have two Sheriff
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departments that are working this case yeah and this is where things get even more complicated and sometimes it's
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great to have multiple agencies working the same case and sometimes it's not it's hard for me to sit here and examine
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this investigation and determine who was doing a good job who was doing a not so great job or how well the two
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Sheriff's departments were working together keep in mind there are complications based off of just the time
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period in which she went missing and when she was murdered 1993 technology certainly wasn't what it
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is today and thus counties that are separated by roughly 40 or 50 miles that offers up
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its own complications into the joint what's reported as a joint investigation however what you do have is Richland
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County caught a case the case they caught was a missing person's case this one gatha Bowman was reported missing
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from her home from her business in Richland County Delaware County caught a whole different case same person Gaither
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Bowman however they have a homicide investigation to deal with so it what once was a missing person's case now
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becomes a homicide case it may have been easier for the public if it would have been fully handed over
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to Delaware County from but from what I've been told and from my understanding is that was not the case that while it's
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reported that this was a joint investigation that may be true in some facets of the investigation
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however it does not appear to be true in all cases here because it looks to me like Delaware County and Richland County
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were running two separate investigations on the same case but we don't have a good time frame of when gatha was killed
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because of the weather you talked about that yesterday but we do know that she was strangled and she was covered with
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trash in this location this Gravel Pit yeah so the trash came from to be clear came from Richland County
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and her body's recovered in Delaware County but that is the indicator to detectives that she likely was killed
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elsewhere and then transported to the location where she's later found the captain's absolutely right with in
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regard to that trash there's the dresses and such that are on that trash and detectives thought oh great this is not
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going to take long for us to solve this thing this the debris and the trash that
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is found with our victim might point us to who is responsible well because sometimes as we know and all the True
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Crime Community knows sometimes these killers are two messes that's right and thankfully so but in this case the
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addresses that were provided as clues or could have been Clues to the investigators in gaither's
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case were not addresses that led them to any particular suspect in fact from my understanding they end up figuring out
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that the trash likely was pulled from a dumpster from a business was just one more
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way of trying to hide and conceal gatha's body we've talked about this plenty of times here on the show and
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we've we get this information directly from Killers themselves their own words where they have said
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look the the the more that I knew a victim or this is coming from the mouths of several serial killers
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the closer the tie of the victim to me the perpetrator the greater the lengths I went to to
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concealing the body right if it was somebody I didn't know at all we could discard them on the side of the
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road and just continue on because there is nothing there would be nothing in the investigation that would lead the
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detectives from the victim to the perpetrator because it was a stranger complete stranger on Stranger crime
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those same Killers say the reverse if there was any direct connection from the from the victim to me I would go to
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Great Lengths to try to conceal the body because if they can never find the victim then they're going to have very
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little ways to tie it back to me to the perpetrator hear what I see is somebody going to
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Great Lengths to try to conceal this victim well one of the other problems with this case though is where her
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remains are found a person wouldn't have to have extensive knowledge of this area
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to know that it would be a good place to leave remains that's exactly right because if you hop off of the freeway
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there you are going to make a right which would take you West and within about a half a mile to one
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mile approximately you are in the sticks there are very few street lights if any
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at all you are in the sticks so you would see this this road this Dunham road you could only turn left onto it and it
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dead ends at some point and so a person very likely could have never have been there before in their entire life right
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and yet found this road drove down this road and thought that looks like that's my spot
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now keep in mind when we say going to Great Lengths to conceal the body the person that's
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trying to hide the body of Gaither Bowman may be under some kind of time constraints too they may not have today
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tomorrow and the next day to figure out what to do with this evidence how is the best way to hide and conceal
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this evidence so they hop in the vehicle they grab some trash and now we're going to figure
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out how we can conceal gatha now we get some more information here and what's weird in this case Captain is a lot of
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things well I don't think that really any of this information was ever designed or thought to be hold back
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information it's just this information didn't find its way to the public or wasn't released
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to the public until it went from being a missing person's case to a homicide investigation where a lot of times we
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will see hold back information starts to trickle out over the years or over the months after the case remains unsolved
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here it looks like they had a lot of this information or parts of this information and then later it's
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confirmed because think about this she's missing and for 30 days you have one agency investigating this missing
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person's case 30 days later when she's found in its rule to homicide you now have two agencies conducting their own
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investigation right so they're either doubling down on the same information or they're finding
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additional information that was not uncovered before previously now we talk about it being difficult to
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narrow down the time of death for our victim here and that would be very key to our timeline for our investigation
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but I don't think that it is I mean even though we have science and we have the coroner saying look
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she could have been killed the night she went missing she could have been killed last week
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because if you look at the weather for that month in which she was missing it rarely gets above freezing during that
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time period and so she's essentially being stored in a in a freezer just outside in this Delaware County open
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open air storage facility but it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out if nothing bad happened to Gaither Bowman
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she would have picked up her kids that night if nothing bad happened to Gaither Bowman on the 15th or the 16th she would
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have went to work the next morning so any detective can very quickly look at this and go you know what we're
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probably dealing with something that happened to her that night she was a good mom something prevented
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her from picking up her kids at night she was a good business owner something prevented her from going to work the
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next day now here's an article that starts to fill in some of the blanks here and stop
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me at any point here captain and we can tear through this as much or as little as you want to
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now this article says Richland County sheriff's deputies are asking for help solving the 1993 murder of a Mansfield
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woman whose body was found off of Dunham road in Delaware County Delaware County
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employee Tom I'll leave out his last name found the partially decomposed body of Gaither Bowman
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covered in garbage at the County Gravel Pit off Dunham road March 16 1993. the coroner and other lab results
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told us that she had been strangled but the coroner goes on to say that he didn't know exactly how she had been
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strangled Richland County prosecutor said authorities have had a difficult have had difficulty determining gatha's
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activities the night that she disappeared February 15th he said he is hoping that someone in Columbus or
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Delaware County might have seen Gaither that night that sounds weird to me super
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weird if she's covered in trash from Mansfield Ohio I don't know why the prosecutor up in Richland County would
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expect that maybe somebody from Columbus or Delaware County might have seen her that night or have
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you know it'd be different to say that hoping that somebody out of the area would have information but to have seen
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her interacted with her that night unless they're starting to hone in on who she was meeting with
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or or suspected of meeting with and I think we're going to get those answers here very soon but isn't that
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also strange to you we do know that she at least changed her clothes once to me that
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it seems like if you're going to have a business meeting and you're coming from work you just meet the individual in
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your business attire well and that's exactly right and you also get the snow here the snow is going to be big
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indicators on when her body was placed there and when her van when she either she parked her van or somebody placed
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her van where it was later found right so here we have Delaware County Sheriff's detectives saying there was
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snow under gatha's body indicating that it was snowing before the body was abandoned they went on to say that her
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body was found face down she had no shoes or coat on and one of her front teeth was shipped in half
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Bowman was wearing some expensive gold jewelry when the body was found this indicating that robbery robbing this
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poor woman stealing her valuables was not in the Killer's mindset yeah and you said that she they believed that she was
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strangled but we didn't say if if we thought there was any sign of sexual assault correct and and no report do
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they ever reference that and so my belief would be that no that was not a factor here in this case right which
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leads us to some some motive here no sexual assault and like you said she had some jewelry on her also strange that
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she has a crack front tooth makes makes you think that there was some kind of struggle or fight at least
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um happened before she was strangled well and without getting too much in the weed scene
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that chipped tooth very likely could have happened when she was placed where she was later afraid that that's a good
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point we know that she was found face down that's a chip that could have occurred
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by dropping her there yeah given how she's found I can't imagine that the killer went out of their way to place
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her there nice and neat and gently especially knowing that then they covered her in garbage this dumping site
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like you said it's you don't have to have a lot of knowledge of that area but it is a risky maneuver because it is a
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dead end and so there's a possibility that you have to go in there quickly dump the body and get out without
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somebody seeing you correct it that does seem risky but go back to what we were talking about before I think there's a
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high probability of whoever placed her there may have never been on that road before
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right they may not know that it dead ends they they may simply be out driving around looking for
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air quotes a good spot yeah back to what you were saying here captain and this is
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very strange this is weird movements of our victim here uh you referenced the different clothing found on the body so
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they go on here to say that gatha Bowman it was reported that she was wearing a pant suit
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when she was last seen at work on February 15th right when her body was discovered she's
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wearing a skirt and so openly in this report the authorities are saying that they
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think that she may have changed her clothes possibly in her van before this scheduled business meeting yeah and
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they're saying possibly but you'd think they'd have this information because if you find those pants the pantsuit in her
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van he would know obviously correct well and we're going to get back to this van
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and well we'll continue on with the van here but the van is is a big problem with this investigation and
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unfortunately Richland County did not handle the van in a great way so the Vans found the day after she's reported
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missing they look at it they examine it they give the van to gatha's husband Gary
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then she's found murdered 28 29 days later yeah mistake and again though I mean this
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her van is found she's reported missing but her van is found in their snow so there's probably other vehicles that in
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We Live in Central Ohio when it snows really bad or there's a decent amount of snow when you're driving to work or
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driving to Places You'll see cars on the side of the road you'll see cars that were abandoned so they might have had a
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decent amount of vehicles to deal with during that time period well and one thing that I want to point out here too
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is and this might be obvious to some but it's not so obvious to others when authorities are saying look she we
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have witnesses saying she left work wearing outfit a we find her body she's wearing
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outfit B right we are openly telling the public who we are currently asking for help
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we believe that she changed her clothes in her van before this business meeting and you said well if they would have
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found her other clothing in her van then they would know this statement does not mean that they
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did not find her other clothing in her veins you know when you're asking the public for help and especially in this
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in a homicide investigation you don't need a clue in every Tom Dick and Harry about it exactly what happened what you
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found or what you did not find what they have not found let's let's pretend for a
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second they did not find their her clothes in her van and in fact finding her clothes in her van would not 100
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guarantee to you as an investigator that she did in fact change her clothes in her family right what is clear what
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they're not finding is anybody saying yeah she went into the restroom at work and came out wearing a different outfit
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or yeah she was in my place of work or my business or she was at the bar or the hotel or wherever she came in one went
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in one door wearing one outfit and came out wearing a different outfit so that's
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what we don't have in the investigation but what we do have is like you said the the missing person
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report is called in by her ex-husband I think the lack of actions by her current
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husband is a little fishy really fishy a whole lot of fish just trying to be nice
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to the fish continuing on with the van and this report we get a little bit more information where it's saying that her
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van was found in the parking lot of the Best Western motel in Richland County it
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it says authorities believe Gaither Bowman was already missing when the van was parked at the motel I don't know how
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they they seem convinced of this but they are pointing out and once again referencing the snow saying that Bowman
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disappeared before they believe that Bowman disappeared before midnight on February 15th
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and because there was no snow underneath the van and there was snow on top of the van and
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it was snowing by midnight that night they believed that her van was placed there before midnight and
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obviously it remained there until after midnight and they believe stayed there the entire time that it was snowing well
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you wonder if law enforcement found any footprints in the snow these are people that were questioned by authorities and
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I want to be 100 clear here these are not suspects they are not even Persons of Interest these are people that they
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decided they should talk to when she was a missing B later found deceased it says those questioned by authorities
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include gatha's husband Gary her best friend Mary her 13 year old son Jason her ex-husband Greg
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Gary Bowman's Father Charles three employees at her medical supply business a local physician whose business she was
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trying to obtain and then numerous unnamed persons so it says numerous others with a reminder that no charges
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have been filed in in the case as of this report but going on to say definitively and for The public's
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information that they currently at this time did not have a prime suspect in gaither's case they're also not stating
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that they cleared any of these individuals correct and it would be I wouldn't expect them to to publicly
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announce anybody being cleared especially when we have so many questions in the timeline itself you
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know one detective told me once when I asked him on a different case I said hey did
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you did you clear anybody uh in this case and he said look you know we like like so many cases we don't clear
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anybody until the case is solved and he went on to say in fact that when he arrives on a crime scene there are only
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two people that are not Suspects himself and his mother [Laughter] what I find of Interest here captain in
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this later report that's coming out is the information that's coming from her employees at her work so we're getting
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again it's hard to say because now we have two agencies investigating this case where before we just had the one
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so is this new information that was gleaned by the new agency in investigating the homicide or was this
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old information that just never made its way to the public because either it was
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a unnecessary to tell them or B it might have been some kind of hold back information and the two things that come
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out from the employees at her work was one that it was not such a mystery of who she might have been meeting that
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night the business meeting was with this local physician whose business gatha and ProMedica her company was
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trying to obtain right right they're trying to become this physician this hospital or doctor's office medical
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supplier so this seems like a typical run-of-the-mill business meeting however this person's not a complete mystery to
00:26:22
all involved they know who the physician is they spell they spoke investigators spoke with this physician right that's
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why they questioned him the other thing that comes out in this report was that there was an argument that was
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not so secret to the employees that took place the day that she went missing so they report to the authorities there was
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an argument that was that went on between gatha and her husband Gary at pre-medica that day what's weird here
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Captain is this depending on which agency you talk to they describe this argument
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differently now you only have three Witnesses and maybe each of those Witnesses had a
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different interpretation of this argument and maybe that's why we get varying stories but the very brief description
00:27:25
one provided by Richland County Sheriff's Office they describe it as a violent argument that took place at work
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that day Delaware County describes it as a loud a very loud argument that took place that
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day [Music] [Music] all right we are back so much more to unpack in this complex case
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thanks so much for listening thanks for telling a friend cheers to you all and cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
00:28:23
captain and cheers to all of the good people especially the ones sitting way in the back
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here's some detailed information on that that day and again I think we need to underline this circle it
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I don't think it takes Sherlock Holmes to figure out whatever happened to gatha happened that night
00:28:45
or in the wee hours of the next morning and you almost have detectives outwardly
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saying this they they are saying that look because of how her van was found and because of the weather conditions that
00:29:00
night we believe that she went missing or something happened to her and potentially her van was later placed
00:29:06
there again we'll get back to that van but the information that we get much later in this investigation are saying
00:29:14
that it was learned that gatha owed the IRS approximately eight to ten Grand in business related taxes
00:29:23
now this sounds this may sound like a whole bunch of money but well it's not a ton for a business it's yeah it's back
00:29:30
taxes but it's it's not a ton and then I don't think there's I don't think they put a ton of pressure on you to pay them
00:29:38
off immediately you can kind of pay them through a period of time the business itself was successful so it seems like
00:29:45
they would if not immediately have the means to pay this off they would at some point now back taxes what have you
00:29:54
February 1993 that is going to be tax season for her business anyway so it's difficult for us to sit here and say
00:30:03
how far in the rears were they with the taxes but it's believed that the argument that took place between her
00:30:11
husband Gary and gatha at work that day may have been in relation to this money that the business owed to the IRS
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the employees went on to tell the authorities that Gary Bowman left primedica at 6 45 pm
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It is believed that he went and got his glasses repaired and it stated almost as
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fact here so my guess is somebody knew that information or Gary told that information to the authorities and they
00:30:42
were able to back it up he goes on to say that he ate dinner and then came home and he was home about 8 20 p.m that
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night he says that when he arrived home gatha and the children were not at home he decided to go out and start looking
00:30:58
for her stopping first at the Best Western motel where he told authorities he thought he had seen her van well this
00:31:07
would go with the timeline a little bit here that we've been told by the authorities yeah but it's very strange
00:31:12
why wouldn't you just call the babysitter to see if she picked up the kids yeah but I I think we need to point
00:31:19
out the obvious here this doesn't indicate that he didn't call the babysitter he's not gonna I would doubt
00:31:25
that he would just willy-nilly just start going out and driving around looking for his wife and children he
00:31:31
probably very likely reached out to the babysitter at this point but we do know he's out looking for her I think what
00:31:38
the strange thing here is him telling authorities that he stopped at the Best Western motel where he told
00:31:45
authorities he thought he had seen her van he says when he reached the parking lot
00:31:49
he realized that it was not her van he then went into the lounge which would be that that bar that was uh in the same
00:31:57
parking lot for about 15 minutes or so and then returned home he said that he fell asleep and then he woke up about 2
00:32:05
A.M and this is when he realized once again that his wife and children still had not returned at this time he calls
00:32:13
gaither's mother and he calls the babysitter this to try to locate the children as we pointed out that location where
00:32:22
the van is found is not terribly far from their home it does not surprise me that this would be in his route when
00:32:29
he's out driving around looking for his wife looking for his children what surprises me is to have a statement
00:32:37
from the husband that says you know what I pulled in to the parking lot because I
00:32:41
thought I saw her van there and then I got out of my vehicle I determined that it was not her van I go inside I had a
00:32:49
drink and then I went home left the lounge arrives home around 8 20 or so falls asleep the problem with this
00:33:00
statement is her van is later found in this parking lot so what the hell is it right was it her van
00:33:08
or not I mean it's like the uh Princess Bride you hear this statement you go inconceivable
00:33:17
how the how the hell can he tell authorities I stopped there because I thought I saw her van and then
00:33:24
determined that the van I spotted was not hers and then later her van is found in this location so
00:33:31
I I mean I can't wrap my head around this yeah is he just such a dumbass that he can't identify his own wife's fan
00:33:39
or is it possible that he's like well somebody might have saw me at the at the Best Western so I need to place myself
00:33:49
there that's what I think we have going on here because according to his own statement he went into the bar such a
00:33:56
darn thing man to establish your own Alibi that's a Don thing you know you would expect that if well here it sounds
00:34:04
like it's a Gary thing but you would expect that if he went into the lounge as he states to authorities that
00:34:11
somebody would have seen him and then there's the other thing though too is you know we're reading these reports
00:34:18
we're not there to question this individual and ask for the details could it have simply been that he was
00:34:27
unable to discern 100 if this was was or was not his wife's van so he did go inside to see if she would be there
00:34:35
right and then because she wasn't in there he decided that oh it's probably not her van a 1990 Dodge van is not an
00:34:44
incredibly uncommon vehicle right it's weird to me that we have the ex-husband that's calling in the
00:34:52
missing persons report well and also look it's the early 90s there's a lot of people with little stickers or bumper
00:35:00
stickers and so it's like yeah there's a lot of vehicles that are the same vehicles but there's normally some kind
00:35:07
of identifying marker you'd think that you'd know maybe some information of what her license plate said I agree with
00:35:15
you 100 Captain I I that's the the biggest problem with Gary's story to me again
00:35:24
Princess Bride inconceivable to tell me that you went there and you purposely pulled into that parking lot because you
00:35:32
thought you spotted your wife's van somehow someway determined that it was not her van and then she's missing later
00:35:39
found killed and her van is found in that parking lot less than 48 hours after she left work
00:35:47
that day well and also less than a few hours after you were supposedly at her work and had this heated conversation or
00:35:56
the other report is a violent confrontation yes and that that's weird too now we do have the victim's mother
00:36:07
who openly stated that she was very unhappy with the investigation she is stating outwardly that there were
00:36:18
problems with the investigation from the first week she doesn't have a whole lot
00:36:22
of problems with the investigation as it took place going forward after it was known that this was a homicide
00:36:28
investigation she has a problem with how things were handled within that first week in particular the van the finding
00:36:35
of the van itself and then releasing it she is openly said to the public that she thinks that a lot of evidence a lot
00:36:43
of information was missed was lost and gone forever when they returned that van to Gary
00:36:51
Bowman well they returned it so quickly and and this is information we don't have
00:36:57
we're not privy to but it's like well what the what's the color of the interior and is it possible that there
00:37:04
was blood in the interior that maybe somebody just missed but you give it back to this individual that you haven't
00:37:11
really questioned and why didn't he call to report his wife missing I cannot for
00:37:17
the life of me figure out why he doesn't report her missing okay I can get over that fact what I can't get over
00:37:25
is that if I'm an investigator and I'm looking at this and I'm going husband doesn't call this in right we find the
00:37:32
van he's telling us he went to this parking lot a location that he told you he went to
00:37:39
we find this van later I I'm wondering what kind of search was done on this van it seems to me like
00:37:48
they just willy-nilly released it and probably didn't take good inventory or record of What observations they could
00:37:57
make on this van right and the other thing too I want to be clear here yes we're dancing around
00:38:05
the whole idea that Gary is probably a prime suspect or should be but definitely should be a person of
00:38:12
interest but regardless of who is responsible for this homicide it doesn't have to be Gary that killed
00:38:20
her for evidence in that van to have been lost like her mother is pointing out whoever the Killer is
00:38:27
there could be evidence that was lost against them regarding this van and the returning of
00:38:33
this van the timeline let's take it out a little bit further here so after the body is recovered in March of
00:38:42
1993 in July of 93 we start having investigators singing a different song we now have two suspects in Gaither
00:38:54
Bowman's homicide they do not name one of the suspects but if you're willing to read between the
00:39:03
lines and you don't have to read very hard you can see that they're almost openly
00:39:08
naming the second suspect and it hit me it's Gary Bowman and again they're not outwardly stating
00:39:18
100 percent they're not saying they're not putting those words in the same sentence Gary Bowman is a murder suspect
00:39:23
but what they are saying is we have gone to Gary we've asked him to submit blood
00:39:33
we've taken blood from this person and we are now going to be conducting tests conducting DNA tests
00:39:40
we have the DNA from our two suspects and we're thinking that these tests once we get
00:39:49
the test back it's going to tell us who did it it's either person a or person B we've narrowed it down to
00:39:56
person a or person B and based off of the DNA evidence we think that it's going to tell us which of these two
00:40:03
people so what the problem here in the investigation became that they could not you asked
00:40:10
about clearing somebody they could not clear either of these two individuals there was evidence to suggest that
00:40:20
one of these two people was the last person to see Gaither Bowman the evidence unfortunately could not
00:40:27
clear either person okay so when we look at Gary again very strange he doesn't call
00:40:34
in a missing person report on his wife he does have a alibi for leaving the business and he went to get his glasses
00:40:44
fixed but after that by his own Omission he has no alibi so if we're thinking that this murder
00:40:54
took place that night or at least she was kidnapped that night he doesn't have a solid Alibi and then
00:41:01
this other individual who I have to believe is the physician that she told some people she was going to go meet
00:41:08
right which would make the most sense then it makes you wonder well maybe he didn't have a solid Alibi either
00:41:15
and you have to believe that right unless unless they have something in the investigation saying that she met up
00:41:21
with some unknown person or let's say went into the bar and somebody approaches her
00:41:28
the thing is though they don't have any information or any evidence suggesting any of that their evidence suggests to
00:41:35
them that the last person to see Gaither Bowman that night was either a this physician
00:41:42
or B her husband and so you're saying that they took DNA from both these individuals they test it and they can't
00:41:52
there's no conclusive answer yeah and so let me give up a a little bit of insight
00:41:58
on that and this is this is just the kernel here reading between the lines okay there was a struggle
00:42:08
there was a struggle that took place we had already said that the coroner says well she was strangled but we don't know
00:42:14
how she was very likely strangled just somebody wrapping their hands around her neck right
00:42:23
after a struggle took place so there was a struggle and look I'm making a lot of inferences
00:42:30
here but I think a lot of them will make some sense once we go through them because we have
00:42:38
two individuals that we cannot clear either and I think you are exactly spot on here Captain I think there's a
00:42:45
problem with The Alibi of both of them we have her husband who openly admits that after a certain time that night he
00:42:52
has nobody to account for his whereabouts we also have this physician who it is stated that she was going to go
00:43:01
meet that night he says that they did not meet that night and he had met her in the past but did not meet her that
00:43:07
night mm-hmm obviously there has to be some problems with his Alibi because they're still
00:43:14
interested in this dude now basing the idea off of there being a struggle and that one of these two
00:43:20
individuals was the last to see her 's my thoughts nowhere ever is sexual assault
00:43:27
ever mentioned in any of the reports so I don't believe that they believed that that took place
00:43:34
what I do think that they have evidence of and they're not outwardly saying it is that if a struggle took place she
00:43:42
very likely may have the Killer's DNA skin scrapings what have you underneath her fingernails
00:43:50
right now here becomes the problem for your investigation one would expect to find her husband's DNA
00:44:00
under her fingernails very likely right very possible yes we know this from other homicide victims we
00:44:10
know we know this from other cases you could there are cases where victims went to school all day long and they find DNA
00:44:17
or some kind of evidence underneath fingernails of of persons that had nothing to do
00:44:22
with their homicide right what I believe these tests were as to rule in or rule out this physician
00:44:33
right because you might expect again it's not 100 but it's also not out of the realm of possibility you might
00:44:42
expect to find DNA of the husband underneath the fingernails whether he's responsible or not but you wouldn't
00:44:50
expect to find the Physicians especially if he says he did not meet her that night
00:44:57
so when these tests come back the best thing for your investigation is for it to match up to the physician
00:45:03
because then that tells you he lied to you that tells you his story is wrong he lied to authorities now he has just
00:45:12
separated himself from the other suspect this case is unsolved 30 years later they've never publicly said what the
00:45:20
results of those tests were but I can tell you what those results were because it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to
00:45:25
figure out that Tess came back and did not show evidence of this physician or we wouldn't be sitting here 30 years
00:45:32
later with an unsolved case yeah because they would have made the arrests he already made the statement and I didn't
00:45:37
meet up with her that night there's no reason for her his DNA to be under her fingernails or on her person and if they
00:45:44
found that DNA they'd make the arrest no solid Alibi and your DNA that's enough to go to trial the problem again with
00:45:53
the suspicious behavior of her husband is you can explain away the DNA where gatha's mother is absolutely correct
00:46:02
when gatha went missing if they would have questioned everybody initially and then search the person but maybe there'd
00:46:09
be some wounds on Gary and then it would be a lot harder to explain away the DNA
00:46:16
I I agree with her mother that a lot of this the missteps were the initial week of the investigation
00:46:24
Richland County didn't know exactly what they were dealing with so we got to say that in their defense
00:46:31
however they could have handled this van situation much differently and they could have looked at the
00:46:40
early facts in the investigation and their missing persons investigation and probably looked at it very differently
00:46:48
given the facts that we now know the facts it came to light to to became public information well this is a this
00:46:54
is a mother of two correct this is this is a successful business woman correct if I'm law enforcement I'm trying my
00:47:02
damndest to get a search warrant for that vehicle I'm trying my damndest to get a search warrant for the for her
00:47:07
business and anywhere that she would operate that business I would be getting I would
00:47:13
be trying my damnedest to get a search warrant for our house and to question and and search her husband
00:47:21
it you know it it sucks because we see this so many times in cases where they find a abandoned vehicle
00:47:29
and because they deal with that so often that they just go well it the the owner's gonna turn up not that big of a
00:47:40
deal but in this case it's a little different because we have a missing person before you find the vehicle gatha Bowman
00:47:47
age 37 disappeared 30 years ago next week the case is still unsolved Delaware County Sheriff's
00:47:57
Office is still investigating her homicide if anybody has any information you can call police desperately want
00:48:05
information about this case and I believe as said in the trailer of yesterday's show I
00:48:12
believe and I know the captain believes that one probably two or three people have
00:48:18
some information that they've just not been will that they've just not been willing to release or to give to
00:48:24
the authorities Delaware County Sheriff's Office is still investigating this homicide if anybody has information
00:48:30
please contact them at 740-833-2892 or you can go to delawarecountysheriff.com [Music]
00:48:55
thank you so much for joining us here in the garage each and every week make sure
00:49:00
you subscribe to the podcast Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are
00:49:06
recommending nothing but the night Leopold and Loeb and the truth behind the murder that rocked the 1920s America
00:49:14
by Greg King and Penny Wilson we've been talking about a case from the 20s recently here in the garage so very
00:49:24
fitting to recommend a book about the most infamous case from the 20s Leopold and Loeb were wealthy and privileged
00:49:32
teenagers who were charged with killing 14 year old Bobby Franks just for the thrill of it a gruesome crime that would
00:49:39
lead to the original trial of the century check out nothing but the Night by authors Greg King and Penny Wilson
00:49:47
and you don't have to write down that title right now because you can visit our recommended Page by going to our
00:49:53
website truecrime garage.com and while you're there make sure you sign up on the mailing list
00:49:59
we got a pretty big announcement coming and the people on the mailing list will hear it first so you want to make sure
00:50:06
you sign up on that mailing list and until next week be good be kind and don't let it
00:50:19
thank you thank you [Music]

Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of Gatha Bowman
    Gatha Bowman went missing on February 15, 1993, after leaving work. Her body was discovered a month later, leading to a complex investigation.
    “Gatha was well liked; she was a 1974 graduate of Utica High School.”
    @ 02m 50s
    February 11, 2023
  • Body Found in Gravel Pit
    Gatha's body was found in a gravel pit, indicating she was likely killed elsewhere. The investigation revealed complications due to jurisdictional issues.
    “Her remains are found in different counties.”
    @ 05m 17s
    February 11, 2023
  • Mystery of the Van
    Gatha's van was found parked at a motel, leading authorities to believe she was missing before it was parked there. Snow conditions played a crucial role in the investigation.
    “Authorities believe Gatha Bowman was already missing when the van was parked at the motel.”
    @ 22m 39s
    February 11, 2023
  • Conflicting Statements
    Gary's claim about seeing Gatha's van contradicts later evidence of its location.
    “How can he tell authorities he thought he saw her van and then it was found there?”
    @ 33m 19s
    February 11, 2023
  • Investigation Missteps
    Gatha's mother criticizes the initial handling of the investigation and evidence.
    “A lot of evidence was missed, lost, and gone forever.”
    @ 36m 43s
    February 11, 2023
  • The Missing Persons Report
    Gary Bowman, Gatha's husband, did not report her missing immediately, raising suspicions.
    “Why didn't he call to report his wife missing?”
    @ 37m 14s
    February 11, 2023
  • Unsolved Homicide Case
    Gatha Bowman, age 37, disappeared 30 years ago; her case remains unsolved.
    “Delaware County Sheriff's Office is still investigating this homicide.”
    @ 47m 59s
    February 11, 2023
  • Recommended Reading
    This week’s recommendation is 'Nothing But the Night' about the infamous Leopold and Loeb case.
    “Check out nothing but the Night by authors Greg King and Penny Wilson.”
    @ 49m 42s
    February 11, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer!
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647
  • She was a good mom; something prevented her from picking up her kids.
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647
  • I wouldn't expect them to publicly announce anybody being cleared.
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647
  • It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out whatever happened to Gatha happened that night.
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647
  • Inconceivable!
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647
  • It sucks because we see this so many times.
    Gatha Bowman /// Part 2 /// 647

Key Moments

  • Missing Person03:36
  • Investigation Complications05:46
  • Van Found19:50
  • Conflicting Statements33:19
  • Investigation Critique36:43
  • Missing Person Report37:14
  • Missing Person Case47:44
  • Ongoing Investigation48:26

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown