ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. — Dennis Bowman was sentenced in an Allegan County courtroom Monday morning for the murder of his adoptive daughter in 1989.
Bowman was charged in 14-year-old Aundria Bowman's death back in May of 2020 and pleaded no contest in December of 2021.
The court sentenced Bowman to a minimum of 35-50 years in prison.
"Reading what he has done is sickening. I've been in this business for 40 years, almost 20 of them in prosecution, eleven in this role. I've prosecuted cold case marks, I don't think I've ever read anything this disturbing. I believe a sentence outside the guidelines is appropriate in this case," said Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker.
The case was particularly heinous because of what Bowman had done with the remains of his adoptive daughter, Aundria.
"I believe a sentencing guideline that keeps you away from our community of a minimum of 35 years to 50 years is more appropriate in this case, and that is this court's order," said Judge Bakker.
On March 11, 1989, 14-year-old Aundria Michelle Bowman was reported as a runaway from her Fillmore Township home. Law enforcement spent three decades investigating and reviewing countless leads until skeletal remains were found in the backyard of the home on 136th Street in February of 2020.
Bowman is already serving a life sentence in connection to a homicide in Virginia in 1980.
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