Man's DNA Linked to 1967 Cold Case Mystery

A California man has been charged in the unsolved murder nearly four decades ago of a 14-year-old Central Catholic High School student.

Robert Baxter Bowman, 70, of Riverside, Calif., is charged with aggravated murder in an arrest warrant filed in Toledo Municipal Court.

He is accused of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Eileen Adams, a freshmen at Central Catholic, in West Toledo on Dec. 18, 1967, some 39 years ago. That was the same day she was reported missing when she didn't arrive at a relative's residence after school.

Six weeks later, the Sylvania Township teenager's frozen body was found wrapped in a mattress cover and rug in a field in Whiteford Township, Mich., on Jan. 30, 1968. An electric cord was tied around the rug. Eileen was clothed, but her shoes and coat were missing. Her wrists and ankles were bound with drapery cord. A two-strand telephone cord was looped around her neck and tied to her ankles.

Police decided to re-examine the unsolved case after a relative of Adams brought it up during a dinner conversation with an off-duty Toledo officer, according to Toledo police.

Cold case detectives were able to use DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene where the body was found in Southeastern Michigan to link Bowman to the case. They used a technique called reverse DNA by testing Bowman's ex-wife and daughter, who were located in Florida.

Cold case detectives were then able to identify semen found on the victim as Bowman's.

Police say Bowman probably lured Adams into his house when she got off the bus, and killed her by strangulation between a period of one day to several weeks after she was kidnapped.

Police are enlisting the help of California authorities to try to find Bowman, who is believed to be living in Southern California in either San Diego or Riverside.

Toledo police Sergeant Steve Forrester says he isn't sure Bowman is alive. Bowman's likely homeless; he has no known address and doesn't currently have a job authorities can track.

California police last had official contact with him in 2003.

"I'd love to catch him and interview him," Sgt. Forrester said. "We have a DNA match."

If he can be located, law enforcement officials in Ohio and California are hoping someone will phone in a tip so Bowman can be brought back to Toledo and to justice.