Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
I'm sending my brother money directly to his bank account in India because he's apparently too busy practicing his karaoke to go pick up cash. Thankfully, I can still send money his way. Direct to my bank account.
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This episode contains descriptions of crimes against a child and sexual references that are graphic in nature. It also contains reference to suicide. Please listen with care. On the afternoon of October 15th, 1979, the bell rang at Melton Elementary School in Gary, Indiana, and released a flock of children through its front doors.
Among them was Kenny Conrick, an adorable, skinny, eight-year-old third grader who stood four feet, four inches tall, with pale skin and fine, light brown hair. He had on brown corduroy pants, a dark blue shirt, and a navy blue ski jacket with blue and white sneakers.
The feeling of the autumn air energized him. Fall was Kenny's favorite season. He loved Halloween and had been thinking about what costume he would wear trick-or-treating. Maybe Batman or his favorite cartoon character, the Incredible Hulk. The school was situated in a middle-class suburban neighborhood south of Chicago, where parents felt their kids were safe to walk home on their own. Chatter and laughter faded as students dispersed in different directions.
Kenny was just getting settled into his new school, hoping for some stability in his life. His mom and dad had gotten divorced three years prior in 1976. Just a year later, his brother Kevin, who was a year younger than him, drowned in a freak accident at Lake Eliza, a small nearby lake in Indiana.
His mom went to pieces, and he had stayed with his dad's parents for a time until sometime in 1978 when he was returned to his mother, who had been granted full custody. And on top of that, his dad had remarried, and they had just had a baby boy, Kenny's new half-brother, in September of 1979, the beginning of his third grade school year. It was a hectic time.
Kenny found his buddy, a boy who I'll call Ralph, who lived nearby, and the two began walking together towards their respective homes. Since Kenny's mom was still at work, he'd be meeting his 15-year-old babysitter, who I'll call Tavis, who lived a couple doors down. Both homes were just a few blocks away from school. Kenny was in good spirits. Tavis was a paper boy, and Kenny was looking forward to joining him on a brand new afternoon paper route.
As the boys moved beyond the busy carpool line and towards the row of houses, the scent of popcorn wafting from a neighbor's garage caught their attention. A 19-year-old kid in the neighborhood, who I'll call Damon, who often worked on cars, was out in the garage, popping some popcorn. He offered them some as they walked by. Hungry for an afternoon snack, they indulged, scooping up handfuls before they were on their way.
It was close to 3 p.m. when they reached Ralph's home. The boys waved goodbye, their palms still greasy with popcorn butter, and Kenny continued alone. Tavis waited for Kenny in their meeting spot, but their scheduled meeting came and went. Tavis was untroubled, though. It was a safe neighborhood, and he figured that Kenny had probably decided to play with his friends. Not wanting to miss his first day on a new route, Tavis eventually took off.
The neighbors settled into their afternoon routines. Cars pulled into driveways, television snapped to life, and tables were set for dinner. But the rhythmic routine masked a tragedy. Somewhere between Ralph's house and Tavis's, Kenny had vanished.
Around 5 p.m., Kenny's mother, Myrna Marie Conrick, who went by Myrna, called the police station. She'd gotten home from her job as a delivery driver. She explained that her son was missing. Kenny was supposed to go straight to his babysitter's house, but he hadn't shown up. He hadn't stopped at home either, according to Myrna's live-in boyfriend who'd been there all afternoon.
Myrna had even checked the after-school program Kenny sometimes attended to no avail. Myrna assured police that Kenny had never run away before, and she feared that something terrible might have happened. As night fell, police began searching the neighborhood and surrounding areas. They knew how crucial the first few hours were for finding a missing child, so they continued searching through the night.
As the sun rose with no trace of Kenny, police realized that they were likely dealing with something sinister and began interviewing potential suspects.
They began with a babysitter, Tavis, who said that he hadn't seen Kenny at all that day. According to Tavis, the two had a good relationship. Kenny's mother said he looked up to him. But Tavis had used poor judgment a couple of times in the past with Kenny. Earlier that year, a Gary police officer had found Kenny abandoned at the Little League field. He told the officer that his babysitter had left him there alone. In
And this wasn't the only time Tavis had left Kenny unsupervised. Another time he was left on the bleachers at a high school football practice. The police considered his story. If he was telling the truth, and Kenny had never made it to their meeting spot, then something must have happened on the short walk from Damon's house. From what police knew, the only person besides Ralph who had seen Kenny after school that day was 19-year-old Damon.
Police wondered if the neighborly gesture of popcorn was innocent. He was widely known to be a friendly guy, always in his driveway fixing up cars and chatting with neighbors. Police looked into his background and found no criminal history. After questioning him, they searched his garage and his car for any signs of Kenny, but found nothing.
Members of the community joined the search for Kenny. Many of them were parents themselves who imagined the pain that Myrna was going through. On a break from searching, Myrna went into Kenny's room. The space was full of her son's favorite things. Comic books, superhero posters, action figures. It almost felt like he could be in there with her, quietly completing his homework or getting ready for school.
Myrna collapsed into sobs. The pain felt familiar. It had only been two years since she lost four-year-old Kevin at Lake Eliza. His funeral had been held on Kenny's sixth birthday. Seated on the bedroom floor, Myrna took a deep breath and refocused.
When she lifted her head, she noticed something that she hadn't before. A stack of library books on the table. Unsure of how long they'd been there, she collected them to return to the school library. Upon reviewing the books, the librarian at Melton Elementary noticed something strange. The due date slips indicated that they'd been checked out on October 15th, the day Kenny disappeared.
If Kenny had never gone home that day, how could the books have ended up in his room? And if he had gone home that day, why had Myrna's boyfriend lied about it? With the new information, police looked more closely at Ekster. Ekster Wright, a construction worker, had been dating Myrna for only a few months when he moved in with her and Kenny. Sources said that he was like a father to Kenny, but a strict one according to Kenny's aunt.
She remembered that he put a padlock on his door and used to lock him inside the bedroom as punishment. She also remembered Ekster telling him frightening stories from his time fighting in Vietnam that made her believe that he might be capable of violence. Several months earlier, Ekster was the subject of a domestic violence report for hitting Myrna in a dispute. He was a drinker, and he had trouble holding down a job.
The day of Kenny's disappearance, he said he had taken the day off of work to interview for another position, but was unable to prove he'd ever gone, leaving him without an alibi. Police asked how the books could have ended up in Kenny's room if he had never come home. Ekster speculated that Kenny could have snuck in while they were out searching, but otherwise he had no idea.
It didn't add up, and police were skeptical of Ekster, whose alcoholism may have clouded his memory. They considered the possibility that Ekster may have killed Kenny that afternoon while blacked out, and then hidden his body once he sobered up and realized what he had done. But Ekster remained resolute that he had nothing to do with the boy's disappearance. He volunteered to take a polygraph test, and the police took him up on the offer.
The results supported his claims. Investigator Daryl Longfellow later said that he struggled to see Ekster as a murderer. According to Longfellow, Ekster was visibly shaken by Kenny's disappearance and was cooperative at all times. Investigators were left with the question, how had the library books gotten to Kenny's room? They went and spoke with the librarian themselves.
On closer inspection, the librarian believed it was likely that the paper checkout slip with the books had been misdated, meaning Kenny could have gotten them the previous day and likely did not go home the day of his disappearance. The search for Kenny continued. Myrna's home was headquarters. They had a map of the city of Gary posted on their wall. They divided it into sectors to coordinate the search.
Myrna got a stack of colored construction paper and writing in crayon, she made signs pleading to Kenny to come home. She posted them at kid height on wooden telephone poles around the neighborhood. She contacted a psychic for help. She organized community-wide searches.
On Saturday, October 27th, she led a team of 30 people who scoured the East Glen Park area, a place where many of the kids from Kenny's school liked to play. But they found no trace of the boy. The next day, Ekster's sister, Beatrice, continued to search. It was a sunny morning, surprisingly warm for late October.
Though it had already been searched, Beatrice decided to revisit a wooded area behind the Salvation Army on Kenny Street. It was only a five-minute walk from his house, and Kenny used to go play there with his friends. Around 11 a.m., a flash of something white caught her eye. After taking a few careful steps through the long grass, she came upon a chilling discovery at the base of a tree. It was Kenny's body lying on the ground.
Police rushed to the scene. Kenny was found naked, besides his socks, lying face up with puncture wounds on his chest and leg. The drawstring of his jacket was tied around his neck, fastening him to the tree, and his shoelaces were tied around his wrists. His body was covered with cuts and bruises, signs that Kenny had fought for his life. Investigators began collecting evidence.
His clothes were nearby. His jacket was lying on the forest floor. A coin purse containing 42 cents was in the pocket of his corduroy pants. His lunchbox, notebooks, and pencils were still in his backpack. Police found a broken bottle and a tree limb, both stained with blood, and they believed that they had been used in the assault.
These findings, in addition to Kenny's jacket cord and shoelaces that were used in the murder, suggested that his killer had not brought a weapon with him, but it improvised with what was available. Detective Matt Eaton said of the scene, It looked like an unplanned event of rage. Although Kenny's body had many wounds, an autopsy determined it was the cord around his neck that ultimately caused his death.
Kenny was strangled by ligature, and it was ruled a homicide. The coroner found traces of food in his stomach from lunch that day. Based on the state of digestion, he estimated that Kenny died a few hours after leaving school. But it was hard to determine much else. It had been 12 days since Kenny's death, and his body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Because of this, the coroner was unable to confirm whether Kenny had been raped.
Myrna was devastated by Kenny's death. She had lost both of her young boys in two years, one by accident and one by malice. She was just 28 years old at the time, but had already known a lifetime of sorrow.
Kenny's funeral was held a few days after his body was found. There were two days of visitation, and he was buried in the nearby town of Portage, Indiana, at Calvary Cemetery, where he was reunited with his younger brother. Winter was beginning to set in, and mourners were bundled in coats as they gathered around the gravestone to say their goodbyes. The flag at Melton Elementary flew at half-mast in his memory.
Kenny's death cast a shadow over the whole town. Parents struggled to convey the horrific incident to their children. According to Kenny's teacher, his classmates were visibly shaken and stoned silent in the classroom after hearing the news. Kenny was a great student.
The residents of Gary, Indiana were afraid. Though Kenny had been found, his killer was still at large. Myrna urged parents to keep a close eye on their kids, telling a reporter, "'Take your kids to school. Keep a check on them and pick them up from school, because there are a lot of crazy people out there, and I'm afraid this is going to happen again. I don't want any other child to go through what Kenny went through.'"
The principal at Melton Elementary told reporters that more parents were walking their children to and from school and calling the school to ensure that their children had arrived safely. Police asked residents of the neighborhood surrounding the woods where Kenny was found if they had seen anything out of the ordinary on the evening of October 15th, the day of his disappearance.
According to an episode of Unusual Suspects, a series from Investigation Discovery, police received a call from a woman who lived on the edge of the wooded area where Kenny had been found. She'd heard her dogs barking at something that evening, and when she looked through the window, saw what was either a teenager or a young adult running through her backyard.
She said he was about 5'10", with dark hair and a slender build. The woman was confident she could identify him, so police set up a photo lineup of known offenders. After sifting through several mugshots, she settled on a photo of a man she believed to have seen that night. I'll refer to him as Raymond.
Raymond, a neighbor, lived only 10 blocks away from Kenny. He had an extensive criminal background and was out of prison at the time of the crime. When interviewed by investigators, Raymond admitted that he used to spend time in the woods where Kenny's body was found, but that he hadn't been there in over three years. He also denied ever being in the woman's yard. He thought she was targeting him because she knew of his criminal record and didn't like him living nearby.
Raymond was calm, though, throughout the interview and was able to provide an alibi. He had been with his brother, who lived miles away the night of the murder. Police called his brother to confirm, and Raymond was cleared of suspicion.
They continued interviewing people and soon discovered a crucial piece of information. The school crossing guard remembered Kenny walking with the paper boy on the day of his disappearance, but she wasn't talking about Kenny's babysitter, Tavis. She was talking about a different teenage boy named David Bowen.
Investigators Ed Swick and Daryl Longfellow arrived at the Bowen home on an afternoon in November. David's father answered the door. After being ushered in, Ed recalled that David's mother, quote, told us where to sit down. Daryl and I immediately knew this was everything we were looking for. They had solicited the FBI's help and had recently been given a profile that predicted the killer to be a younger adult with a domineering mother.
Ed and Daryl sat down with David to ask him some questions about Kenny. They noticed he was nervous and fidgety as he tried to recall where he'd been the day of the murder. David admitted to knowing Kenny from his paper route, but he said he didn't see him that day.
Unconvinced by his story, Ed and Daryl invited him to the station for a polygraph test. David was nervous as he repeated his story, and he failed the test. When police told him the results, he ran out of the station and back to his house. We had to chase him down. We brought him back, but his mother and father got an attorney, and after that we couldn't talk to him anymore, said Ed.
Police dug into David's record and discovered that he had been charged with sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy several years earlier when he was a young teenager, perhaps 14. The victim's mother decided not to press the matter further because David had agreed to undergo psychiatric treatment, and the police dropped the matter.
Between this, the FBI profile, and the crossing guard sighting, David seemed like a viable suspect, but they didn't have enough to bring charges. After three months of investigation, police believed they'd exhausted all leads and ended the active investigation into Kenny's murder.
In 1979, the following year, the administration at the Lake County Sheriff's Office encouraged the lead investigator to pursue a theory that a satanic cult had killed Kenny because of the mutilation to his body. It was the boogeyman of the times, satanic panic. As 1979 drew to a close, the residents of Gary, Indiana slowly came to terms with the fact that Kenny's murder might not be solved.
Kenny's family adjusted to living with the uncertainty. His aunt recalled, "Our faith kept us going. We believed that someday we would get to heaven and Kenny would tell us what happened." In the years that followed Kenny's death, rapid developments in DNA technology began changing the process of criminal investigations. By the late 90s, cold cases across the country were being revisited and decades-old evidence was being tested.
Kenny's case was reopened in 2005, the year he would have turned 34. When garments from the crime lab were brought out of storage, investigators were relieved to find them in pristine condition. Our crime lab did a remarkable job of preserving the evidence from 1979, said Detective Rabeniak Rodriguez, one of the new investigators on the case.
A semen sample was collected from Kenny's jacket, and skin cells were extracted from the shoelace that had been around his wrists. They were able to sequence the DNA and enter the profile into a national database called CODIS, but it didn't produce any matches.
The database had only been in widespread use for seven years, and it varied from state to state whether or not convicted felons had to submit their DNA to it. It was rapidly growing, but it was a fraction of the size that it is today. Investigators decided to try to do direct DNA comparisons to their top suspects.
Unfortunately, DNA would be difficult to acquire from Myrna's boyfriend, Ekster. He had died by suicide in January of 2002 in Indiana, three years prior. He had been living with his sister, Beatrice, at the time of his death. She was the one who had found Kenny's body, and she had been following the case closely.
The murder had taken a toll on their entire family, and Beatrice believed public suspicion of Exter's involvement had driven him to suicide. She told reporters, "'The police hounded him for so long. They harassed him. They'd pound on the door in the middle of the night and take him for 12, 16 hours at a time. They called him a murderer. He was so gullible. He wanted to help. He never realized he was a suspect.'"
He loved Kenny. Investigators, however, saw the situation differently. Ekster had left a suicide note that read to some as an indirect confession. Detective Matt Eaton found it, quote, "...suggestive of regret and remorse," and that he had in fact killed himself over Kenny's death.
Authorities feared they wouldn't be able to test Ekster's DNA since they hadn't collected samples before his death. That is, until they got in touch with the coroner's office. As was common practice with deaths by shooting, the bullet found in Ekster's body was retained as evidence. There were still traces of blood on the bullet, which could be compared to the DNA found on Kenny's clothes.
The samples were transferred to a lab, and the Gary police anxiously awaited the results. The case had haunted them for decades. Detective Rabeniak Rodriguez said, It's exasperating. You get to a point where you see this little boy in your sleep. You see him in your children. You see him everywhere you look. Finally, a call came in from the lab. The DNA found on Kenny's clothes did not belong to Ekster.
It was strange. The bullet that had taken his life was what restored his reputation in death. According to Detective Eaton, there was, quote, disbelief amongst many of the detectives. For so long, we thought Ekster was the killer in this case.
With the Gary police force, there were two camps of thought on who committed the murder. One camp believed the killer was Ekster, while the other believed it was the paperboy David Bowen. With Ekster ruled out, their attention turned to David. Fall is the perfect time to cozy up with a hot drink and enjoy the season. And now with the Northwest Federal Credit Union credit card, you can make the most of this time of year.
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David and his parents moved to Maine from Indiana shortly after Kenny's murder, and that's where David remained for the rest of his adult life. At the age of 21, David robbed a pizza parlor in Biddeford and served four months in jail. This incident kicked off eight more years of crime, including misdemeanor theft, three counts of drunk driving, and two counts of assault.
He got married during this time, though his erratic behavior ultimately led to divorce. His ex-wife later described him to be dangerous and unpredictable when he drank, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Around the time he turned 30, though, David's life of crime ended, and he moved to a rural town near Portland, where he settled into a quiet routine.
In 2005, when the Indiana police came looking for him, David was 42 and working as a house painter. Despite his criminal history and previous connection to Kenny's case, there was insufficient evidence to warrant collection of his DNA. Investigators from the Gary Police Department had to get creative. They got in contact with local police in Maine and started working together. The two forces conducted a sting operation.
Local officers followed a truck driven by David, hoping to gather a trace of DNA through discarded trash. When a cigarette was tossed out the window, they thought they'd hit the jackpot. They put the evidence in a bag and sent it to a crime lab where they successfully extracted a DNA profile. But investigators were shocked by the results. The DNA on the cigarette was not a match.
With David in the clear, detectives revisited the case file, looking for other subjects to test. But reviewing the facts only increased their conviction that David was the killer. Was it possible they'd tested the wrong DNA? Looking back at the sting operation, they realized that the cigarette could have been used by someone other than David. He was not the only person in the vehicle.
If that were the case, they still had a viable suspect, but they didn't have his DNA. Detective Thomas Decanter was reminded of a chilling phone call he'd received in 1992. An anonymous woman had told him that David Bowen killed Kenny behind Salvation Army. He asked himself who could have made that phone call. He scoured old yearbooks and marriage records until he came across David's sister, Donna.
In 2006, he contacted her, and she admitted she was the one to provide the anonymous tip 15 years earlier. To his relief, she also agreed to provide a DNA sample that he could compare for genetic similarity to their sample in evidence. And she was back in town. She lived in Gary, Indiana.
After another difficult wait, investigators finally got the answer they'd been hoping for. Donna's DNA was a familial match to the crime scene samples. Lab experts were able to determine that one of her brothers had committed the crime. Armed with these results, police were able to secure a search warrant to officially collect David's DNA.
On March 8th, 2007, David was brought in for questioning in Portland, Maine. He was dressed casually in a baseball hat and a flannel shirt, and he displayed that same anxious behavior that he had when he was a teenager. In recordings of this session, David appeared fidgety, constantly shifting in his seat and making frantic hand gestures. His voice strained as he repeated, "'I don't even remember who this kid is.'"
But this statement didn't align with his original story. He had previously admitted to knowing Kenny from seeing him around the neighborhood, similar to the 1979 interview. As the questions progressed, David became increasingly angry, especially after police obtained a blood sample. He left in a huff and said that he wouldn't speak to them any further without a lawyer, but investigators had all the evidence they needed.
Within a few months, the DNA lab delivered the expected results. The blood sample taken from David Bowen was a match to both the semen found on Kenny's jacket and the skin cells found on the ligature. Throughout the rest of 2007, the Lake County Sheriff's Department and the Lake County District Attorney's Office bolstered their case against David.
and in the meantime, asked local Maine cops to keep tabs on him. When they were ready to bring charges, they wanted it to be swift. They became familiar with his routine, which mostly consisted of going to work and returning to his basement apartment in Portland.
In December of 2007, a murder charge was filed in Lake County. Maine police, joined by Lake County investigators, waited for him at his apartment on the afternoon of Monday, December 17th. They expected him to be dropped off after work, but to their surprise, David never arrived. He'd been contracted to work on the new Poland Springs bottling plant in Kingfield, where he was staying with some other members of the painting crew at a bed and breakfast.
The next morning, police drove two hours to Kingfield, where they assembled in front of David's bed and breakfast. Lake County Detective Matt Eaton recalled peering through the front window. He saw David relaxing at the kitchen table, dressed for work in paint-splattered jeans. David seemed to notice the police presence, and he sprung up from his chair, his body tense and his eyes wide with panic. He looked like he might run.
But the fear faded and turned to resignation. There was no escape. He didn't resist. Police finally arrested David Bowen and took him to Franklin County Jail in Farmington, where he was held without bail. According to a U.S. marshal, David's demeanor was subdued throughout the arrest proceedings.
When told he'd been charged with the murder of Kenny Conrick, David responded in a calm, measured voice. Would it be easier if I just confessed? The following audio is from David's actual interview with police. You've been charged with the murder of Kenny Conrick. Yep. Would it be easier if I just confessed? If that's what she'd like you to do. Yeah. I did. Okay.
On the afternoon of October 15th, 1979, David Bowen spotted Kenny walking alone. David was 16 years old. He had just turned 16 that month, and Kenny was 8.
He approached him and, being a familiar face, easily convinced Kenny to follow him to the woods. Together, they walked behind the Salvation Army, moving further behind the trees until the street and its school traffic were out of sight. When he was sure no one would be able to hear them, David attacked. I mean, I strangled him and I stabbed him in the shirt. And I ended up killing him. Once I killed him, that was it.
David glossed over what he had done to Kenny. This part might be difficult to hear.
David beat Kenny in the face. Five of his teeth were knocked out from the blows. He undressed him and tied his leg to a tree. He had intended to rape Kenny, but may have changed his mind when the boy didn't regain consciousness. David instead removed some of Kenny's body parts and sexually mutilated him.
David ended up masturbating onto Kenny's jacket, which was lying on the forest floor not far from his body, and it was his semen that ultimately brought his downfall. He then strangled Kenny to death with a cord from his own jacket. Police asked him if he had participated in the search or returned to the murder site. When I went back there, I just looked at him and then I left.
As David was being questioned in Maine, a press conference was held at the Lake County Sheriff's Office in Indiana. Sheriff Roy Dominguez spoke on the persistence of everyone involved, saying, "...we never gave up on it. I want to thank all the officers and individuals who have continued and persisted in investigating this case from back in 1979 to arrest this person who brutally and sadistically killed a little boy."
One of those individuals was John Lashnick, a former Gary police sergeant who was there on the scene in 1979. He recalled being there, saying, It will stick in your head how much the kid would have been so afraid. John had been working on the case for over 25 years, and had helped reopen it when the technology became available.
Though he had retired the year prior to David's arrest, he continued following the developments and was glad to see the case was finally solved. He told reporters, It's kind of a bittersweet feeling. You can be a cop one year or 30 years. You're going to come across a case that sticks with you. You just want to see justice done.
Though Myrna Conrick was unable to attend the press conference due to health reasons, Deputy Chief John Clark answered questions on behalf of the family.
They have been very anxious for this, and the biggest reason is this kid was murdered when he was 8 years old, and he still has a family that's been living with this for 28 years. It's good to be able to hopefully play some role in providing them with a measure of closure, or a start on the road to it during the holiday season.
David Bowen was extradited to Indiana on December 20, 2007. After 28 years of freedom, he was finally behind bars.
Kenny's stepmother, Barbara Conrick, was waiting at the door of the jail when he arrived. She had been granted special permission to be there. Barbara maintained her composure as David, a man she described as pale, small, and balding, was ushered in, still wearing his paint-splattered work pants. She wasn't permitted to speak with him, but after he was taken to the booking area, she cried into the arms of friends who had joined her.
David accepted his punishment without much of a fight. David's lawyer said that he expressed shame throughout the proceedings and that he'd been relieved to have been arrested the previous December, as it puts an end to the guilt and fear that had haunted him for decades.
David avoided a trial by agreeing to a plea deal in the summer of 2008. While he was mostly quiet during his court appearance, he was quoted saying, I don't know what was wrong with me when I was 16. Being a father now, I can't imagine someone doing something like that to my daughter. I killed him. I'm sorry.
At the age of 45, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison with a projected release date of 2032, which would be after serving 25 years. He will be 70 years old. In the words of the judge, it was justice long delayed.
One of the investigators explained how David didn't fit into the mold of a typical violent offender. Detective Matt Eaton said, Nobody could fathom the idea that somebody could be so violent in their mid-teens and then go on for almost 30 years and not assault other children. Mal Mango, owner of the Portland sandwich shop Taroni's, said that David was a regular at the shop.
Mal was floored when he learned that Dave the painter was charged with murder. He told a reporter that David had gone to the shop almost every day for the past four and a half years and was one of the few non-family members allowed to have a tab if he didn't have cash on hand.
He would ask if he could pay me back in the morning, and then here he would be the next day, waiting at the door for me to open up. He was always polite, well-spoken. He was on a first-name basis with myself and my family. He was going to do some work on my house. Mal also said that David would almost always wear painting clothes and a ball cap, a humble outfit, and would purchase Marlboro Lights and chicken salad sandwiches.
When David moved to Maine, he married and had a child. I wonder what it must be like for her to discover that her father was a murderer. With David behind bars, Kenny's family could finally rest. Myrna reflected on Kenny's brief life with reporters for the Munster Times. He was a special treasure, so gifted, very well-liked, and very intelligent. He can never be replaced.
Myrna remembered that he was inquisitive, always asking a lot of questions. He was good at spelling, wrote school papers about hermit crabs and dinosaurs, and enjoyed reading from his set of encyclopedias. Kenny was a part of the Cub Scouts and had earned various badges for his achievements, but had died before they could be presented to him.
Though he was new at the school, he had sold the most raffle tickets at the fundraiser and won a transistor radio that he was so proud of. He liked Queen and Fleetwood Mac. He was well-mannered and dressed up for church every Sunday. Myrna remarried in 1989 at 37 years old with Jeffrey Burkholder, who was 30, and they had two kids together.
Yet another tragedy struck Myrna. Her new son, Matthew, died as an infant, which means that of her four children, her only child that survived to adulthood was her daughter, Christina. Her three sons, Kenny, Kevin, and Matthew, died at eight, four, and one. It's hard to imagine.
Christina remembered her mother's vigilance in protecting her. She was never allowed to play with friends after school. And Myrna, like many other frightened parents in Gary, would watch from the window every day as she waited for the bus. Christina didn't learn about her little brother until she was eight or nine, when Myrna finally showed her pictures and explained that the police were still looking for the person who killed him.
The grotesque crime that David Bowen committed that fall afternoon caused decades of grief and terror, but they also revealed a strength of spirit in those determined to bring Kenny justice. One Lake County detective remembered it as, quote, very much a rollercoaster ride. According to her, nearly all the detectives in the Bureau had their own children, making Kenny's case even more personal for them to reckon with.
Ultimately, it was the intersection of their efforts and the advancement of DNA technology that proved David's guilt. Myrna didn't speak out much after David's incarceration. She did, however, do an interview with the Chicago Times shortly after David's sentencing. She had only one thing to say of his killer. David Bruce Bowen, may you rot and burn in hell.
For 29 years, the date of death on Kenny's headstone was left blank. Police asked Myrna to wait. They worried that if she made public the date he was murdered, the killer could make up a fake alibi. In 2008, she finally filled in that blank.
Thank you so much for listening. If you are loving Murder, She Told, I want to encourage you to share it with a friend. If you want to support the show in another way, there's a link in the show notes with options. Follow Murder, She Told on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Head to MurderSheTold.com for a detailed list of sources and photos from this episode and more. Special mention to Investigation Discovery's Unusual Suspects.
Thank you to Zoe Arts for her writing, to Byron Willis for his writing and research, and to Samantha Coulthart and Sophie Ricker for their research. If you have a case suggestion or a correction, feel free to email me at hello at MurderSheTold.com. I'm Kristen Seavey, and this is Murder She Told. Thank you for listening.