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Cathy Terkanian spent decades trying to uncover what happened to her biological daughter Aundria Bowman while authorities did little to find the young girl who disappeared on March 11, 1989. From piecing clues together to finding like-minded individuals and detectives who would help her cause, the mother gave it all to prove that her daughter was murdered, and possibly by her adoptive father, Dennis Bowman.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, a new two-part documentary, which is produced by Charlize Theron, delves deep into this case and into Cathy Terkanian's long quest for the truth. She was only 17 years old when she had Aundria.
Aundria was born Alexis Miranda Badger on June 23, 1974, in New Orleans. However, because Cathy was still a teenager at the time, her family allegedly pressured her immensely to give away her daughter. This meant that the young mother, Cathy, could not raise her daughter.
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She ended up giving Alexis away to foster care, where the child stayed till she was almost two. Before her second birthday, however, she was adopted by the Bowman family, consisting of Dennis and Brenda Bowman.
Unfortunately, this would only lead to a very twisted upbringing and the daughter's eventual death.
What happened to Aundria Bowman?
Sadly, after Alexis was given up for adoption by Cathy Terkanian, she was taken by the Bowman family, who renamed her Aundria Bowman. Unknown to Cathy, the patriarch of the family, Dennis Bowman, had quite a criminal history, with almost everything centering around assaults on young women.
He was also allegedly sentenced to 5-10 years in prison when Aundria was still a child. Not much is known about Aundria's upbringing, but something alarming happened in 1988.
In late 1988, Aundria Bowman's high school staff noticed that she was not willing to go back home and was fearful. Concerned, the school authorities got the police involved. Aundria allegedly revealed that she was being molested by her adoptive father at home.
A social worker returned with Bowman and confronted her father, but both Brenda and Dennis denied these allegations and claimed that Aundria was retaliating after finding out she was adopted.
Soon after this incident, the Bowman family moved to a mobile home in a rural area of Allegan County. Shortly after, on March 11, 1989, Aundria Bowman allegedly disappeared from their house, never to be seen alive again.
It took over 30 years of search and effort before the truth about Aundria's disappearance emerged. Meanwhile, the Bowmans kept this huge secret and continued with their lives. Dennis had allegedly chopped up her body, put it in a barrel, and buried it in the backyard so authorities could not locate her.
Throughout this quest for the truth, Cathy Terkinian remained resolute and ultimately ended up finding it after Dennis Bowman was arrested for the 1980 murder of Kathleen Doyle in Norfolk, Virginia. While in custody pending trial, Dennis Bowman finally confessed to killing his adoptive daughter and led the authorities to her remains.
He was ultimately sentenced to 35-50 years in prison for the murder of Aundria Bowman. This was in addition to the two life sentences he received for the murder of Kathleen Doyle.
Netflix's Into the Fire: The Lsot Daughter covers this case in more detail.
