CLAYTON, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) -
Thirty-two years of uncertainty and pain ended Thursday afternoon for the family of murder victim Velda Rumfelt. A man suspected of being a serial murderer was found guilty of capital murder in the 16 year old's death. Gregory Bowman, 58, sat stoically in a St. Louis County court room as the jury delivered its verdict Thursday. The case grew out of efforts by investigator Joe Burgoon to track down "cold cases" and a DNA test that linked Bowman to clothing found on the victim.
Members of the Rumfelt family spent all week watching the murder trial and waiting for a verdict. They shed tears of relief and joy when the verdict was read. On the other side of the court room, Bowman's elderly father and other relatives cried as well.
A guilty verdict brought relief to not only Velda Rumfelt's family but to at least five other women and families who had violent encounters with Gregory Bowman. "He thought he got away with it and through God and good hard work DNA we got him," said Velda's sister-in-law Theresa outside the courthouse.
The judge denied the jury any chance to hear about any of Bowman's prior rape, assault or murder convictions. That changed in the penalty phase when those prior crimes were detailed, many jurors seemed surprised to not only hear their defendant had a prior violent past, they were even more surprised to hear about them from some of the women who experienced them first hand.
Through tears, two women testified in the penalty phase how back in 1972 Bowman abducted them at knifepoint, undressed them and nearly raped them. When asked to point out their attacker, both fought back tears saying "he's right there." Another woman detailed how she escaped Bowman back in 1978 in Belleville.
Then to the surprise of many of the jurors, the prosecution called former police officers who detailed the 1978 murders of 14-year-old Elizabeth West and 21-year-old Ruth Ann Jany both of Belleville. Both West and Jany were abducted, raped and strangled with a shoelace or cord just like Rumfelt was after her 1977 disappearance from Brentwood.
Bowman was convicted of both those Belleville murders only to have a judge grant a re-trial in 2007 because of concern over a forced confession.
"I'd like to see him get the death penalty," said Velda Rumfelt's brother Dewey, "that's what he deserves."
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After an evening and a day of jury deliberations in St. Louis County, suspected serial killer Gregory Bowman learned his fate in a death penalty trial for the 1977 murder of a Brentwood school girl. Wednesday night, Bowman appeared relaxed when called into the courtroom about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, wearing a cardigan sweater and slacks, waving warmly to his family. The judge told him there was no verdict at the time. Jurors wanted to break for the night and pick up deliberations Thursday morning. They did that and spent the day deliberating.
First arrested in his 20s, Bowman is now 58, standing trial for rape and strangulation of 16-year-old Velda Rumfelt.
Bowman had been convicted of the notorious 1978 St. Clair County, Illinois, murders of Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Ann Jany, 21, decades ago. In 2007, he was freed on bond, after a judge overturned his convictions in 2002, ruling a sheriff's deputy and another inmate tricked Bowman into confessing.
All that time, Rumfelt's murder went unsolved. She disappeared near Brentwood Boulevard and Clayton Road the year before the West and Jany slayings. Rumfelt's body was found off of Allenton Road in southwest St. Louis County.
The week after Bowman's release, authorities arrested him for Rumfelt's murder, saying DNA from her panties matched Bowman's.
"I want to see him get the death penalty because that's what he deserves," Rumfelt's brother, Dewey Rumfelt, said at the time.
Authorities still consider Bowman a suspect in the 1978 murder of Sharrey Lynn Case, 17, of Cahokia, Illinois. They exhumed her remains in 2005 looking for a DNA link to Bowman but found none. The case remains unsolved.
Bowman has a hearing set in the West and Jany cases in St. Clair County Court next month.
The prosecutor in those cases, St. Clair County State's Attorney Bob Haida, says the future of those cases depended somewhat on what happened in the Rumfelt case. If jurors convict Bowman and sentence him to death, authorities may choose not retry him in the West and Jany cases.
Members of the Rumfelt family spent all week watching the murder trial and waiting for a verdict. They shed tears of relief and joy when the verdict was read. On the other side of the court room, Bowman's elderly father and other relatives cried as well.
A guilty verdict brought relief to not only Velda Rumfelt's family but to at least five other women and families who had violent encounters with Gregory Bowman. "He thought he got away with it and through God and good hard work DNA we got him," said Velda's sister-in-law Theresa outside the courthouse.
The judge denied the jury any chance to hear about any of Bowman's prior rape, assault or murder convictions. That changed in the penalty phase when those prior crimes were detailed, many jurors seemed surprised to not only hear their defendant had a prior violent past, they were even more surprised to hear about them from some of the women who experienced them first hand.
Through tears, two women testified in the penalty phase how back in 1972 Bowman abducted them at knifepoint, undressed them and nearly raped them. When asked to point out their attacker, both fought back tears saying "he's right there." Another woman detailed how she escaped Bowman back in 1978 in Belleville.
Then to the surprise of many of the jurors, the prosecution called former police officers who detailed the 1978 murders of 14-year-old Elizabeth West and 21-year-old Ruth Ann Jany both of Belleville. Both West and Jany were abducted, raped and strangled with a shoelace or cord just like Rumfelt was after her 1977 disappearance from Brentwood.
Bowman was convicted of both those Belleville murders only to have a judge grant a re-trial in 2007 because of concern over a forced confession.
"I'd like to see him get the death penalty," said Velda Rumfelt's brother Dewey, "that's what he deserves."
=================
After an evening and a day of jury deliberations in St. Louis County, suspected serial killer Gregory Bowman learned his fate in a death penalty trial for the 1977 murder of a Brentwood school girl. Wednesday night, Bowman appeared relaxed when called into the courtroom about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, wearing a cardigan sweater and slacks, waving warmly to his family. The judge told him there was no verdict at the time. Jurors wanted to break for the night and pick up deliberations Thursday morning. They did that and spent the day deliberating.
First arrested in his 20s, Bowman is now 58, standing trial for rape and strangulation of 16-year-old Velda Rumfelt.
Bowman had been convicted of the notorious 1978 St. Clair County, Illinois, murders of Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Ann Jany, 21, decades ago. In 2007, he was freed on bond, after a judge overturned his convictions in 2002, ruling a sheriff's deputy and another inmate tricked Bowman into confessing.
All that time, Rumfelt's murder went unsolved. She disappeared near Brentwood Boulevard and Clayton Road the year before the West and Jany slayings. Rumfelt's body was found off of Allenton Road in southwest St. Louis County.
The week after Bowman's release, authorities arrested him for Rumfelt's murder, saying DNA from her panties matched Bowman's.
"I want to see him get the death penalty because that's what he deserves," Rumfelt's brother, Dewey Rumfelt, said at the time.
Authorities still consider Bowman a suspect in the 1978 murder of Sharrey Lynn Case, 17, of Cahokia, Illinois. They exhumed her remains in 2005 looking for a DNA link to Bowman but found none. The case remains unsolved.
Bowman has a hearing set in the West and Jany cases in St. Clair County Court next month.
The prosecutor in those cases, St. Clair County State's Attorney Bob Haida, says the future of those cases depended somewhat on what happened in the Rumfelt case. If jurors convict Bowman and sentence him to death, authorities may choose not retry him in the West and Jany cases.
