Murdered wife’s body ‘found tied to a sink in reservoir’ – inquest
AMURDERED woman’s remains were found tied to a porcelain sink at the bottom of a reservoir, 20 years after she disappeared.
Sandie Bowen was 54 when she went missing from her home in Llandogo, Monmouthshire, in August 1997. Her remains were recovered from the edge of a reservoir at Wentwood near Newport on February 1.
Yesterday an inquest into her death at Newport Coroner’s Court revealed how her body had been dumped.
The victim’s remains were tied to a porcelain sink in Wentwood Reservoir in Caldicot.
Coroner David Bowen recorded her medical cause of death as unascertained and a conclusion of unlawful killing.
Mrs Bowen, who was from the Wye Valley, was identified following DNA testing and as a result of dental records, the inquest heard.
The coroner has released the remains to her family so a funeral can take place.
In 1998 Mrs Bowen’s husband, Michael Raymond Bowen, was convicted of her murder and was given a life sentence following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
Bowen never revealed where he hid his wife’s body and the reservoir had not been fully drained for more than 100 years.
Grandmother Mrs Bowen went missing on the day her husband discovered affair.
Police discovered he was also having an affair at the time.
Bowen told police he had last seen his wife at Newport railway station, having dropped her off for her to catch a train to Folkestone to see her daughter but she never arrived.
He denied any involvement in her disappearance but her blood and false teeth were discovered at the couple’s house.
Traces of his blood were found on her pillow while samples of her blood were present on his shirts.
Forensic officers also found the burned remains of some of her belongings in the fireplace while her dentures were discovered in the bin.
Forestry worker Bowen was she was having an charged and convicted of murder despite the body not being found.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years.
In 2002 he admitted responsibility for her death and told police they had gone to his fishing boat where during a fight he hit her and she fell overboard – but he continually refused to reveal the whereabouts of her body.
Earlier this month Mrs Bowen’s daughter, Anita Giles, said her stepfather – reported to have been released from prison in 2015 – had been “lying through his teeth for 20 years”.
The 53-year-old, from Folkestone in Kent, said there hadn’t been a day since the disappearance where she hasn’t thought about her mother.
“I’m just relieved – 20 years is definitely a long time for us to grieve a family member, or anybody really,” she said.
“My family and I can finally get closure and try to lay my mum to rest and put flowers down and have somewhere to go.”
Ms Giles said she can now have a service for her mother.
“I now know that I can have a service for my mum. I can scatter her ashes at a place that means something to me and I can remember her and not have this harrowing 20 years hanging over my head anymore.
“It’s a relief. I can’t change what’s happened.
“All I can do now is just be grateful that something happened, her body was found and we can now have closure.”