Friends honour ‘kind-hearted’ man crushed in recycle bin
Street pals recall man crushed to death in recycle bin
A gruesome death at a recycling centre last week has left some of Edmonton’s street community in mourning.
Lenny Bowman, the 35-year-old homeless man whose body was discovered at a north Edmonton recycling centre last week, was identified by friends and a homelessness advocate.
Police said in a news release the victim had no fixed address and was known to frequent areas in central Edmonton.
“He always had a smile on his face,” Nathan Steinhauer said of Bowman.
Steinhauer, sharing memories of his pal with others outside the George Spady Society this week, added that he once came close to being picked up by a truck himself after sleeping in a bin.
“Check the bin before you dump it,” added Rita Kakolak, who also knew Bowman and, between tears, remembered him being “so happy.”
Bowman last posted on Facebook in April 2017, saying he attended Wetaskiwin Composite High School and NorQuest College in Edmonton. There were a number of sympathetic messages left over the past few days on some of his posted photos.
Cousin Blake Tipewan said in a Facebook message that Bowman struggled with alcohol but was expected to one day return to his Samson Cree Nation home to get help. “Lenny was loved from his family and he was a kind-hearted man,” said Tipewan.
Police were called to Capital Paper Recycling, 15003 128 Ave., last Thursday after a truck unloading from morning rounds led workers to the discovery of the body around 9:30 a.m.
A Friday autopsy determined Bowman’s cause of death to be “consistent with being crushed.” The case was ruled non-criminal but northwest division officers continue to investigate.
“The problem is that human beings should not be so unsupported in difficult lives that they end up sleeping in a garbage (or recycling) box in the first place,” stated Jim Gurnett, treasurer of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, in an email when asked about Bowman’s death. “That this is happening I feel is negligence by governments and citizens in general who have not acted to end the housing security crisis that afflicts the lives of too many people.”
Gurnett organized this year’s memorial to those who died as a result of homelessness, which honoured 107 persons.
Police have been called to the recycling plant over the years for similar cases, including one in August 2013 and one in June 2012.