What happened to Aundria Bowman? Subject of Netflix's Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
Bowman's disappearance is the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is a new Netflix documentary, exploring the 10-year quest on which Cathy Terkanian embarked to find out the truth about what happened to her child.
In April 2010, Terkanian received a letter from a social worker, who explained that the daughter Terkanian had given up for adoption had disappeared from her adoptive home in 1989.
Enlisting the help of an amateur sleuth and local authorities, Terkanian set out to to uncover what happened to Aundria Bowman.
"Cathy was resilient and followed her intuition all the way to the end to get answers about her daughter," producer Charlize Theron told Netflix of the documentary.
"I think that sort of tenacity in the face of a bunch of people telling you you're wrong is something that really resonates with audiences. We so often are taught to trust our gut, but rarely see it in action."
But what happened to Aundria Bowman, the subject of Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter? Read on for key information from the Netflix documentary.
What happened to Aundria Bowman?
In 1989, Aundria Bowman disappeared at just 14 years old, and was believed to have run away.
In late 1988, Aundria reportedly expressed feeling fearful of going home and claimed she had been molested by her adoptive father, Dennis Bowman. Bowman denied allegations of any wrongdoing.
A while after, the family relocated to a rural area in Allegan County, and this was the last place Aundria was seen alive.
She was reported missing by her adoptive parents, and Dennis Bowman claimed Aundria had stolen money from him before disappearing.
In 2019, Dennis Bowman was arrested for the unsolved murder of Kathleen O'Brien Doyle, which had taken place in 1980.
A year later, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, rape and burglary charges and was given two life sentences.
The following year, it was reported that Bowman had confessed to the murder of Aundria, and days later, skeletal remains were recovered near Bowman's Allegan County home, which were confirmed to be that of Aundria's.
In 2021, Bowman pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the death of Aundria and was sentenced to an additional 35 to 50 years in prison.
"His numerous assaults, his behaviours in this case, other convictions all indicate Mr Bowman is a serious, dangerous man that has harmed many communities, many families," said judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker.
"It's impossible to even articulate the words to describe what he has done. Reading what he has done is sickening."
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Entertainment and Factual Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
