Convicted killer Greg Bowman dies in Missouri prison

Gregory Bowman, whose 1979 murder conviction of a Belleville woman and girl was overturned in 2000, died Tuesday on Missouri’s death row of natural causes.

Bowman died at 10:10 a.m. at the Potosi Correction Center, , according David Owen, Missouri Department of Corrections communications director.

“Mr. Bowman was a 64-year-old male serving a death sentence for capital murder from St. Louis County,” Owens said. “Mr. Bowman was received in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Dec. 11, 2009.”

Bowman suffered from liver disease, but the cause of his death was not immediately available.

Bowman was on Death Row in Missouri for the first-degree murder of Velda Joy Rumfelt, whose body was found in St. Louis County in 1977. She had been raped and strangled.

Bowman was charged with Rumfelt’s murder in 2007 after DNA found at the crime scene was compared to Bowman’s DNA. He had offered the DNA in 2001 to clear himself of two murders in St. Clair County. Bowman had been convicted in 1979 and sentenced to life in prison for the murders of 14-year-old Elizabeth West and 21-year-old Ruth Ann Jany.

West, 14, was walking home from Belleville Township High School after performing in a school musical on April 22, 1978. Former Belleville Police Chief James Rokita investigated West’s missing person report. West lived next door to then-Belleville Police Lt. Tom Hunter.

“Elizabeth and his daughter still played with dolls. They were kids,” Rokita said.

From his investigation, Rokita said he had a bad feeling. He didn’t think West ran away. His fears were confirmed two weeks later when West’s body was found in a creek near Millstadt. She had been raped and strangled.

On July 7, 1978, Jany, a nurse’s aide, disappeared from a Belleville bank parking lot. Her body was found in a field near Hecker a year later.

Bowman came to the police’s attention when he was arrested for kidnapping a woman, Jeanne Taylor, from a Belleville coin laundry on West Main Street on July 20, 1978. Rokita arrested Bowman for the kidnapping at his home in the eastern Illinois town of Belmont after a witness noted his license plate number during the kidnapping attempt.

While Bowman was being held in the St. Clair County Jail after being convicted for the kidnapping, fellow inmate Danny Stark told Bowman that he would help him escape from the St. Clair County Jail, but Bowman needed to delay his transfer to the Menard Correction Center. He could delay the transfer by talking to police about the Jany and West murders. The escape was later discovered to be a ruse, but Bowman gave several statements to police. He was then charged with the West and Jany murders.

In 2000, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a story about the false confession escape plot. Bowman retained new attorneys to fight his St. Clair County convictions. A St. Clair County judge ordered a new trial after questions arose about the circumstances surrounding Bowman’s statements to police regarding the case.

Then-St. Clair County State’s Attorney Robert Haida said after the conviction was overturned, he was prepared to re-try the decades old murders.

“When you have an abduction and a person is missing for a time, then is found murdered, that kind of crime lends itself to instilling fear in the community,” Haida said. “A case like that takes it to a different place.”

While getting ready for the new trial, a bond was set for Bowman. After a few months, Bowman was freed on bond for one week, until the DNA match was made to the Rumfelt case.

Rokita, who worked as a detective on the West and Jany murders, called St. Louis, Illinois and Missouri police and sheriff’s departments, searching for evidence that might connect Bowman to other murders. He called St. Louis County Detective Joe Burgoon, who headed a cold case squad. Burgoon mentioned they had a full DNA profile connected to the Rumfelt murder. Rokita faxed Bowman’s DNA profile to St. Louis County. It was a match. There was only one in 459 trillion people who could have left the stain in Rumfelt’s underpants — Bowman.

Teresa Rumfelt was Velda’s best friend. After Velda’s murder, she married Dewey, Velda’s brother.

“He caused a lot of pain, a lot of damage. People like that don’t deserve to live,” Teresa Rumfelt said Wednesday. “Of course, I know a lot of people don’t agree with that opinion, but not a lot of people have gone through this.”

Bowman received the death penalty in Missouri for Rumfelt’s murder. That sentence was overturned by an appellate court after it decided that the jury improperly heard testimony regarding the West and Jany murders in Belleville.

Bowman first served time for attacking a girl in 1972. He was on parole in 1977 and moved to Belleville. That woman testified during the sentencing portion of Bowman’s St. Louis County trial.

The Rumfelts were facing another hearing after the Missouri Supreme Court reversed Bowman’s death sentence because the judge improperly allowed testimony regarding the West and Jany murders in the sentencing hearing. The court found that Bowman’s conviction in the St. Clair County cases had been overturned and the jury should not have heard about those cases.

“We weren’t looking forward to that again,” Teresa Rumfelt said. “It was horrible those women talking about what he had done to them. Hearing again about what happened to Velda. We are relieved we don’t have to go through that again.”

Bowman’s death ends the possibility that he will face additional charges, but Rokita maintains he believes there are other victims. Five women went missing in St. Louis in a 10-week period, Rokita said. All were later found murdered.

Teresa Rumfelt said she wasn’t sorry that Bowman didn’t get the lethal injection.

“God took it into his own hands,” she said. “It’s an ending. Not a happy one. But an ending.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 10:15 AM with the headline "Convicted killer Greg Bowman dies in Missouri prison."