Decades of Lies

On March 11, 1989, 14-year-old Alexis Miranda Badger’s life was violently taken from her. In the days and weeks that followed, Dennis and Brenda Bowman told everyone — including the police — that Alexis had run away. They claimed she was a troubled teenager who had stolen money and left home. This lie became the official story for more than thirty years.

While Alexis’s birth mother, Cathy Terkanian, searched desperately for answers, the Bowmans continued living their lives as if nothing had happened. They moved to a new home in Hamilton, Michigan, and carried on with their daily routines. For decades, they maintained the false narrative that Alexis had simply disappeared. Dennis even went so far as to bury her remains under a concrete slab in their backyard, further concealing the truth.

It wasn’t until 2019, when Dennis Bowman was arrested for the 1980 murder of Kathleen Doyle in Virginia, that the decades of lies began to unravel. Under pressure from investigators, he finally confessed to killing Alexis. In 2020, her remains were recovered from the property where she had been hidden for over 30 years.

The Bowmans’ web of deception robbed Alexis of justice for more than three decades. It also caused unimaginable pain to her birth mother, who spent years fighting to find out what truly happened to her daughter. Their lies not only buried Alexis’s body — they buried the truth for far too long.