Officials announced on Thursday that human remains discovered in 2022 are a 5-year-old Virginia boy who vanished two decades earlier.
On September 6, 2022, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of human remains in a wooded area of Galax. The remains, which had been there for an extended time, were confirmed to belong to Logan Bowman — whose mother and her then-boyfriend were charged in connection to his 2003 disappearance, WFXR reported.
According to the news outlet, Bowman’s remains were found in a trash can not far from where he vanished decades earlier. Othram Inc., a Texas-based forensic genetic genealogy lab, said in a statement that Bowman’s remains were discovered alongside his Winnie the Pooh blanket, a sleeping bag, and a piece of orange and pink cloth.
“Details of his disappearance were entered into NamUs [National Missing and Unidentified Persons System] as MP5868 with notes that Logan had a healing fracture in his left arm from a previous injury, teeth decay, and burn scars on his feet,” Othram said.
Earlier this year, Carroll County police and the state medical examiner submitted the skeletal remains to Othram Inc., who created a DNA profile of the then-unidentified child. The lab used the DNA profile to conduct a genealogy search which provided investigators with new leads. Local police then contacted two relatives of the deceased child to obtain DNA samples which confirmed the remains were Bowman.
Bowman was five when he suspiciously vanished in 2003. Bowman’s mother and her then-boyfriend, Cynthia Davis and Dennis Schermerhorn, were charged the same year as his disappearance. In 2004, Davis received a 20-year suspended sentence for child neglect and a 30-year sentence for homicide with 15 years suspended. Schermerhorn, who was convicted in 2003, got a one-year sentence for child neglect.
It is possible Davis and Schermerhorn will face more charges as the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office told WFXR that their investigation is still active.
*Additional reporting by Jacquelyn Gray
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[Featured image: Logan Bowman/Carroll County Sheriff’s Office]
