Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990 TAG: 9007280260
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"He is a very friendly person," said a relative who asked not to be identified. "He's always willing to help somebody."
Friday morning, police said, two men took advantage of that helpful nature. They hit Bowman with a steel-frame chair, knocking out his teeth, breaking his ribs and arm, damaging his intestines and injuring his head and face.
Bowman, 59, of Hillsville was in critical condition Friday night at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Police said the men tried to kill him after robbing him and stealing a bank bag containing money from the Townhouse Motel, which Bowman's wife manages for his brother. Police said the incident occurred between midnight and 9 a.m. Friday.
The following account was provided by authorities and Bowman's relative, who was interviewed by phone at a waiting room outside the hospital's intensive care unit:
Thursday night as Bowman and his wife, Emily, were getting ready for bed, the only two guests at the motel complained that their commode was stopped up. They claimed a plunger Bowman gave them didn't work, so Bowman assured the two he'd get a plumber in the morning.
While his wife went to sleep, he apparently walked down to the guests' room. Friday morning, when Emily Bowman woke up, her husband was gone. She decided to keep her beauty shop appointment, hoping he would be back when she returned.
"She thought he had gone fishing," the relative said. Bowman often fished in nearby Cricket Creek.
But when Emily Bowman returned at about 9 a.m., her husband still was missing. She checked several places before returning to the motel. She went to the guests' room to tell them the plumber was coming. Inside, she heard someone mumble, which she figured came from someone sleeping.
When she walked to the room she shared with her husband, she spotted an open desk drawer with a bank bag missing.
When Hillsville police arrived, Emily Bowman walked with Sgt. Mark Chappell to the guests' room. He knocked three times before entering with a key.
They shoved the door open then suddenly shut it.
"You can't go in there," Chappell told her.
Friday night, Hillsville police were seeking the two men on possible robbery and attempted capital murder charges. Bowman's navy blue Econoline van, minus the first two letters of its rear-end Ford emblem, was missing.
The two men had wandered into the motel on foot Wednesday, saying they were looking for work, Bowman's relative said.
"They were paying for everything with rolled-up coins."
by CNB