Trial under way for man accused in 1977 slaying
CLAYTON, Mo. -- DNA evidence will play a crucial role in the trial of Gregory Bowman, accused in the 1977 murder of a 16-year-old girl found strangled in a field in St. Louis County, prosecutors said Monday.
St. Louis County prosecutor Joe Dueker said during opening statements that physical evidence in the death of 16-year-old Velda Rumfelt clearly points to Bowman. "The defendant will finally have to pay for what he did to Velda Rumfelt 32 years ago," he told a jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Bowman's defense attorney, Stephan Evans, called the case unusual "from the standpoint that not much is in dispute."
Bowman, 58, of Bellmont, Ill., previously admitted to two separate killings, but those convictions were overturned. In 1978, Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Ann Jany, 21, disappeared separately in Belleville and were later found murdered in remote areas. Bowman became a suspect when he was arrested after trying to kidnap a woman.
He was sentenced to life for the West and Jany killings and went to prison. However, the convictions were thrown out in 2001, after a sheriff's deputy admitted to St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporters that Bowman had been tricked into talking about the murders. The Illinois charges have been refiled.
Bowman was released on bond briefly in 2007, before charges were filed in the Rumfelt case after officials said they got a DNA match.
On Monday, Rumfelt's family and friends testified about her final days.
In 1977, she moved to Kansas City to live with her mother. She hitched a ride across Missouri for a weekend from a 20-year-old man who worked at her family's gas station. That acquaintance, Bobby Keiner, told the jury Monday that he often drove to the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood to visit his mother.
Rumfelt arrived in St. Louis the morning of June 5 and spent the day with Keiner at the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park.
They were driving through Brentwood when Rumfelt spotted a man she knew. Rumfelt got out of the car at a red light and told Keiner she would meet him later at his mother's house. A waiter, Mark Dover, talked for a few minutes with Rumfelt in a parking lot, but left to go to a family party while Rumfelt stayed behind.
Several hours later, a classmate, Elizabeth Keesler, spotted Rumfelt walking along Brentwood with an older man she didn't recognize. Keesler told the jury that the stranger had long, blond hair.
Rumfelt's body was found in a field in southwest St. Louis County the next day. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a shoestring, according to court documents.