Sandie Bowen, Missing For Twenty Years, Found In Reservoir Tied To Porcelain Sink

[Abroad]

Murdered Sandie Bowen's decomposed remains were found tied to a porcelain sink at the bottom of a reservoir, an inquest has heard.

The 53-year-old's body was recovered last month at Wentwood Reservoir, near Newport - 20 years after she was murdered by her husband Michael.

Mrs Bowen went missing from home in Monmouthshire in August 1997 but Bowen never revealed where he hid her body.

Coroner David Bowen recorded that Mrs Bowen had been "unlawfully killed".

Mrs Bowen, who was from Llandogo in the Wye Valley, was identified as a result of dental records and DNA testing, the inquest in Newport Heard.

Bowen was jailed for life in 1998 after being convicted of his wife's murder at Cardiff Crown Court but has recently been released on licence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-39403065

 

[Mata Hari]

Wow, conviction without a body? Hmmmm I guess now her family can bury her.

 

[cubby]

Bowen was jailed for life in 1998 after being convicted of his wife's murder at Cardiff Crown Court but has recently been released on licence.

Whose life, Sandie Bowen's life?

Why do they call it life, when it never works up to life? Why not call it what it is, we'll keep you here until folks settle down and most have forgotten what you've done, then we'll let you out.

 

[ChaosKitty]

Whose life, Sandie Bowen's life?

Why do they call it life, when it never works up to life? Why not call it what it is, we'll keep you here until folks settle down and most have forgotten what you've done, then we'll let you out.

I was thinking the same thing life apparently there was only around 20 years for him unlike the permanency of hers and others victims murdered by people. In Calif life usually means 12 years

 

[lithiumgirl]

How crappy for her family, and good for them all at the same time.

 

[Snoods]

Crazy, a porcelain sink held her down for 20 years? Sorry to be graphic, but usually a body will rise to the surface when it fills with gas, like a balloon, even if weighed down. Maybe she did pop up for a while and nobody saw her, and she eventually sank again.

Glad her family will have her grave to visit after twenty years of not knowing where she was.

 

[ChaosKitty]

Crazy, a porcelain sink held her down for 20 years? Sorry to be graphic, but usually a body will rise to the surface when it fills with gas, like a balloon, even if weighted down. Maybe she did pop up for a while and nobody saw her, and she eventually sank again.

not if tied enough to something that won't at best they might start to disintegrate

 

[Snoods]

not if tied enough to something that won't at best they might start to disintegrate

What would a porcelain sink weigh? 30 lbs? That wouldn't hold her down, I wouldn't think. I bet she floated for a while before she disintegrated.

If anyone ever checks my computer, Jesus God what they will find. Example: How much weight is needed to sink a dead body? How much weight is needed to keep a dead body in water from rising to the surface?

 

[ChaosKitty]

What would a porcelain sink weigh? 30 lbs? That wouldn't hold her down, I wouldn't think. I bet she floated for a while before she disintegrated.

If anyone ever checks my computer, Jesus God what they will find. Example: How much weight is needed to sink a dead body? How much weight is needed to keep a dead body in water from rising to the surface?

:hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious:

 

[spiff]

I wouldn't think a reservoir would be particularly acidic, and usually acidic water is what preserves corpses the best. Does anyone know about body preservation in normal water?

Back in the day people used to bury loved ones in peat bogs, which are kind of like a floating mat of land that is located above a pond. The water in the ponds tend to be quite acidic and preserve the bodies extremely well, so Natives tended to like to bury the bodies there for preservation. Incidentally, they are also fairly easy to fall through since there is often only a couple inches of land with plenty of water below, so it can be akin to falling through ice and getting trapped.

Anyway, archaeologists discovered a body, still with skin, from 2000 BCE. So bodies can be preserved VERY well for an extreme period of time when completely submerged, assuming they are not subjected to oxygen or other deteriorating elements. I wonder what properties this body of water had that allowed such an extended period of corpse preservation.

As a side note, if anyone is interested in bog bodies I'd just start with Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_body) and Google it up from there. Bogs themselves are pretty fascinating little places (they have many carnivorous plants!) and the body preservation thing is just badass.

 

[Abroad]

I wouldn't think a reservoir would be particularly acidic, and usually acidic water is what preserves corpses the best. Does anyone know about body preservation in normal water?

Back in the day people used to bury loved ones in peat bogs, which are kind of like a floating mat of land that is located above a pond. The water in the ponds tend to be quite acidic and preserve the bodies extremely well, so Natives tended to like to bury the bodies there for preservation. Incidentally, they are also fairly easy to fall through since there is often only a couple inches of land with plenty of water below, so it can be akin to falling through ice and getting trapped.

Anyway, archaeologists discovered a body, still with skin, from 2000 BCE. So bodies can be preserved VERY well for an extreme period of time when completely submerged, assuming they are not subjected to oxygen or other deteriorating elements. I wonder what properties this body of water had that allowed such an extended period of corpse preservation.

As a side note, if anyone is interested in bog bodies I'd just start with Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_body) and Google it up from there. Bogs themselves are pretty fascinating little places (they have many carnivorous plants!) and the body preservation thing is just badass.

I agree that bog bodies are fascinating, but I don't think you should assume that the people who "buried" (I suspect sacrificed is the more precise word) a fellow human being in the bog were doing so for the preservative properties. It is far more likely to have been because the bog was a liminal place, not dry land and not water, and therefore a place where the spirit world was closer to our world.

Or possibly they sacrificed people in other places as well, but they just left no trace. (I am personally more inclined to believe they did sacrifice people specifically in bogs, but I think the preservation was incidental, - not the purpose.)

 

[spiff]

@Abroad - I heard that information at a talk at a bog in New Hampsire a long time ago from an expert on that specific bog. However, the more I'm looking around online, the more it seems likely that the bogs are full of criminals and sacrifices and that ancient people likely feared the bogs (as they should, it's easy to die there). I only found a couple sources, none of which I'd consider reliable, that back up that the people used it for mummification purposes. However, if I was sacrificing a body to the gods I would want it to stay in tact for them so maybe there's a hint of truth, who knows!

It does seem that every single website is basing their info off of the same few root sources and it's all simple historical puzzlework, so it's probably going to stay a slight mystery forever.

Here's something that suggests that it may have been intentional preservation, and that people actually kept family corpses afterwards if anyone's interested.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...ety-how-bronze-age-britons-mummified-the-dead

“Our research shows that smoking over a fire and purposeful burial within a peat bog are among some of the techniques ancient Britons may have used to mummify their dead. Other techniques could have included evisceration, in which organs were removed shortly after death,” Booth added.

 

[lithiumgirl]

@spiff ... that was a cool read ... peat moss! It all sounds so nice!
[doublepost=1490734864,1490734794][/doublepost]

but I think the preservation was incidental, - not the purpose.)

The first fridge ???