SALEM TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A man was arrested Friday in the 1980 homicide of a 25-year-old woman from Virginia.
Kathleen Doyle was killed in her home in Norfolk, Virginia on Sept. 11, 1980. She was the daughter of a naval officer and the wife of a U.S. Navy pilot who was deployed at the time of her death.
Norfolk police and agents with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigate Service have been investigating the case since and finally identified the suspect on Friday as identified 70-year-old Dennis Bowman.
He was arrested Friday in Allegan County.
“You’re always looking to be able to provide something, anything to the victim of a crime like this. It’s wonderful that hopefully that’s going to happen, even though it’s been 39 years,” Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker said.
Bowman is being held in a Michigan jail until he can be extradited to Virginia for prosecution.
In the meantime, investigators in Michigan are combing through his property for evidence.
“Obviously there’s been a lot of advances in technology, a lot of things were able to do now we couldn’t do then. The resources are different,” Baker said.
Friday isn’t the first time authorities have come into contact with Bowman. Police records show he pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault in 1980 and pleaded guilty to federal burglary in 1998.
He was also the subject of an investigation involving his adoptive daughter Aundria Bowman, who went missing when she was 14. Police never filed charges against him in her disappearance but said they haven’t ruled him out as a suspect either.
