US Marshals task force apprehends Mississippi murder suspect near Bear Lake

A Mississippi man being hunted in Utah by a US Marshals fugitive task force was apprehended Thursday evening at a campground east of Bear Lake.
Charles Eugene Bowman, 61, was arrested without incident at the Rainbow Cove Campground, according to Rich County authorities.
A Utah Department of Natural Resources officer stumbled across the vehicle in which Bowman was known to be traveling. The officer immediately called the US Marshals office in Salt Lake, said Matthew Harris, US Marshal for Utah.
Harris said the fugitive task force—the Marshals Service Violent Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team—immediately traveled to the area as DNR officers kept watch over the suspect.
Harris said Bowman appeared to be readying a tent for a night of camping when the operation to apprehend him commenced.
Harris said multiple weapons were found inside the suspect’s tent and vehicle.
Some nearby campers, unaware they were enjoying the outdoors next to a wanted man, were quietly evacuated as a precaution before Bowman’s arrest.
Bowman has been in Utah since at least July 6 when he was spotted camping some six miles outside Vernal.
Harris revealed previously unreleased information that Bowman had once lived in Utah and that his family owns property in the state.
Bowman was first spotted by law enforcement traveling out west when cameras pickup his image in Evanston, Wyo. on June 30.
“He lived in Utah for some time. His family has property here in Utah. His family had a cabin in Kamas,” Harris said. “He came down from Evanston, we think to Vernal. Went to a Walmart outside of Vernal and bought a bunch of stuff in Vernal. Then he went to his cabin in Kamas and we kept missing him.”
Bowman was also spotted in the Salt Lake area in the days leading up to his arrest.
“And then he came down into Salt Lake. We were looking all over for him. Cameras in some other stores caught him. So we knew he was in Salt Lake,” Harris said. “He must have bugged out from Salt Lake for Bear Lake maybe in the last day or two.”
Bowman is being held pending extradition to Mississippi where he is expected to face a murder charge related to the death of his wife, Kathleen Bowman.
She had last been seen May 17 and was reported missing on June 29.
Human remains were eventually found at the couple’s home located in Pearl River County, Miss.
Pearl River County Deputy Coroner Albert Lee told the Sun Herald newspaper in Mississippi that the remains found in the Bowman home were positively identified by a forensic anthropologist and forensic odontologist with the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory.
Bowman may have mutilated his wife’s body in some fashion that made identification difficult. The Sun Herald reports the cause of his wife’s death remains under investigation.
Harris described the crime for which Bowman was being sought as “very violent.”