Kenny Conrick leaves school for the last time

On the afternoon of October 15th, 1979, the bell rang at Melton Elementary School in Gary, Indiana, and released a flock of children through its front doors. Among them was Kenny Conrick, an adorable skinny eight-year-old 3rd grader who stood 4’4” tall—average for his age—with pale skin and fine light-brown hair. He had on brown corduroy pants, a dark blue shirt, and a navy blue ski jacket with blue and white sneakers.

Kenny was just getting settled into his new school, hoping for some stability in his life. His mom and dad had gotten divorced three years prior, in 1976. Just a year later, his brother, Kevin, who was one year younger than him, drowned in a freak accident at Lake Eliza—a small nearby lake in Indiana. His mom went to pieces and he had stayed with his dad’s parents for a time until sometime in 1978 when he was returned to his mother, who had been granted full custody. And on top of that, his dad had remarried, and they had just had a baby boy—Kenny’s new half-brother—in September of 1979, the beginning of his 3rd grade school year. It was a hectic time.

Kenny found his buddy, a boy we’ll call “Ralph,” who lived nearby, and the two began walking together toward their respective homes. Since Kenny’s mom was still at work, he’d be meeting his 15-year-old babysitter, who we’ll call “Tavis,” who lived a couple of doors down. Both homes were just a few blocks away from the school. Kenny was in good spirits—Tavis was a paperboy and Kenny was looking forward to joining him on a brand-new afternoon paper route.

As the boys moved beyond the busy carpool line and towards a row of houses, the scent of popcorn wafting from a neighbor’s garage caught their attention. A 19-year-old kid in the neighborhood, who we’ll call “Damon,” who often worked on cars, was out in the garage, popping some popcorn. He offered them some as they walked by. Hungry for an afternoon snack, they indulged, scooping up handfuls before heading on their way.

It was close to 3:00PM when they reached Ralph’s house. The boys waved goodbye—their palms still greasy with popcorn butter—and Kenny continued alone.

Tavis waited for Kenny in their meeting spot, but their scheduled meeting time came and went. Tavis was untroubled, though; it was a safe neighborhood, and he figured that Kenny had decided to play with friends. Not wanting to miss his first day on the new route, Tavis eventually took off.

The neighbors settled into their afternoon routines. Cars pulled into driveways, televisions snapped to life, and tables were set for dinner. But the rhythmic routine masked a tragedy—somewhere between Ralph’s house and Tavis’s, Kenny had vanished.

Kenny is Reported Missing

Around 5:00PM, Kenny’s mother, Myrnamarie Conrick, who went by “Myrna,” called the police station. She had gotten home from her job as a delivery driver. She explained that her son was missing—Kenny was supposed to go straight to his babysitter’s house, but hadn’t shown up. He hadn’t stopped at home, either, according to Myrna’s live-in boyfriend, who’d been there all afternoon. Myrna had even checked the afterschool program Kenny sometimes attended, to no avail. Myrna assured the police that Kenny had never run away before, and she feared that something terrible might have happened.

As night fell, police began searching the neighborhood and surrounding areas. They knew how crucial the first few hours were in finding a missing child, so they continued searching through the night. As the sun rose with no trace of Kenny, police realized that they were likely dealing with something sinister, and began interviewing potential suspects.

Police Question Potential Suspects

They began with the babysitter, Tavis, who said that he hadn’t seen Kenny at all that day. According to Tavis, the two had a good relationship. Kenny’s mother said he looked up to him. The police considered his story—if he was telling the truth, and Kenny had never made it to their meeting spot, then something must have happened on the short walk from Damon’s house.

From what the police knew, the only person besides Ralph who had seen Kenny after school that day was 19-year-old Damon. Police wondered if the neighborly gesture of popcorn was innocent. He was widely known to be a friendly guy—always in his driveway fixing up cars and chatting with neighbors. Police looked into his background and found no criminal history. After questioning him, they searched his garage and his car for any sign of Kenny, but found nothing.

Myrna Finds Kenny’s Library Books

Members of the community joined the search for Kenny. Many of them were parents themselves who imagined the pain that Myrna was going through. On a break from searching, Myrna went into her son’s room. The space was full of her son’s favorite things: comic books, superhero posters, action figures. It almost felt like he could be in there with her, quietly completing his homework or getting ready for school. Myrna collapsed into sobs. The pain felt familiar.

It had only been two years since she lost four-year-old Kevin at Lake Eliza. His funeral had been held on Kenny’s sixth birthday. Seated on the bedroom floor, Myrna took a deep breath and refocused. When she lifted her head, she noticed something she hadn’t before: a stack of library books on the table. Unsure of how long they’d been there, she collected them to return to the school library.

Upon reviewing the books, the librarian at Melton Elementary noticed something strange. The due date slips indicated that they’d been checked out on October 15th, the day Kenny disappeared. If Kenny had never gone home that day, how could the books have ended up in his room? And if he had gone home that day, why had Myrna’s boyfriend lied about it? With the new information, police looked more closely at Exter.

Police Suspect Exter

Exter Wright, a construction worker, had been dating Myrna for only a few months when he moved in with her and Kenny. Sources said that he was like a father to Kenny—but a strict one according to Kenny’s aunt. She remembered that he put a padlock on his door and used to lock him inside his bedroom as punishment. She also remembered Exter telling frightening stories from his time fighting in Vietnam that made her believe he might be capable of violence. Several months earlier, Exter was the subject of a domestic violence report for hitting Myrna in a dispute. He was a drinker, and he had trouble holding down a job. The day of Kenny’s disappearance, he said he’d taken the day off work to interview for another position, but was unable to prove he’d ever gone, leaving him without an alibi.

Police asked how the books could have ended up in Kenny’s room if he’d never come home. Exter speculated that Kenny could have snuck in while they were out searching, but otherwise had no idea. It didn’t add up, and police were skeptical of Exter, whose alcoholism may have clouded his memory.

But Exter remained resolute that he had nothing to do with the boy’s disappearance. He volunteered to take a polygraph test, and police took him up on the offer. The results supported his claims. Investigator Daryl Longfellow later said that he struggled to see Exter as a murderer. According to Longfellow, Exter was “visibly shaken” by Kenny’s disappearance, and “was cooperative at all times.”

The Search for Kenny Conrick Continues

Investigators were left with the question: how had the library books gotten to Kenny’s room? They went and spoke to the librarian themselves. On closer inspection the librarian believed it was likely that the paper checkout slip with the books had been misdated, meaning Kenny could have gotten them the previous day, and likely did not go home the day of his disappearance.

The next day, Exter’s sister, Beatrice, continued to search. It was a sunny morning, surprisingly warm for late October. Though it had been already been searched, Beatrice decided to revisit a wooded area behind the Salvation Army on Kenny’s street. It was only a five-minute walk from his house, and Kenny used to go there to play with his friends. Around 11:00AM, a flash of something white caught her eye. After taking a few careful steps through the long grass, she came upon a chilling discovery at the base of a tree: Kenny’s body lying on the ground.

Kenny’s Body is Found

Police rushed to the scene. Kenny was found naked—besides his socks—lying face up, with puncture wounds on his chest and leg. The drawstring of his jacket was tied around his neck, fastening him to the tree, and his shoelaces were tied around his wrists. His body was covered with cuts and bruises, signs that Kenny had fought for his life.

Investigators began collecting evidence. His clothes were nearby. A coin purse containing 42 cents was in the pocket of his corduroy pants. His lunchbox, notebooks, and pencils were still in his backpack. Police found a broken bottle and a tree limb, both stained with blood, and they believed they had been used in the assault. These findings, in addition to Kenny’s jacket cord and shoelaces that were used in the murder, suggested that his killer had not brought a weapon with him, but had improvised with what was available. Detective Matt Eaton said of the scene: “It looked like an unplanned event of rage.”

Although Kenny’s body had many wounds, an autopsy determined it was the cord around his neck that ultimately caused his death. Kenny was strangled by ligature, and it was ruled a homicide. It had been 12 days since Kenny’s death, and his body was in an advanced state of decomposition.

Police Suspect David Bowen

Police continued interviewing people, and soon discovered a crucial piece of information. The school crossing guard remembered Kenny walking with the paperboy on the day of his disappearance. But she wasn’t talking about Kenny’s babysitter, Tavis... she was talking about a different teenage boy named David Bowen.

Investigators Ed Swike and Daryl Longfellow arrived at the Bowen home on an afternoon in November. David’s father answered the door. After being ushered in, Ed recalled that David’s mother, quote, “told us where to sit down. Daryl and I immediately knew that this was everything we were looking for.” They had solicited the FBI’s help, and they recently were given a profile that predicted the killer to be “a younger adult with a domineering mother.”

Ed and Daryl sat down with David to ask him some questions about Kenny. They noticed he was nervous and fidgety as he tried to recall where he’d been the day of the murder. David admitted to knowing Kenny from his paper route, but said he didn’t him that day. Unconvinced by his story, Ed and Daryl invited him to the station for a polygraph test. David was nervous as he repeated his story, and he failed the test. When police told him the results, he ran out of the station and back to his house. “We had to chase him down. We brought him back, but his mother and father got an attorney, and after that we couldn't talk to him anymore,” said Ed.

Kenny’s Case is Revisited 26 Years Later

In the years that followed Kenny’s death, rapid developments in DNA technology began changing the process of criminal investigations. By the late 90s, cold cases across the country were being revisited, and decades-old evidence was being tested. Kenny’s case was reopened in 2005—the year he would have turned 34.

When garments from the crime scene were brought out of storage, investigators were relieved to find them in pristine condition. “Our crime lab did a remarkable job of preserving [the evidence from 1979],” said Detective Hrenbenyak-Rodriguez, one of the new investigators on the case. A semen sample was collected from Kenny’s jacket, and skin cells were extracted from the shoelace that had been around his wrists. They were able to sequence the DNA and enter the profile into a national database called CODIS, but it didn’t produce any matches. The database had only been in widespread use for seven years, and it varied from state to state whether or not convicted felons had to submit their DNA to it. It was rapidly growing, but it was a fraction of the size that it is today.

David Bowen Becomes the Prime Suspect

David and his parents moved to Maine from Indiana shortly after Kenny’s murder, and that’s where David remained for the rest of his adult life. At the age of 21, David robbed a pizza parlor in Biddeford and served four months in jail. This incident kicked off eight more years of crime, including misdemeanor theft, three counts of drunk driving, and two counts of assault. He got married during this time, though his erratic behavior ultimately led to divorce.

Around the time he turned 30, however, David’s life of crime ended, and he moved to a rural town near Portland, where he settled into a “quiet routine.” In 2005, when the Indiana police came looking for him, David was 42, and was working as a house painter.

Despite his criminal history and previous connection to Kenny’s case, there was insufficient evidence to warrant collection of his DNA. Investigators from the Gary Police Department had to get creative. They got in contact with local police in Maine and working together, the two forces conducted a sting operation. Local officers followed a truck driven by David, hoping to gather a trace of DNA through discarded trash. When a cigarette was tossed out the window, they thought they’d hit the jackpot.

They put it in an evidence bag, and sent it to a crime lab where they successfully extracted a DNA profile. But investigators were shocked by the results: the DNA on the cigarette was not a match.

With David in the clear, detectives revisited the case file, looking for other subjects to test. But reviewing the facts only increased their conviction that David was the killer. Was it possible they’d tested the wrong DNA? After all, David was not the only person in the vehicle. If that were the case, they still had a viable suspect, but they still didn’t have his DNA.

DNA Is Collected From Donna

Detective Thomas Decanter was reminded of a chilling phone call he’d received in 1992. An anonymous woman had told him that David Bowen killed Kenny behind the Salvation Army. He asked himself who could have made that phone call.

He scoured old yearbooks and marriage records until he came across David’s sister, Donna. In 2006, he contacted her, and she admitted she was the one to provide the anonymous tip 15 years earlier. To his relief, she also agreed to provide a DNA sample that he could compare for genetic similarity to their sample in evidence.

After another difficult wait, investigators finally got the answer they’d been hoping for: Donna’s DNA was a familial match to the crime scene samples. Lab experts were able to determine that one of her brothers had committed the crime. Armed with these results, police were able to secure a search warrant to officially collect David’s DNA.

David is Questioned

On March 8th, 2007, David was brought in for questioning in Portland, Maine. He was dressed casually in a baseball hat and plaid flannel shirt, and he displayed the same anxious behaviors that he had as a teenager. In recordings of this session, David appeared fidgety—constantly shifting in his seat and making frantic hand gestures. His voice strained as he repeated, “I don’t even remember who this kid is.” But this statement didn’t align with his original story—he had previously admitted to knowing Kenny from seeing him around the neighborhood. Similar to the 1979 interview, as the questions progressed, David became increasingly angry, especially after police obtained a blood sample. He left in a huff, and said that he wouldn’t speak to them further without a lawyer, but investigators had all the evidence they needed. DNA would later confirm that David was a match to the evidence found at the crime scene.

David is Arrested in Maine

In December of 2007, a murder charge was filed in Lake County. Maine police, joined by Lake County investigators, waited for him at his apartment on the afternoon of Monday, December 17. They expected him to be dropped off after work, but to their surprise, David never arrived—he’d been contracted to work on the new Poland Springs bottling plant in Kingfield, where he was staying with some other members of the painting crew at a bed and breakfast.

The next morning, police drove two hours to Kingfield, where they assembled in front of David’s B&B. Lake County Detective Matt Eaton recalled peering through a front window—he saw David relaxing at a kitchen table, dressed for work in paint-splattered jeans. Police finally arrested David Bowen and took him to Franklin County Jail in Farmington, Maine, where he was held without bail.

David’s Confession

 According to a US Marshal, David’s demeanor was “subdued” throughout the arrest proceedings. When told he’d been charged with the murder of Kenny Conrick, David responded in a calm, measured voice: “Would it be easier if I just confessed?”

Police: “If that’s what you would like to do.”

David: “Yeah. I did it. You know, I was only like 15, 16. I can’t even remember how old I was.”

Police: “Do you want to talk about why you did it or what happened?”

David: “I don’t even know why. It just happened. We were out in the woods, and it just happened.”

Police: “Did you guys already know each other?”

David: “Yeah, he was on my paper route.”

On the afternoon of October 15th, 1979, David Bowen spotted Kenny walking alone. David was 16 years old—he had just turned 16 that month—Kenny was 8 years old. He approached him, and, being a familiar face, easily convinced Kenny to follow him into the woods. Together, they walked behind the Salvation Army, moving further behind the trees until the street and its after-school traffic were out of sight. When he was sure no one would be able to hear them, David attacked.

David: “And then, I strangled him, and I stabbed him with a stick. You know, I ended up killing him. Once I killed him, that was it.”

Police: “Did you go home? Where did you go?”

David: “I went home.”

Police: “Was it light or dark out?”

David: “It was light.”

Police: “Okay. Is anybody at home when you get there?”

David: “My mother was home, I think. I just went in the basement and took my clothes off and put ‘em in the washing machine.”

Police: “Why did you do that?”

David: “There was blood on ‘em.”

Police: “Mom didn’t catch that?”

David: “No.”

Press Conference Held in Lake County

As David was being questioned in Maine, a press conference was held at the Lake County Sheriff’s offices in Indiana. Sheriff Roy Dominguez spoke on the persistence of everyone involved, saying:

“We never gave up on it. I want to thank all those officers and individuals who have continued and persisted in investigating this case from back in 1979 to [arrest] this person who brutally and sadistically killed a little boy.”

Though Myrna Conrick was unable to attend the press conference due to health reasons, Deputy Chief John Clark answered questions on behalf of the family.

“They've been very anxious for this, and the biggest reason is, this kid was murdered when he was 8 years old and he still has a family that’s been living with this for 28 years. It’s good to be able to hopefully play some role in providing them with a measure of closure, or a start on the road to [it].”

David pleads guilty

David Bowen was extradited to Indiana on December 20th, 2007. After 28 years of freedom, he was finally behind bars.

David accepted his punishment without much of a fight. David’s lawyer said that he expressed shame throughout the proceedings, and that he’d been relieved to have been arrested the previous December, as it put an end to the guilt and fear that had haunted him for decades. David avoided a trial by agreeing to a plea deal in the summer of 2008.

At the age of 45, he was sentenced to fifty years in prison, with a projected release date of 2032, which would be after serving 25 years. He will be 70 years old.

Justice For Kenny Conrick

With David behind bars, Kenny’s family could finally rest. Myrna reflected on Kenny’s brief life with reporters for The Munster Times: “[He] was a special treasure, so gifted, very well-liked, and very intelligent. He can never be replaced.” Myrna remembered that he was inquisitive—always asking a lot of questions. He was good at spelling, wrote school papers about hermit crabs and dinosaurs, and enjoyed reading from his set of encyclopedias. Kenny was part of the Cub Scouts and had earned various badges for his achievements, but he had died before they could be presented to him. Though he was new to the school, he had sold the most raffle tickets for a fundraiser and won a transistor radio that he was proud of. He liked Queen and Fleetwood Mac. He was well-mannered and dressed up for church every Sunday.

The grotesque crime that David Bowen committed that fall afternoon caused decades of grief and terror, but they also revealed a strength of spirit in those determined to bring Kenny justice. One Lake County detective remembered it as, quote, “very much a rollercoaster ride.” According to her, nearly all the detectives in the bureau had their own children, making Kenny’s case even more personal for them to reckon with. Ultimately, it was the intersection of their efforts and the advancement of DNA technology that proved David’s guilt.

Myrna didn’t speak out much after David’s incarceration. She did, however, do an interview with The Chicago Times shortly after David’s sentencing. She had only one thing to say of his killer: “David Bruce Bowen, may you rot and burn in hell.”

For 29 years, the date of death on Kenny’s headstone was left blank. Police asked Myrna to wait. They worried that if she made public the date he was murdered, the killer could concoct an alibi to prove his innocence. In 2008, she could finally fill in that blank.

 

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Tragic Murder of Kenneth Conrick. To hear Kenny's full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper sources

Various articles from Andover Townsman, Bangor Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Gary Post Tribune, Journal and Courier, Journal Gazette, Morning Sentinel, Portland Press Herald, Post-Tribune, Sun-Journal, The Bangor Daily News, The Daily Journal, The Indianapolis Star, The Republic, The South Bend Tribune, The Times, The Vincennes Sun-Commercial, Times, The Munster, Tipton County Tribune, and the Vidette-Messager, here.

Written by various authors including Andy Grimm, Ann Bryant, Ben Johnson, Betty Jespersen, Bill Dolan, Dan Hinkel, David Hench, Elvia Malagon, Jerry Davich, Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark LaFlamme, Ruth Ann Krause, Starita Smith, Steve Garrison, Trevor Maxwell, and Vernon A. Williams.

Online sources

Investigation Discovery’s (ID) series, “Unusual Suspects,” Season 6, Episode 6, “Death of Innocence,” Aired Feb 23, 2014.

'Kenneth Duane “Kenny” Conrick' (FindaGrave), 1/21/2017

Photos

Photos from ID’s documentary (Series: Unusual Suspects, Season 6, Episode 6, “Death of Innocence”), various newspaper articles, and Google Maps.

Credits

Vocal performance, audio editing, and research by Kristen Seavey

Written by Zoë Aarts and Byron Willis

Research, and photo editing by Byron Willis

Research by Sofie Ricker and Samantha Coltart

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey