Bobby Jack Fowler

Bobby Jack Fowler (June 12, 1939 – May 20, 2006) was an American rapist, murderer, and suspected serial killer who was active in the United States and Canada from 1973 to 1995. He died in prison of lung cancer during a 16-year sentence following a conviction for rape, kidnapping and attempted rape in Newport, Oregon, in 1996 (for an attack that took place in 1995).

Biography and early life

Childhood Bobby Jack Fowler was born June 12, 1939, to Selva “Mutt” Fowler and Oma Lee (Hathaway) Fowler. His older brother, Walter was born in 1934, and his younger sister, Susan was born in 1950; both died in 2004, two years before his death. His parents allegedly physically abused him and his siblings during their childhood.

Marriage

On March 6, 1959, Fowler married Theresa Patton and had five children: Johnny, Janey, Pam, Loretta and Randell. He and Theresa divorced on May 17, 1971.

Known crimes and modus operandi

Fowler was a transient construction worker who is known to have traveled extensively across North America. He spent time "rabbiting around" North America to such places as British Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee and Washington state. During his travels he developed an extensive criminal record and is known to have committed several violent crimes. As an alcohol, amphetamine, and methamphetamine abuser, Fowler had a criminal record that included attempted murder, sexual assault, and firearms offenses.

In 1969, he was charged with murdering a man and woman in Texas, but was only convicted of discharging a firearm within city limits.

Suspected crimes Fowler is a suspect or person of interest in at least 16 murders in British Columbia and Oregon dating as far back as 1969.

Project E-Pana

Fowler was a suspect under the focus of RCMP project E-Pana. His supposed DNA was found on the body of Colleen MacMillen. and possibly as many as 20.

Potential Canadian victims include those murdered and missing along the Highway of Tears. However, many of these murders occurred after Fowler's imprisonment in 1996 and geographic profiler Kim Rossmo is on the record, pointing out that Fowler was not responsible for any of the deaths along Highway 16 between 1989 and 2006. It is possible that the only thing linking Fowler to Highway 16 is that he worked for a now closed Prince George roofing company, Happy's Roofing, in 1974.

Other murders On May 3, 1992, around 1:00 a.m., Sheila Swanson, 19, and Melissa Sanders, 17, were last seen making a call from a payphone near the Beverly Beach State Park where they had been camping. Their bodies were later discovered on October 10, 1992, by hunters in a wooded area near Eddyville, Oregon.

Arrest and investigation On June 28, 1995, Fowler was arrested following an incident in Newport, Oregon, which involved a woman jumping out of a second floor window at the Tides Inn Motel with a rope still tied to her ankle. She survived the attack and reported the incident to the local police.

On January 8, 1996, Fowler was convicted of kidnapping in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, coercion, assault in the fourth degree, and menacing. He was sentenced to 195 months (16 years, 3 months) with the possibility of parole.

On September 25, 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Lincoln County District Attorney Rob Bovett named Bobby Jack Fowler as a suspect in three of the E-Pana murders. His supposed DNA was found on the body of Colleen MacMillen, one of the presumed victims. His body was cremated.