By Meladi Brewer
DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Prosecution witnesses finished their testimony on the third day of the Richard M. Bowman murder trial in Darke County Common Pleas Court. Judge Jonathan P. Hein presided.

Darke County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sergeant Christopher Clark took the stand as the final prosecution witness on Thursday. He testified he intentionally looked through Bowman’s clothing for traces of blood.

“I looked at several articles of clothing. I knew Richard had worn a dark sweatshirt that day to the Dollar General but was not wearing it at the crime scene,” Clark said.

No physical evidence of blood, clothing, or a possible murder weapon were found during the investigation. However, the court was able to hear a testimony earlier as to where the clothing Clark was looking for by inmate Brian Mader.

Mader testified he heard Bowman talk about his case in the Shelby County jail when they were incarcerated together in August 2020. Mader advised Clark that Bowman was talking about how he had killed Teresa, the motive, and how he tried to deceive the police by bringing the stimulus card to the sheriff’s office.

“If he was able to show you guys that he already had money, it would show the motive wasn’t for the money he gets from her passing away,” Mader said.

Mader quoted Bowman had said that he would get $200,000 from Teresa’s life insurance when she passed away, and he was going to get it. Confirmed in testimony by Karen Monnier, Clopay’s Human Resource Supervisor, Teresa’s life insurance totaled around $44,000, 401K totaled almost $54,000, and there were around $1,000 in other benefits. She stated Bowman was listed as the primary beneficiary if Teresa passed.

Mader continued on about how Bowman thought out his weapons of choice.

“He had talked about how they used a rope to do it,” Mader said. “And he said they would never find the murder weapon because it was bunt.”

Mader continues to state Bowman advised him the 2 x 4 Bowman used to hit Teresa in the back of the head and the clothes from the day were all burned, so they couldn’t be found. It was clarified Mader was not receiving any benefits for coming forth with the information or testifying in the courtroom.

Despite Mader’s testimony explaining why the evidence has not been located, Katharine Marker, Bowman’s girlfriend’s testimony only caused more questioning on Bowman’s character and alibi.

Her text messages with Bowman revealed he claimed he had a doctor’s appointment at 11 a.m., so she would have to come later in the day instead of in the morning. He sent the text at 7: 55 a.m., and at 12:10 p.m. he texted her stating “I’ll call in a little bit. Don’t give up.”

Call logs show he called Marker at 12:30 p.m. and advised her of the situation. Marker and Bowman texted more that evening before she asked for his address to come spend the weekend with him as originally planned. Marker spent the night with Bowman from Friday until Monday.

For more on the trial, visit Darke Common Court Room on Youtube to watch the live videos.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer email [email protected].