The Five BOWERS Children - 2 to 13 yo - York PA

Louann Bowers has been dead since June 1993 -- at least according to a court of law.The 33-year-old York woman was declared legally dead by her family in 2004, more than a decade after her disappearance from her East Berlin home.But Bowers isn't dead -- and in fact, the law states she might have a claim to inherited property that was distributed in 2008. This summer, she was arrested and later charged with five counts of child endangerment, accused of secretly raising five children in squalor for several years with no medical care or formal education.She was living with a relative when police found her -- Sinhue Johnson, 45, her uncle by marriage, who also has been charged with child endangerment. But according to court documents, her immediate family didn't know where she was.On March 3, 2004, an attorney for Dale and Anna Mae Bowers, Louann Bowers' parents, presented evidence at a hearing before a York County judge.Court documents indicate the family had searched for the missing teen using four different missing children's networks, but to no avail. Letters from the military confirmed that Louann Bowers wasn't enlisted, and she had no known children or husband, a court petition stated.Judge Gregory M. Snyder decreed a legal presumption of death beginning June 8, 1993, the day Bowers was last seen at her Bakers Watering Trough home wearing a blue Spring Grove School District windbreaker and white-cloth sneakers.Robert Glessner, the York attorney who presented that evidence, said Saturday he is not representing Louann Bowers in any way.Bowers' family members could not be reached for comment.It's an unusual proceeding, said Bradley Jacobs, clerk of York County's Orphans' Court, where filings for such decrees are received and stored. He and his deputy both remember it."It's something that does stand out in your memory," he said. "I've been in this office since 2000, and I really don't know of any others."But it's not unheard of, legal experts said.Michael Hussey, an associate professor at Widener Law School with a concentration in wills and trusts, said typically, death decrees are issued when families are trying to administer an estate that names a missing person as an heir or collect some other kind of benefit, such as life insurance."You have this question hanging out there about what happened to this person," he said. "We need an answer before we can move forward, and having someone declared dead gives us that finality."Louann Bowers' case was no exception. Her grandmother Sarah E. Berkheimer died in 2003, willing a more than $100,000 share of the family's $829,810 in property to her granddaughter.The family had two choices in that scenario, Hussey said -- allow Louann Bowers' share to go unclaimed, opening it to the potential for a sheriff's sale, or declare her dead, causing her share to lapse.Missing or hard-to-find heirs aren't that uncommon, but the facts in the Bowers case are, Hussey said. "You have a 16-year-old who went missing as opposed to some 60-year-old cousin who you just lost track of," he said.According to court documents, Berkheimer's estate was settled in 2008. Louann Bowers' share was distributed among her family: $49,696.02 to her mother and $16,565.34 to each of her three siblings.But it might not end there, said Bridget Whitley, vice-chair of the Pennsylvania State Bar Association's real property, probate and trust law section. Berkheimer's estate was informally settled -- meaning each heir signed a receipt and release agreeing to return any money that was erroneously distributed. That makes it easier to challenge, Whitley said."It sounds like the perfect law school exam question," she said. "I can argue both sides of the issue. They were without knowledge of her and entitled to rely on a duly-issued order of the court that says she was deceased."Bowers could petition the court for her share, and court precedent is on her side, Whitley said. At very least, she would need to file a petition with the county Orphans' Court to overturn her death decree. There's no legal advantage to remaining dead, Whitley said. If anything, it could hurt her case."If the court would believe that her actions were induced, initially induced, designed to mislead people into believing she was dead, it may adjust the equities of the situation," Whitley said. "The judge may say, 'She's legally entitled to it, but I'm not going to order the funding.'"Bowers' attorney, Ronald Gross, said he is representing her only on the criminal charges, and that Bowers has not brought up the issue of the will to him. Asked whether he would petition to overturn her death decree, he said he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
Declared dead

The decree of Louann Bowers' death included copies of her missing child reports from four different agencies and letters from four branches of the U.S. military declaring she was not a member.According to state probate law, the court can direct a trustee to search for a missing person using an investigator or other agency, but anyone can testify concerning the death of a missing person, regardless of their interest in an estate. It's not an easy standard to meet, but the intention of the law is also not to be overly difficult, said Michael Hussey, an associate professor at Widener Law School."The proof may be hard to come by," he said. "The military is one example. People go out on a mission and don't return. At some point to move that forward, we declare them dead."The longer it's been since a person's disappearance, the easier it is to decree death, said Bridget Whitley, vice-chair of the Pennsylvania State Bar Association's real property, probate and trust law section. The usual threshold is seven years, but there are exceptions if a person was exposed to a "specific peril," the statute states.Sept. 11 is a common example, Hussey said. Many people's remains were never recovered, and the law wouldn't want a high bar in that situation."You would need to prove that a loved one went to work there every day, so they were probably there," he said. "Is it possible that that was the day they decide to run away, far away? That's possible but not likely."
Background

Louann Emma Bowers, 33, was last seen by her parents on the evening of June 7, 1993, according to a petition filed in 2004 to establish her death.She disappeared in the early morning hours of June 8, 1993 while her family was delivering newspapers, the petition states. When they returned, she was not there and she did not report to school that day.The petition states that Louann Bowers "told several friends that she was leaving home to elope with an unidentified boyfriend. She had no prior history of running away, nor was she known to have been dating anyone at the time of her disappearance."She was last seen wearing a blue pullover windbreaker with the printing "Spring Grove School District," white sneakers and carrying a blue jeans purse, according to a missing person report from the Pennsylvania State Police. Bowers and Sinhue Amea Johnson, 45, are charged with five counts each of endangering the welfare of children.They are accused of hiding their five children for years in a York home that had no electricity, heat, water, or a functioning toilet. The children were not in school or being home-schooled, police said, and they had received no medical or dental care.Bowers told police the children's ages were 2, 6, 10, 12, and 13.