Still Missing: Monica Renee Bowie

On March 30th, a beautiful baby girl was born. On that same day this year, she was supposed to get married. But unfortunately for her loved ones, they are not able to celebrate that day because she is nowhere to be found.

Monica Renee Bowie disappeared July 5th of 2007 from Atlanta, Georgia. Since then, there has been one arrest made in her case - Jasper Keels - who was charged stealing the car that was seen speeding from the scene. Police believes that the motive for the kidnapping was “illegal narcotics activity" however they have not established that Keels knew Monica. Since that last update, police were still looking to make more arrests in the case.

Monica's fiancee's Shernotta Walters was arrested in June 2007 for drug possession and felony possession of a firearm. At the time, Walters was on parole after having served almost two years in prison for drug offenses. He was in jail when Bowie went missing. Monica's mother reported that she does not believe that Walters was involved with the kidnapping.

If you haven't heard about Monica Renee Bowie until now, I don't blame you. The mainstream media's obsession with the missing white woman is one of the reasons you haven't heard of her. Another perhaps bigger reason though is that Monica's story isn't perfect.

TV news producers...are less inclined to go all-out to cover victims whose plight may appear ambiguous, the result of their own reckless or criminal behavior.

If that's the case, Bowie's appeal to TV producers was fatally undermined by two pieces of her biography.

First, she was arrested for marijuana and gun possession in June. Her attorney, Gerald Griggs, says it's the first time she was ever arrested and that the charges were ultimately dropped. Secondly, she has, at times, worked as a stripper since moving to Atlanta in 1999.

"She's as deserving a human being as anyone, but her story isn't an easy sell to TV producers," says Art Harris, a two-time Emmy-winning investigative journalist who worked at CNN for 13 years. "That could change fast if the investigation reveals she's a clear-cut, damsel-in-distress victim."

Right. Apparently to them, Monica doesn't need our help. But here at Black and Missing, we believe that all missing persons the same. No one should be held higher than the other - they are all at risk for danger no matter what situation they were in before.

Just to see how often Monica was being mentioned in the media, I did a quick Google search using "Monica Renee Bowie" and then "Monica Bowie". Either way I did it, I found that there were a little over 50 articles on her case. Most of these were blogs and message board topics.

The last known news article I found was from September of 2007. I couldn't believe that there have not been an update since then. Where's the news on Monica? Why isn't anybody talking about this?

In honor of Monica, I decided that we should all take action and do our best keep her name alive. Let Monica know that we are still searching for her.


If you will like to help, there are several things you can do:

1. Distribute her flyer. You can print them out or place it on your blog, website or Myspace/Facebook pages. You can find the flyer at the DeKalb County Police Department's website here.

2. Use Monica's picture as your avatar on message boards or social networks until she is found. I have uploaded one on Flickr for public use here.

3. Contact the media and demand that they cover or do an update on Monica's case. NOW.org has a list of media contacts for all states. To find the contacts for Georgia's news stations, papers, tv and radio stations click here. You can also find a list of national news stations by going to the page entitled "Media Contact List" on the right sidebar of my blog.

4. Donate to the Monica Renee Bowie Reward Fund at any National City Bank under Linda Howard, Trustee to help cover for any costs that might help Monica's case. There is also a fund in Bank of America in Atlanta. [Source]

5. Or you simply copy and paste this post on your blog or send it to your email contacts to help spread the word.

Any help that you can give is great. I'm sure Monica's family will really appreciate us being involved in her case.


If you want to read more about Monica's case, I compiled a list of articles below:

Monica Bowie kidnapping falls through cracks

Arrest Made In Connection With Pittsburgh Native's Kidnapping

Missing coverage for missing people

Monica Bowie kidnapping suspect charged

Man Charged in July Kidnapping


Anyone with ANY information about the kidnapping is urged to contact the DeKalb County Police at 770-724-7850 or the Pittsburgh Police at 412-323-7800. Thanks for helping!