A Frederick County Circuit Court grand jury in Virginia has certified the highest possible level of murder charges against a 43-year-old man accused of killing two of his coworkers, including a former love interest.
Jason Matthew William Bowen was indicted Thursday afternoon on two counts of aggravated murder, a Class 1 felony assessed in cases that would have been charged as capital murder prior to Virginia’s abolition of the death penalty in 2021. Since a death sentence can no longer be imposed by judges in the commonwealth, the Code of Virginia states a suspect convicted of aggravated murder will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The grand jury also indicted Bowen on two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, two counts of using a firearm inside a building to cause death and 16 counts of discharging a firearm inside a building.
According to court documents and testimony at an August bond hearing in Frederick County General District Court, Bowen is accused of killing 40-year-old Pamela Marie Lowande and 49-year-old Joshua Daniel Carter on April 20, 2023 at Lowande’s residence on Fromans Road in southwestern Frederick County.
Bowen, Lowande and Carter all worked together at New York-based MSA Security, which has satellite locations in Virginia. Lowande was scheduled to attend a work meeting either April 19 or 20 and, when she didn’t show, an unidentified coworker went to her house and discovered a grisly crime scene. The coworker immediately called 911.
Frederick County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Bryan Edwards testified in August that deputies reached the crime scene shortly after 7 a.m. April 20 and found Carter’s body in the garage and Lowande’s body in the living room near the front door. Police determined that both victims were shot multiple times, most likely between 5 and 6 a.m. that day.
“We feel the suspect entered the garage when the door was open and encountered the male, then went inside and encountered the female,” Edwards said at the bond hearing. He did not speculate who opened the garage door.
Eighteen shell casings from a Luger 9mm pistol were recovered from the scene, Edwards said, and only “two or three” of the bullets had missed their targets. The 16 indictments for discharging a firearm inside a building could indicate that Carter and Lowande were shot a total of 16 times.
Edwards said in August the bullet casings were tested by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Bowen’s DNA was detected on four of them.
The front of Lowande’s house had a security camera, but Edwards said it was not working on April 20. Subsequent searches of security footage from neighbors did not show anyone approaching or leaving the crime scene.
The lack of video evidence slowed the investigation until deputies learned of a former romantic connection between Bowen and Lowande.
Bowen’s wife of 17 years, Tammy Bowen, testified in August that her husband, a former Marine who was a K9 handler in the military, had an affair with Lowande two or three years prior to the murders. She said she did not know the seriousness or extent of the relationship, but she had seen a photo of Lowande and Jason Bowen kissing.
Tammy Bowen, who testified that she was out of town the morning the murders occurred, said investigators from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office searched her home a few weeks after the slayings and confiscated a motorcycle, pickup truck, 40-caliber Glock handgun and shotgun. Police have not said if any of those items are connected to the double homicide.
Jason Bowen was arrested on July 5 and initially charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Those charges were replaced Thursday with two counts of aggravated murder, which come with a guaranteed life sentence if Bowen is convicted.
The suspect continues to be held without bond at the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center near Winchester, where he has been incarcerated since the day of his arrest.
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