A drifter accused of abducting and killing an Ohio teenager 41 years ago appeared in a Toledo courtroom for the first time Tuesday and was ordered held on $500,000 bond.
Robert Bowman did not have an attorney and said nothing during his brief arraignment on an aggravated murder charge. He was arrested earlier this month in California after two investigators spotted him.
Bowman, 72, is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 14-year-old Eileen Adams after she stepped off a city bus on Dec. 18, 1967. Her body was found six weeks later near Monroe, Mich. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
He had been a suspect in the case since 1981, when his ex-wife connected him to the case, saying she had found Eileen Adams tied up in their basement weeks after she disappeared. She said she confronted her husband and he then vowed to kill the girl and threatened to kill her, too, if she called police.
In 1981, prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges.
Bowman was charged two years ago when authorities reopened the case and concluded that DNA evidence on the victim linked him to the crime. He was profiled on the "America's Most Wanted" television show last year.
