Vietnam vet John Bowie denies he killed his wife Roxlyn Bowie, missing since 1982
A FORMER ambulance officer believes he will be charged over his wife’s disappearance and suspected murder but has declared “I did not kill her”.
A FORMER ambulance officer believes he will be charged in relation to his wife’s disappearance and suspected murder but has declared “I did not kill her”.
Roxlyn Bowie, 31, was last seen at her home in Walgett, a small town in northern New South Wales, about 6pm on Saturday, June 5, 1982.
The mother of two, who did not have access to a car, was never seen again.
Her husband John Bowie, who has moved to Toowoomba, yesterday said he kept “coming up to a dead end” for reasons his wife would leave her young children, aged 18 months and six.
An inquest held in 2014 found Roxlyn was dead but could not determine when or how she died.
Investigators have said the mother was utterly devoted to her two young children, which made her disappearance puzzling to those who knew her well.
“They’re going charge me with it even though I’m innocent,” Bowie, now 68, told The Courier-Mail.
“Come judgment day when we all get judged by the almighty God, I know I will not be responsible for Roxyln’s disappearance.”
On the night she was last seen, Bowie claimed to have come home at 7pm and then left for the pub.
When he went to leave he claimed Roxlyn said: “If you go, I won’t be here when you get back.”
He claimed that when he returned at 10.30-11pm Roxlyn was no longer there.
A “Dear John” letter was found at the table saying she was leaving, without the children, and would never come back.
On Tuesday, three days after she was last seen, her parents received a letter which claimed to be from Roxlyn which said she had left. The letter was posted in Coonamble, about 100km south of Walgett.
Bowie pleaded guilty to forging his wife’s signature on a transfer of land in 1983.
When asked yesterday if he wrote the two letters from his wife Bowie said: “No I did not.”
When asked if he killed his wife, he said: “No I did not.”
Two weeks after she disappeared, Bowie went to Sydney. He later introduced a woman called Gail to meet the children who he said was their new stepmother.
He married another woman, Anne, the following year.
Some of Roxlyn’s jewellery was pawned 12 months after her disappearance.
Bowie said he ̶killed two teenagers when he fought during the war in Vietnam.
He also shot another man in the 1990s and said he spent four-and-a-half years in jail.
He also admitted to being violent to another woman he married years later.
“I could not bring myself to kill another person, may it be the bloke I shot or Roxlyn,” he said.
Bowie said he was praying his Roxlyn was alive.
“But other people are saying no she’s dead and I’m the one who killed her,” he said.
“I know for a fact that I did not kill her.”
Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said the NSW Police Force’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad was leading a renewed investigation into the disappearance and suspected murder of the mother-of-two.
“As part of this investigation, letters alleged to have been penned by Mrs Bowie will undergo further forensic examination,” he said.
“We note the Coroner’s findings and are keeping an open mind during the investigation. Our aim is to provide justice for Roxlyn and answers for her family.”
Originally published as Vietnam vet John Bowie denies he killed his wife Roxlyn Bowie, missing since 1982