Amy Bowden’s parents share their pain after Ethan Ross confesses to ‘shooting her up’ with meth

She was kind and loving, but gullible and too trusting of others. Now, Amy Bowden’s parents want the world to know what led to their daughter’s tragic death.

• Bowden’s boyfriend shock admission before trial

When Michelle Sposito and Bryan Bowden learned their eldest daughter had passed away from a suspected drug overdose, they felt helpless.

They said their daughter Amy was loving, kind, compassionate, funny and above all, wanted to help people.

But they said she could also be gullible, too trusting of people she met online and found herself rapidly falling down a dark path of drug addiction.

Hours after her former boyfriend admitted to administering a fatal dose of methylamphetamine to her, Amy’s parents want the world to know their daughter wasn’t just some “junkie”.

Emergency services were called to Somerset Ave, Redwood Park on Thursday, February 8 after reports of an unexplained death.

Upon arrival police located the body of 26-year-old Amy.

Speaking through tears after court on Friday, Amy’s parents told The Advertiser the man who gave their daughter a fatal dose of meth called them on the phone, while paramedics worked to try and save her.

Amy Bowden’s parents Michelle and Bryan say they still haven’t got closure. Picture: Ben Clark

Amy (right) with her family.

Over the past 11 months, the court heard Ethan Lenny George Ross tried to “save” his girlfriend Amy from a heroin overdose by “shooting her up” with the drug, but Michelle cannot comprehend why he wouldn’t have just called an ambulance instead.

“That morning, he called and just gave the phone to the paramedics to talk to us,” she said.

“They told me she had passed away. It was 8am and we were in another state. I rang everyone, but there was nothing they could do.”

“Ethan had been ringing us up and said that it wasn’t his fault. He was saying to her that he was sorry and that Amy was his soulmate.

“He did nothing to save her. He didn’t call anyone.”

What made their pain worse, they said, was waiting for justice after Ross was charged and then denied he had done anything wrong.

Michelle and Bryan, who made the journey over from Melbourne to be in the room as a trial date was set, were shocked to hear that Ross decided to plead guilty to the charge of administering drugs to their daughter.

Ethan Ross pleaded guilty to administering a controlled drug to Amy Bowden Picture: Tim Joy

Amy Bowden’s parents Michelle and Bryan say they still haven’t got closure. Picture: Ben Clark

“That takes away some of the anxiety that would have come through hearing all the details,” Michelle said.

But for Bryan, there is still no closure.
“I still want it to be taken further for what’s actually happened. I get that this is what he’s admitted to, but that just doesn’t feel like enough,” he said.

“I don’t want people to think they were just junkies. She wasn’t just a junkie. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did.”

Nearly a year after Amy’s death, Michelle and Bryan said they’re still waiting for a coroner’s report to reveal Amy’s actual cause of death.

“We know what it is. We know what happened,” they said.“We’re never going to move on. There is no moving on. There’s no forgetting. It’s just coming to terms with the fact she isn’t here.

“Everything seems to be an anniversary of her, Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, her birthday, our birthdays, the date that it happened. We’re never going to have her there with us again.”

Ross hasn’t been charged with causing her death.

He will return to court next month where a date will be set for sentencing submissions.