Husband can’t afford to join search for missing wife

A Vietnam veteran now living in southeast Queensland says he hopes police find the body of his wife, who disappeared in 1982, but says he can’t afford to travel to help look for her.

A VIETNAM veteran says he hopes police find the body of his missing wife but insists he can’t afford to travel south to help look for her.

John and Roxlyn Bowie. Roxlyn disappeared in 1982.

Roxlyn Bowie, 31, was last seen at her home in Walgett, in northern NSW, 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, a former ambulance officer now living in Toowoomba, has previously told The Courier-Mail he believes police will charge him over her suspected murder but has denied killing her.

Police have launched a search in Walgett and have excavated a dam in Wee Waa St and examined an industrial site.

Bowie said he had “no idea” where the dam was but had been told it was near a caravan park.

“I think I went to the caravan park once when I was in the ambulance service to pick up a patient,” he said.

“I’ve got no idea (about the industrial site), unless that’s the property that used to be across the road from where I used to live at Walgett.”

Roxlyn Bowie disappeared from her home in Walgett in northern NSW.

A $1m reward has been offered for information about her whereabouts.

Bowie has said he kept “coming up to a dead end” for reasons his wife would leave her young children, Warren, aged 18 months and Brenda, six.

Bowie has told The Courier-Mail in interviews that he believes his wife left him because of his “drinking” and “womanising”.

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, making her disappearance puzzling to those who knew her well.

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.

Roxlyn and John Bowie. John now lives in Toowoomba.

A “Dear John” letter was found on 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.

A $1 million reward was offered by the NSW Government last month.

Roxlyn’s daughter Brenda said it was hard to grow up without a mother.

“It has been hard living all my life not knowing what has happened to her,” she said, adding she wished to bury her mother next to her brother Warren who died in 2016.

Police search an area in Walgett last month. Picture: ACA

Bowie said he still didn’t know what happened to his wife and that he was innocent.

“If she is dead and buried in Walgett, I believe that the letter she posted to her mother was posted in Coonamble,” he said.

“Yeah I hope they find her, one way or the other.

“Because, my daughter wants her mother to be buried next to my son. That’s it.”

Asked if he’d like to go down and join the search he said “I’d love to, if I could get some money”.

“Because I’m a pensioner, I’m living from pay day to pay day,” he said.

“At times I can’t even make that.”

Roxlyn Bowie did not have access to a car when she disappeared. Her daughter is desperate to find out what happened to her mother.

He said police had not offered to take him down to the search.

Bowie pleaded guilty to forging his wife’s signature on a transfer of land in 1983. He has denied writing the letters and killing his wife during interviews with The Courier-Mail.

Two weeks after Roxlyn disappeared, Bowie went to Sydney, the inquest was told.

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.

Roxlyn Bowie had two children — a boy and a girl.

In previous conversations with The Courier-Mail Bowie said he ̶killed two teenagers when he fought during the war in Vietnam.

He also said he shot another man in the 1990s and spent four-and-a-half years in jail.

In her closing statement at the 2014 inquest, Coroner Mary Jerram said evidence given by Bowie was “very non-credible”.

She said there was nothing to suggest it was not Roxlyn’s handwriting on the notes but it was also not “absolutely certain” and that forensic testing was still being undertaken.

Police have said the letters were to undergo further forensic examinations.

If you have information that could assist contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000

Originally published as Husband can’t afford to join search for missing wife