As Deana Bowdoin's killer, Clarence Wayne Dixon, sits on death row, her sister still waits for justice. She's been waiting for decades.
As the years have passed, Leslie Bowdoin James has not stopped advocating for her little sister and Dixon's other victims. James was 23 when her sister was murdered.The pain of losing a loved one to murder will never go away, she said.
Many female students took steps to protect themselves by making sure their doors were locked, carrying"chemical sprays" and buying handguns. "I think it was just a shock for kids to come back from their winter break and a lot of them didn't know," James said in a recent interview with The Republic. The Tempe Police Department woke up their parents in the middle of the night and told her dad over the phone about his daughter's murder. The sister: 'There was so much for her to give'
"There was so much for her to give," James said."She just had such a promising future that I think she is an example of what young women can do, how much they can do when they aren't given a lot but they work really, really hard." Bowdoin’s family and friends did not know of any previous contact between her and her killer, according to court records. The killer: A childhood filled with abuse, his attorneys said jurors never heard about their client's childhood, which was filled with abuse and severe health problems.These boarding schools
According to court records, he abused alcohol and drugs as a young adult. Dixon married in 1976. However, his issues with drug addiction and alcoholism continued and the marriage ended in divorce in 1978. In 1976, Dixon started classes at ASU. Signs of a mental illness led him to withdraw from the university a year later.
Thank you for subscribing. This premium content is made possible because of your continued support of local journalism.not guilty by reason of insanityHe was released from the state hospital pending civil commitment proceedings. These types of civil proceedings may order a person to undergo mental health evaluations and treatment in an inpatient or outpatient facility.
He was sentenced to 14 to 15 years for the burglary charge and four to five years for the aggravated assault, according to the Department of Corrections. The sentences were to be served concurrently. Tom Magazzeni was a detective for 27 years with the Tempe Police Department. The detective started working on homicide cases in 1994, and after a few years, he began looking into cold cases.
"Evidence was collected that led us to believe that he, and he alone, was responsible for the sexual assault and murder of Deana Bowdoin," said Magazzeni, who retired in 2017. According to a 2003 story in The Republic, Bowdoin's murder was the oldest cold case at the time the Tempe police had solved by using DNA technology.
Magazzeni said detectives work to find those who are responsible and hold them accountable for heinous crimes.
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