Netflix has just released a new two-part documentary, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughterand it receives acclaim from both critics and true crime fans.
According to Netflix’s logline, the film centers on a mother who “is drawn into a labyrinth of unanswered questions when she discovers that her daughter, whom she gave up for adoption many years ago, has disappeared.”
Ryan White directed the film, Charlize Theron is an executive producer and has worked to bring more attention to this story.
what is Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter about?
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter follows a woman’s search for the murderer of her daughter, whom she had given up for adoption.
In 1974, Cathy Terkanian gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Alexis Miranda Badger. Terkanian said her mother, whom she described in the documentary as abusive, encouraged her to give the baby up for adoption and she actually ran away from home when she became pregnant. Her mother convinced her that she needed to give her baby away for her own good. The adoption was finalized and she always hoped that one day she would be able to build a relationship with her daughter, but she was unable to do so.
Years later, Terkanian was contacted by the agency that had arranged for her daughter to be adopted. They informed her that the child she had given up had disappeared in 1989 when she was 14 years old, and now, years later, they believe an unidentified body that was found could be her. The agency requested her DNA to see if there was a match and it was indeed her daughter.
Cathy Terkanian’s investigation
Although this particular Jane Doe was not Terkanian’s daughter, it inspired her to investigate her daughter’s disappearance and find out what happened to her. With the help of her husband Edward and an internet detective of sorts named Carl Koppelman, she begins a 10-year journey to solve her daughter’s disappearance and death. Piecing together information inspired by the original Jane Doe case and another Koppelman worked on, she finds out that her daughter’s adoptive name was Aundria Michelle Bowman and she was adopted by Dennis and Brenda Bowman in Holland, Michigan.
Terkanian began searching for her daughter through social media, particularly Facebook. She created a Facebook group, and it began to fill up with people who knew her, mostly classmates from school. As she connected with her friends, she learned that her daughter’s adoptive father, Dennis, had abused her both physically and sexually. Brenda, her adoptive mother, kept most of it a secret and refused to believe it. Many of Aundria’s friends tried to help and they even informed school administration at one point, but most adults and authorities ignored what was going on. One of Brenda’s cousins and her spouse are also featured in the documentary and tell details about Dennis and Brenda’s abuse of Aundria and they even alerted authorities to say that Dennis should be investigated in connection with his adopted daughter’s disappearance. At the time of her disappearance, Dennis and Brenda said that Aundria had done things like throw tantrums and even steal money from them when she ran away – all of which were untrue.
What was the key to the case in Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
The biggest challenge in piecing things back together was when a woman named Metta McLeod, also from Holland, was kidnapped and sexually assaulted around the same time Aundria disappeared and contacted Cathy. She eventually escaped, but after doing some research on Aundria’s case, she believed her attacker was Dennis Bowman. Then Terkanian starts learning more about Dennis’ extensive criminal record. which includes Assault with intent to commit a sexual offense in 1981 and burglary in a colleague’s apartment in 1998.
As shown in the documentary, in 2019, he is arrested not for Aundria’s disappearance and death, but for the murder of Kathleen Doyle. Police in Norfolk, Virginia (where the Bowmans used to live) had reopened the unsolved case of Doyle, the wife of a U.S. Navy pilot. Dennis served in the Navy for two weeks while in Norfolk. Now arrested, he soon reveals to Brenda that he killed Aundria, but this confession is not without complications. He continued to lie about the cause of death (he said he hit her after she said she would tell police he sexually assaulted her) and toyed with police about her burial location. Initially, he said he cut off her legs and discarded the remains in a barrel of the neighbor’s garbage. Eventually, however, he reveals where she is actually buried – in a location that Cathy initially alerted Carl to. Cathy long believed that Aundria was buried in the backyard of the Bowmans’ new house, even though they had moved there after Aundria disappeared.
What happens at the end of Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter?
With Aundria’s remains found, it is now officially known what happened to her and who did it, although it is believed that the full truth may never be known. The documentary ends with Terkanian finding out that Brenda gave her half of Aundria’s body. She is upset by this, wants all of her daughter’s remains and believes that Brenda is dismembering her again by what she did.
Where is Cathy Terkanian now?
Terkanian also wants to continue to seek justice for Dennis’ other victims. She also continues to fight for her daughter and, as People reported, she wants “Aundria’s adoption annulled and her name changed back to Alexis Badger.”
“I need to remove that monster’s name from my daughter’s birth certificate,” she says in the documentary. “Imagine having to fight that system. But I’m going to do it, and I’m going to use this (documentation) as a target and take it straight to the governor.”
“Cathy was resilient and followed her intuition to the end to get answers about her daughter,” Theron told Netflix’s Tudum. “I think that kind of persistence in the face of a lot of people telling you you’re wrong really resonates with audiences. We’re taught so often to trust our gut, but we rarely see it in action.”
“Cathy is just a remarkable woman in terms of her strength and her conviction,” producer Jessica Hargrave told Tudum. “Without her, none of this would have happened. Even though she only met her daughter when she was a baby, Cathy still felt this connection to her and felt compelled, bordering on obsession, to find out what happened to her.”
Where is Dennis Bowman now and what other crimes has he committed?
Dennis is currently serving two life sentences for the murders of Aundria and Doyle. Police are unclear about the full extent of his crimes. In addition to the murders of Aundria and Doyle and the 1981 and 1988 cases and the alleged McLeod case, in 2021 he also confessed to the rape and assault of a Dutch woman in 1979.
