Police: Kids in freezer dead for a year

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md., Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Maryland authorities say two children whose bodies were found in a woman's freezer may have been dead for a year or more.

Police say they suspect the bodies may belong to two missing children adopted by Renee Bowman, 43, who moved to Calvert County, Md., this year, taking the freezer with her from her former home in suburban Washington, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Investigators said Bowman "indicated" in an interview that the bodies were in the freezer when she moved out of her former residence in the Rockville, Md., area, the Post reported.

Child welfare advocates say the Bowman case raises questions about the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which had deemed Bowman a suitable adoptive parent even though she filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 and had just emerged from it in 2004 when she adopted two others, now listed as missing.

Bowman is jailed on child abuse charges, the Post said. Officials expected autopsies confirming the victims' identities to be completed this week.