Grieving Father Sues Church and DC

By RYAN ABBOTT

WASHINGTON (CN) - A father says the woman who adopted his daughter killed her and stashed her body in the freezer of her Maryland home. And he says she could this because the District of Columbia and the Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church failed to check her background.

In his Superior Court complaint, Michael Muhammad claims that Renee Bowman had a history of crime and financial difficulty that should have rendered her ineligible to adopt.

Muhammad says Bowman was convicted of threatening harm to a 72-year-old motorist, had an abusive mate and filed for bankruptcy in 2001. She told friends that she compared her life to that of "an abused dog," and said her own mother was "a homeless wanderer of the District of Columbia," according to the complaint.

Bowman is awaiting trial in Montgomery County, Md., where Muhammad's daughter, Humble, and Bowman's other adopted child allegedly were killed in Bowman's former Rockville home. The remains of both children were found on Sept. 26, 2008 in Bowman's current home in Lusby, Md., in Calvert County.

Muhammad sued the District of Columbia the Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church for wrongful death and negligence. He is represented by Maynard Henry with the Patrick Henry law firm of Annandale, Va