The Case of Matthew Walter Bowman

Matthew Walter Bowman, 19, disappeared on July 5, 1977, after leaving his home in Chicago. He was later identified as one of John Wayne Gacy's victims when investigators excavated the crawl space beneath Gacy's Norwood Park Township home following his 1978 arrest. Bowman's remains were recovered among the bodies concealed beneath the property.

Matthew Bowman was 19 years old and lived in Chicago. He disappeared during the summer of 1977, when Gacy's murders were occurring with increasing frequency. By this stage, Gacy had already murdered numerous young men and boys and was continuing to conceal their bodies beneath his home. Several of his victims were young men who lived or worked in the Chicago area and were encountered through Gacy's construction business or the city's nightlife. Bowman's disappearance occurred during a period when Gacy's offending was becoming increasingly concentrated. Within the following months, several more young men would disappear and ultimately be identified as Gacy victims.

Bowman was murdered by Gacy and his body was concealed beneath the home at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. Gacy used the crawl space beneath the property to bury many of his victims. The bodies remained concealed there until December 1978, when investigators began excavating the property following Gacy's arrest. Bowman's remains were among those recovered during the excavation.

Bowman's disappearance was initially treated as a missing-person case and remained unresolved for more than a year. The investigation into Gacy began after 15-year-old Robert Piest disappeared from a Des Plaines pharmacy on December 11, 1978. Police learned that Piest had been seen speaking with Gacy shortly before disappearing, leading investigators to focus on Gacy and search his home. The search revealed evidence of a large-scale burial site beneath the property. Investigators began excavating the crawl space and recovered the remains of numerous young men and boys. Bowman's remains were subsequently identified through forensic investigation and comparison with missing-person records. His identification added another previously unexplained disappearance to the growing list of victims attributed to Gacy.

John Wayne Gacy was convicted of Matthew Bowman's murder in 1980, along with 32 other murders, and sentenced to death. Bowman's remains were recovered from Gacy's home during the 1978 excavation and subsequently identified. Gacy was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Matthew Bowman was Gacy's sixteenth identified victim in the chronological sequence. His murder occurred during the increasingly concentrated period of Gacy's offending in 1977. By this point, the interval between identified murders was becoming considerably shorter than during the earlier years of his known activity.