Skeletal remains ID'ed as Bowersock
Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 12, 2006 05:25 PM
They scoured the ground for “something red in the dirt,” clinging to a psychic's tips.
They drove around looking at creek beds and under brush where a body could be left.
They posted fliers aimed at hikers, offering a $1,000 reward.
Family and friends of Loretta Bowersock have waited and wondered since Dec. 14, 2004, the day the Tempe woman was reported missing.
And from that day until Thursday — when a somber evening press conference in Florence confirmed that a body found in the desert was Loretta — her daughter, Terri, continued the vigilant search for closure, and for her mom.
Terri, of Ahwatukee Foothills, is the charismatic businesswoman behind a chain of used-furniture stores, Terri's Consign & Design Furnishings. The mother and daughter started their first store together with a $2,000 loan from Terri's grandmother, Terri's childhood bedroom set and some old living room furniture.
In the last year, Terri turned to friends, co-workers and strangers for desert walks on weekends. One search party was small: two of Loretta's sisters and Terri, along with a psychic. They walked south of the Valley along Interstate 8, near Stanfield Road. It's an area police identified as a likely burial site — and near a spot where the body was discovered west of Interstate 8 and Highway 84.
Police suspect Bowersock's long-time live-in companion, Taw Benderly, killed her after a fight about the couple's finances. After she was reported missing he hanged himself in the garage of the house they lived in for 18 years.
In an interview last January, Terri Bowersock recalled how her mother met Benderly. She had helped her mother in 1986 place a classified ad that read, “Room for lease in nice house. Executive businesswoman.”
Benderly apparently was the first to respond. He came to her home penniless and without a suitcase. He said he had been robbed at the airport and was left with nothing, Terri recalled in earlier interviews. Her mother took him in and soon a romantic relationship began, one that over the years would grow to trouble Terri and Loretta's other friends.
Financial troubles also plagued Loretta Bowersock and Benderly. Maricopa County Superior Court records show that they were paying up to six figures in legal settlements. And their home was up for foreclosure.
Terri said she didn't know the depth of their financial owes. She found numerous unpaid bills tucked away in boxes while she was scouring the home. At her memorial service, Loretta Bowersock was remembered as quick and fast at the jitterbug, a gracious host and a cheerleader both in practice and life. Her daughter, Terri, organized the vigil.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/bowersock01122005-CR.html