COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (TCN) — A 49-year-old registered sex offender will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing an 18-year-old woman nearly two years ago.
According to a news release from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, on June 11, a judge found John Bowen Jr. guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. Bowen was also convicted of tampering with evidence and received an additional 23.1 years to be served consecutively.
On Sept. 3, 2023, deputies responded to a report of a body and found 18-year-old Coyoete Turner deceased and partially burned.
According to WTLV-TV, investigators located a letter with a Suwannee County address underneath Turner’s body. Detectives reportedly responded to the address and learned Bowen was one of the residents living there. However, Bowen’s sex offender registration didn’t list the home but an address near where the victim was discovered.
The sheriff’s office said the defendant also provided inconsistent statements about his whereabouts.
According to WTLV, several days later, on Sept. 7, 2023, Bowen went to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and admitted that he had lied about his address on his sex offender registration, for which he was initially arrested.
Following Turner’s death, authorities allegedly recovered surveillance footage that showed Bowen changing his clothes in a vehicle before entering a store near where Turner’s body was located.
According to the sheriff’s office, investigators identified Bowen as a suspect through “numerous items of physical and electronic evidence.”
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