This is about a cold case of a crime committed within East Pikeland Township. Does the Chester County District Attorney have a cold case unit? Maybe if items are still preserved the DNA of it all could be tested again like the author of this post I am sharing suggests? I will note that it seemed like in the not too distant past that the Pennsylvania State Police are still very much looking into this. Also it looks like they looked at it in 2017?
I’m going to note that I looked up in the newspaper archives I think written by a colonist from the Philadelphia Daily News in April 1970 at some point talking about the viewing in Darby for this murdered little boy who would have been 67 now had he lived. He might have had a family of his own and more. But he never even lived long enough to go to a prom, let alone get a drivers license, grow up, etc.
Think about that.
Anyway, the old newspaper articles talk about how he earned the money to go on this trip where he ended up getting murdered.
The Daily News article about the viewing in 1970 spoke about all the people waiting in line to pay their respects. A lot of the people seemed as if they were kids his age?
He was laid out in a dark suit and some adult signed the sympathy book in the church in Darby “FIDDLE” and said I guess to this reporter that people would know who he was or Terry’s family would know who he was.
The columnist’s name from 1970 was Tom Fox. He also interviewed the man who helped to make the trip possible who apparently owned a furniture store. His name was Harold Finigan. Mr. Finigan‘s brother was the Rev. William Finigan, pastor of St. Basil the Great Roman Catholic Church on Kimberton Road. Apparently the property that these Boy Scouts went camping on was owned by the church. The article said that the church owned 18 acres around there at that point. I don’t know how much they own today.
(An aside would be Harold Finigan was a beloved figure in Darby until he passed away at 95 and he was a legendary rower at Malta Boat Club in Philadelphia. His furniture store was a vintage and antique store and he was the one who helped locate the grave of 18th Century Philadelphia botanist John Bartram in the Quaker cemetery in Darby. So knowing that can you imagine how he must have felt? This man did nothing but good for his hometown.)
Another interesting part of the article was the fact that the Darby Police Chief was reported to have been kind of standing in the shadows, watching all the mourners come and go to look for strange faces.
The other article I read about this noted that the killer must’ve been quiet because there were so many boys plus supervising adults sleeping nearby.
So was it some random person that snuck in where they were camping or was it someone among them? Can you imagine? I bet they probably thought they couldn’t think of a safer place to go camping than the backyard of a church, right?
It was so sad to read the quotes from the children who were at this viewing who knew Terry. One little girl remarked that this would be the last time she saw him, and another girl said the last time she saw him he was walking down the street in his scout uniform.
So this church is near where they hold the Kimberton fair I think. I know I’ve gone past it.
The article also commented that the investigation was also done with the assistance of Chester County Detectives at the time and the state police out of the Exton barracks. I have to be honest I thought that was a mistake in the article because they referred to “East Franklin” police and this church and property are in East Pikeland Township and I’ve also never known or maybe I don’t remember ever hearing about a Pennsylvania State police barracks in Exton…but there was because Barry Dee from WCHE FM sent me a note:
The PSP Exton Barracks was located where the Wicks Ski shop was later located that became Buckmans. It is across Rt 100 from Hill’s seafood which is at the corner of Pottstown Pike and Shoen Rd. They used to land the helicopter in the field on the south side of the building. It was an old beat up farmhouse. They later moved to Rt 30 heading west out of Exton, past Ball & Ball at the old farmhouse and barn on the right that became a veterinarian. The location is now the Pennsylvania Farm Table Company. That building location is right across from the old ARCO (i think) gas station that is now and Enterprise Rental.
They then moved to the building located on the Embreeville Mental Institution grounds on Strasburg Rd just east of Romansvile before they finally got the modern building where they are currently operating just half a mile west of their previous location.
How’s that for a history?
Barry
Now back to the old case of Terry Bowers.
Terry was in 6th grade when he was murdered and he was stabbed a few times in the back.
Thank you Angelina Robinson whomever you are for the Facebook post that randomly popped up that made me dig into this. Should we all pay it forward and see if we could get anyone to look at this again? I mean, if they could find the name of the “boy in the box” after so much time, one could hope they find maybe who murdered this little boy?
Yes, they did look into this in 2017 and there were a bunch of media pieces that year. There have also been other articles or pieces or podcasts here and there.
Maybe this year they can look at it again? Maybe this year the media could revive interest in this case?
https://www.phillyvoice.com/reward-offered-1970-stabbing-murder-boy-scout-philly-suburbs/
https://muckrack.com/podcast/status-pending/episodes/case-overview-terrence-terry-bowers-jr-1970/#!
https://6abc.com/amp/post/47-years-later-boy-scouts-death-remains-a-mystery/1917203/
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/missing-boy-scout-cold-case-terry-bowers/13456/#
