Court records detail how police ID'd Magnolia teen charged with murder, hiding body

David Thomas Jr. was reported missing on Sept. 22.

The 41-year-old man from Hurlock, Maryland, had left to visit relatives in Kent County a week earlier, Delaware State Police said.

Thomas borrowed a car to visit someone else in the area on Sept. 15, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal. He never came back.

After a week of trying and failing to contact Thomas, his relatives reported him missing to state police. They shared that they'd heard rumors that Thomas was shot and killed, according to court documents, and that his body was somewhere in a wooded area.

Police did an internal search for the car Thomas had borrowed and discovered that it had been found abandoned near Magnolia at 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 16., court records show. State police had ordered the car be towed, as Thomas had not yet been reported missing.

When detectives went to investigate the towed car a week later, court documents state they found a cardboard sign in the window that read "I'm!!! Watch!!!" and a pair of jeans hanging from the driver's side window. They also found what they later confirmed to be human blood on the door.

Searching for the body

Police began searching the wooded and farmland areas of Magnolia on Sept. 27, according to court records.

Two days later, on Sept. 29 at 2:30 p.m., they found a body in the woods between Henry Drive and Stevenson Drive in Woodside. It had been wrapped in a tarp and covered with an air mattress, according to court records, and an autopsy found that the body belonged to Thomas.

The tax ditch − a ditch where excess water is drained from farmland − where Thomas was found was along the south side of a home in the Meadowbrook Acres neighborhood. When police searched the property's backyard, they found latex gloves, a shovel and aluminum frames similar to the rails used on bunk beds, according to court records. The frames were leaning against a fence like a ladder, which police said could have been used to climb over into the tax ditch.

Court records show the person living in the house came outside as police investigated, appearing "visibly upset."

"I know what happened. I know who did it, and I know where the body is," she told detectives.

The night of the killing

The woman told police she knew Thomas and that he regularly visited her home, according to court documents. On the night of Sept. 15, the woman said she was next door and heard a gunshot. She ran back to her house, where she found Thomas shot and asking for help.

Shakur Bowen, the 17-year-old Magnolia teen charged with Thomas' murder, was standing in the driveway with a camouflage-pattern shotgun. Thomas later died from the gunshot wound, an autopsy found, but court documents do not provide specifics because of redactions.

The woman said that Bowen, who was an "acquaintance" of her son, initially hid Thomas' body in the tree line near her house. She later learned that Bowen and two friends moved the body into the tax ditch where it was found by police, according to court records.

Another unidentified person was also at the house at the time of the shooting. Court records show that the person was behind the house when he heard a gunshot from the front and described seeing Bowen with the same shotgun. He told police that Bowen later sold the shotgun.

When police asked him how the body was moved to the woods, the witness ended the interview, according to court records.

The arrest

Bowen was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, hindering prosecution, abusing a corpse and third-degree conspiracy.

Bowen has been incarcerated on a $500,000 cash bond.

State police said that they could not disclose any information about whether there are warrants out for anyone else's arrest in relation to the killing, as well as the hiding of the body, stating only that they are "diligently investigating the matter" and that there is no threat to public safety.

CHARGES: Missing Maryland man found dead near Magnolia; 17-year-old charged with murder

Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware teen charged with murder hid body in backyard: Court records