Calvert County authorities are also interviewing a man, whom they declined to identify. They said he had a relationship with Bowman and lived at the Lusby home "on and off." Moore described the man, whom he said was not the girl's father, as being "very cooperative." Moore declined to say whether the man was a suspect in the investigation.
Bowman, who adopted the three children in Washington, D.C., after serving as their foster mother, was receiving state benefits for the three girls, two of them biological sisters, according to Moore, who added that she did not have a job.
D.C. officials said at a news conference that Bowman adopted the oldest girl, who would be 11, in July 2001. Three years later, she adopted a girl who would now be 9 and her 7-year-old sister.
The surviving girl was being treated yesterday at a Washington hospital.
D.C. social services officials did not return several calls yesterday seeking comment.
Lt. Paul Starks, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Police Department, said that a preliminary investigation revealed Bowman may have lived in the Aspen Hill area before moving to Calvert County. Detectives are trying to put together a timeline of events and determine when the girls were last seen and whether they attended Montgomery County schools, authorities said.
Bowman's previous home on Vandalia Drive in Rockville was empty yesterday, its walls and floors bare. Like the other five houses on Vandalia Court, it's a one-story brick residence with a carport and shrubs in the small front yard.
Some of Bowman's former neighbors said they recall a man also living in the home and said the couple didn't socialize much.
"We would see them coming and going," said Shirley Kapp. "We never saw a child over there, but I understand there was."
A man who lives across the street recalled that the neighbors moved away in the middle of the night.
As the news media descended yesterday on the narrow street in rural Lusby where Bowman lived, several neighbors became emotional.
"I'm dumbfounded," said Chrissy Vaselaros-Stevenson, 33, who lives nearby. "I'm just trying to comprehend. It's heartbreaking. You think about young kids. How can you not feed your kids? How can you kill them?"
