Neighbor Nancy Sears, 60, wept softly as she sat on her front patio. She could see the front yard of the Bowman home, surrounded by yellow police tape, with a police officer parked in the driveway. Sears said she had assumed that just a man and a woman lived there. She said the woman frequently was outside with two dogs: a black Doberman pincher and another, brownish in color. Last week, the man was outside mowing the lawn.
"I never, ever, ever - the whole time - saw any children," Sears said. "No kids' toys outside."
Garrett, who discovered the girl walking on the gravel road Friday, called 911 just before 5 p.m.
"She was very brave," Garrett said. "She definitely looked like she had been through a lot."
According to Garrett, the girl told him her mother had "locked her out" and she had spent the night outdoors. Police said the girl had been locked in her bedroom and jumped from the window to escape.
Garrett, 21, a fashion designer who lives with his parents, said he embraced the girl, while she stood limp. She did not cry and said she had not eaten for days. When Garrett offered to order a pizza, she made a request: pepperoni and ham.
As police arrived and began talking to the girl, she said she attended school, though authorities said yesterday that she did not appear to be enrolled in school. She repeatedly asked about the couple she referred to as her mother and father.
"She kept asking, 'Is my mother going to be arrested?' "
Alternately, she expressed love for the man she called her father, according to Garrett.
"She was very protective of her 'father,' " Garrett said. "He was the only one that cared. He was the one that took care of her."
Of her two sisters, Garrett said, "She said her siblings had been beaten to death and one day, they just didn't come back."
Renee Bowman arrived at the sheriff's office late Friday night, looking for her daughter. By 2:30 a.m. Saturday, police had executed a search warrant at her home, which had four cats and a dog.
Officers opened the large freezer in the basement and found partial human remains. They later executed a second search warrant, and about a half-dozen investigators hauled the freezer away Saturday.
"It's just crazy," said Sears, the neighbor. "I just thank God that she got away."
Baltimore Sun reporters Brent Jones and Joe Burris and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
