Murder of Reese Bowman

On May 23, 2017, Justin and Amy Bowman brought their two children, Sawyer and Reese, to Rocket Tiers Learning Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Reese Annette Bowman, born September 4, 2016, was 8 months old at the time. Leah Walden, a 24-year-old daycare worker at the facility, was caring for Reese that day.

According to the Wikipedia account of the case, when Walden returned from lunch, she found that Reese would not nap. Walden told a co-worker that she was frustrated with the infant, saying, "Girl, I'm frustrated ... I'm sick of this little bitch. I hate this little bitch. ... She makes me want to punch her in the face." Walden then slapped Reese while the infant was in her crib, pinned the child down with one arm as Reese's legs thrashed, and subsequently placed a number of blankets over the infant's face, smothering her to death.

The assault was captured on camera at the daycare facility. Baltimore's Criminal Investigations Chief Stanley Bradford described the footage, stating: "Watching that video is disturbing. Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured." Following the incident, Walden initially claimed that Bowman's death was accidental.

On November 27, 2018, Walden pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Reese Bowman. She was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Rocket Tiers Learning Center closed permanently as a result of the murder.

This dossier is based on the Wikipedia article "Murder of Reese Bowman." Two additional contemporaneous news sources — People and The New York Times — are cited by that article as references but were not independently retrieved with article text for this dossier; their factual content could not be separately verified beyond the Wikipedia summary.