Man dismembers girlfriend in Quarter; cooks body parts
By Walt Philbin
Staff Writer
A suicide note in the pocket of a man who jumped off the Omni Royal
Orleans Hotel late Tuesday led police to the grisly scene of his
girlfriend's murder, where they found her charred head in a pot on
the stove, her legs and feet baked in the oven and the rest of her
dismembered body in trash bag in the refrigerator, according to
police and the couple's landlord.
The man, Zackery Bowen, a tall man in his mid 20s with long blond
hair, claimed in the note to have killed his girlfriend,
Adrian Addie Hall, on Oct. 5, according to police. Hall was also
in her mid 20s.
In the five-page note, Bowen claimed he strangled Hall in the
bathtub, then dismembered her body before taking it in pieces to the
kitchen, police said. An autopsy conducted today shows that Hall was
in fact manually strangled, police said. It also appears that Hall's
body was cut up after she died, police said.
He appeared to clean up the bathroom a lot after he did it, one
officer said.
Police found the victim's head burned beyond recognition in a pot on
top of the stove, and her legs and feet in the same condition in
pans inside the oven, police said.
Bowen was from Los Angeles, but apparently had lived in the New
Orleans area for quite a while, police said. Friends said he served
in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and displayed both pride and
bitterness over that experience.
Detectives said they were compiling a detailed profile of Bowen to
submit as soon as possible to the FBI's VICAP (Violent Criminal
Apprehension Program) center. VICAP is a nationwide data information
center designed to collect acts of violence that might be serial in
nature and recognized by other jurisdictions with access to VICAP as
similar to a crime that they investigated.
Shortly after Oct. 1, the couple had rented an apartment together at
826 N. Rampart Street above a voodoo shop, said their landlord, Leo
Watermeier, who recently ran a campaign for mayor.
The couple seemed happy at first, he said, though that would soon
break down.
He may have in retrospect seemed a little troubled, Watermeier
said in an interview early Wednesday morning, shortly after he led
investigators to the gruesome scene inside the apartment.
Last Sunday, several days after he claimed in his suicide note to
have killed her, Bowen appeared all jolly, talking about the trip
he was going to take, said Lisa Perilloux, a regular at Buffa's
bar, where Bowen worked a weekly bartending gig.
Bowen had told several co-workers and friends there he planned to
take a much-needed vacation to Cozumel or some other island
resort, said Donovan Kalabaza, a fellow bartender and friend.
Just think, tomorrow night, you'll be in paradise, Kalabaza
recalled telling him.
Sunday afternoon, Bowen came in briefly in the afternoon, drinking
with two other guys.
He was a great mood, best mood I've ever seen him in.
Bowen jumped to his death two nights later.
Though they appeared happy when they rented the Rampart Street
apartment telling Watermeier they had fallen in love on the night
Hurricane Katrina struck and Hall gave Bowen shelter they soon had
a bitter falling out, Watermeier said. After the storm, the couple
lived a vagabond existence in the shattered city, becoming feature
fodder for the swarm of national media eager to profile post-flood
diehards.
But on Oct. 5, during a dispute over which of their names would
appear on the lease, Hall told Watermeier she intended to kick Bowen
out of the apartment, after finding out that he had cheated on her,
Watermeier said.
Bowen did not take the news well, Watermeier said.
He said, `Did you just let her sign a lease alone? Because I'm
screwed. I'm totally messed up now. She's trying to kick me out of
our apartment, Watermeier said.
Hall admitted she was trying to throw Bowen out, he said.
I caught him cheating on me, and I am kicking him out of this
apartment, she told Watermeier.
Watermeier told the couple to work through their differences and get
back to him. He never saw Hall again, and assumed they'd worked it
out.
Police came to Watermeier's door about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, shortly
after Bowen committed suicide, asking if he knew a tall man with
long blonde hair, and if he had a connection with the apartment at
826 N. Rampart St.
He took them to the apartment, he said, where they warned him he
might not want to enter. Investigators told Watermeier what they
found, however: charred body parts strewn about the kitchen.
Hall was also not from New Orleans, Watermeier said, but both she
and Bowen seemed hard core about the city and proud that they had
stayed here through Katrina.
Bowen's suicide was first discovered Tuesday when his body was
spotted below by someone in an upper floor lounge. It was soon
determined that Bowen had jumped from an outside terrace near a
swimming
