SolVic
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Not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but this cold case always bothered me due to how obscure it is.
On November 26, 1989, the body of a woman was discovered in a ditch in Harris County. The only things to identify her with were her painted nails, her jewelry, and her teeth. That’s because the top part of her face had been battered to the point of resembling jelly, leaving her unrecognizable. She became known as 89UFTX, or “Red Nails”. The resulting sketch is one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing.
In 2005, she was identified as Cheryl Bowman. She was a drifter who had cut ties with her family. As far as I know, her killer has never been identified.
And that’s all we know.
No estimated age. No actual age. No time of death. No date of birth. Not even a photo. Despite how violent her murder was, she faded into obscurity, only surviving as a brief mention on the Doe Network and a few instances on the Internet to discuss how creepy the drawing of her is. There used to be a thread here about this case, but it appears to have been recently deleted.
Cheryl’s murder seems to have been mentioned in the Houston Chronicle. On November 27, 1989, an article titled “Decomposed body found” reads as follows:
“A woman’s decomposed body was found early Sunday by people searching for aluminum cans near a roadside in far west Houston. The body, face down, was discovered about 7 a.m. in the 11200 block of Clay Road near Addicks Reservoir. The woman was wearing faded a denim shirt festooned with lace and bead embroidery, faded blue jeans and white sandals. The cause of death was not known, but Houston police said they believed the woman was killed before being dumped in the remote area.”
Hopefully, there are more newspaper articles out there about this homicide. If I had my face destroyed to the point of being unidentifiable and then quickly forgotten about, I’d be enraged. Cheryl deserves better than this.
Let’s find out more about this victim.
On November 26, 1989, the body of a woman was discovered in a ditch in Harris County. The only things to identify her with were her painted nails, her jewelry, and her teeth. That’s because the top part of her face had been battered to the point of resembling jelly, leaving her unrecognizable. She became known as 89UFTX, or “Red Nails”. The resulting sketch is one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing.

In 2005, she was identified as Cheryl Bowman. She was a drifter who had cut ties with her family. As far as I know, her killer has never been identified.
And that’s all we know.
No estimated age. No actual age. No time of death. No date of birth. Not even a photo. Despite how violent her murder was, she faded into obscurity, only surviving as a brief mention on the Doe Network and a few instances on the Internet to discuss how creepy the drawing of her is. There used to be a thread here about this case, but it appears to have been recently deleted.
Cheryl’s murder seems to have been mentioned in the Houston Chronicle. On November 27, 1989, an article titled “Decomposed body found” reads as follows:
“A woman’s decomposed body was found early Sunday by people searching for aluminum cans near a roadside in far west Houston. The body, face down, was discovered about 7 a.m. in the 11200 block of Clay Road near Addicks Reservoir. The woman was wearing faded a denim shirt festooned with lace and bead embroidery, faded blue jeans and white sandals. The cause of death was not known, but Houston police said they believed the woman was killed before being dumped in the remote area.”
Hopefully, there are more newspaper articles out there about this homicide. If I had my face destroyed to the point of being unidentifiable and then quickly forgotten about, I’d be enraged. Cheryl deserves better than this.
Let’s find out more about this victim.