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true crimeSep 6, 202624:20pending

The Man Who Would Not Die: The Murder of Brett Bowyer

About this episode

The murder of Brett Bowyer in February 2002 is one of the most harrowing crimes in Alabama's history, and it produced one of the most extraordinary acts of survival ever recorded. On a cold night in Russell County, two men posing as narcotics officers talked their way into the home of a car dealer named Forrest "Butch" Bowyer, presented a fake search warrant, and handcuffed Butch and his 12-year-old son, Brett. It was not an arrest. It was a robbery, and it would end in a shallow grave in the rural darkness. The two men took Butch's money, drove father and son to a remote site, cut Butch's throat, murdered young Brett, and buried them both, laughing as they covered the grave. But Butch Bowyer was not dead. With his throat cut, he played dead until his killers left, then clawed his way up out of the earth and walked a quarter of a mile to a road, not to save himself, but to make sure his son's killers were caught and his boy was brought home. In this episode of Crime at Bedtime, we tell the full story of the murder of Brett Bowyer: the fake officers, the fatal robbery, the almost unbelievable survival of a mortally wounded father, the dashcam footage that captured him at the roadside, the swift arrests, and the two death sentences that followed. We have told it with care, and we have kept a 12-year-old boy, not the men who killed him, at its heart. Settle in, get comfortable, and let us tell you the story of the man who would not die.

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The Man Who Would Not Die: The Murder of Brett Bowyer

Crime at Bedtime

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