Suspect retracts earlier confession

A confession led to the draining of a 1.4 mile stretch of Salt Creek in September to search for the body of missing IU student Jill Behrman, who disappeared May 31, 2000, while riding her bicycle. Now, the woman who gave the confession to investigators is recanting her statement.\nLast March, Wendy Owings told investigators she was riding with fellow passenger Alisha Sowders in a truck driven by Uriah Clouse in May of 2000. Owings said Clouse accidentally struck Behrman, wrapped her in plastic and bungee chords and took her out to Salt Creek. At Salt Creek, Clouse stabbed Behrman with a hunting knife and made Owings and Sowders do the same before throwing the body into the creek, Owings said.\nBut on March 9, a hunter and his son found skeletal remains that would later be identified as Behrman's near a wooded area in Paragon, Ind., 22 miles north of Bloomington.\nIn the days following the announcement, Owings contacted her lawyer, Public Defender Stuart Baggerly, saying she had an urgent matter to discuss with him. She then told Baggerly she wanted to retract the statement she gave to investigators in March 2002.\nOwings' story originally prompted the Salt Creek search, where investigators painstakingly looked for evidence or remains.\nAfter Owings alerted Baggerly about the retraction, he notified Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann and Deputy Prosecutor Mary Ellen Diekhoff.\nBaggerly is unsure of why his client retracted her statement.\n"Is she recanting because it never happened that way? Is she recanting since the remains are not where she said they were? Is it to better her position? Who knows? I honestly do not know," Baggerly said. "That was very surprising what she did. I've said on numerous occasions that I have faith in my clients. I believe what they tell me, and I do the best I can."\nIndiana State Police media spokesman Sergeant Dave Bursten said Owings' recant will not have an impact on the investigation.\nInvestigators are concentrating on the results from laboratory tests done by forensic anthropologists and scientists on Behrman's remains. They will not comment on the new findings because more people have come forward with information, Salzmann said.\n"We've gotten some new people to come forward that haven't talked to the police ever," Salzmann said. "Some of the information they had didn't seem to fit with what was in the popular press with how (the accident) supposedly occurred."\nAll theories pertaining to what might have happened to Behrman are back on the table, Salzmann said. Anyone with information regarding the investigation should call the Indiana State Police at 1-800-225-8576.\nReleasing information discovered from the tests may hamper the progress of the case, Bursten said. Forensic tests often reveal information only someone involved with the case would know, helping investigators to find people who have beneficial knowledge regarding the case.\nLast year, Baggerly wrote a letter to his client stating that if she was one of the people with beneficial knowledge about what happened to Behrman, she should come forward. The letter indicated prosecutors were interested in putting Owings in jail for an extended period of time because she had charges against her resulting from incidents occurring after Behrman disappeared. Baggerly said he was concerned for his client's bargaining power against charges if either of the other main suspects, Sowders and Clouse, came forward first. Owings came forward in March with her story, which Baggerly said must have concurred with information investigators already had.\n"Obviously she must have had something to say that lined up with something else in the files," Baggerly said. "If it didn't, we would have had that first meeting and been told 'thanks, but no thanks'. During the time we were going along with the investigation, it appeared that her information was checking out."\nOwings is currently in jail on charges unrelated to the Behrman investigation. Next month she will appear before the court regarding charges of robbery, theft, dealing in Oxycontin, dealing in Xanax and aiding in child molestation.\nJoseph Hoffmann, Harry Pratter Professor of Law at IU, said Owings' retraction may not help her when she goes to court in April for her outstanding charges.\n"This is not going to help her situation," Hoffmann said. "It's pretty obvious that this is not going to help her situation with the pending charges if she was hoping to gain leniency when she goes to court next month"