Man Buried Alive Next to Murdered Son!

www.al.com ^ | 2/19/02; 12:34 p.m. | AP

[RetiredArmy]

PHENIX CITY, Alabama (AP)

A man whose throat was slashed and who was buried in a shallow grave next to his slain 12-year-old son survived and later led police to two men charged with the boy's murder.

Forrest Bowyer, 54, dug himself out of the grave Monday, flagged down a passing motorist and called police.

Officers arrested Michael David Carruth, 43, and Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr., 22, less than 12 hours later and charged them with capital murder, attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping. They were being held without bail.

Bowyer remained hospitalized after undergoing emergency surgery, said Russell County Sheriff Tommy Boswell.

Police said Bowyer and his son, Brett, were kidnapped Sunday night by two men who claimed to be narcotics officers. After Bowyer gave them money, they took Bowyer and his son to a construction site where they had dug a shallow grave in red clay, Boswell said.

The men took Bowyer's house keys, slit his throat and shoved him into the grave, Boswell said. They shot his son in the head and pushed his body on top of his father. They then buried the two suspected bodies. However, Forrest Bowyer managed to dig his way out of the shallow grave.

Police found Carruth and Brooks based on Bowyer's descriptions of their appearances and the car they drove.

[Lancey Howard]

The Russell County Sheriff's Department also had a deputy stationed at Tri-County Bonding Co. directly across from Russell County Courthouse. Carruth works at the bonding company, owned by his wife, Katherine Carruth.

That is a very interesting tidbit dropped in at the end there.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Well, if it is white on black, it is a "hate crime" and the NAACP will make money.

If it is black on white, it is the result of years of oppression and no reparations thereby causing the perpatrators to act out of years of being hated by the white man, and the NAACP will make money.

If it is black on black, it is the result of years of oppression and being held back that drove these men to kill each other in an attempt to make life better for them, and the system (white men) caused them to do it.

If there is money to be made, the racists will be there. Guaranteed.

[crystalk]

I wrote what I wrote. There are many other names that would have eliminated the "very probably" from my original post.

A very famous case in Charlotte just a year or two ago involved same name as one of these suspects, and that also was a black man.

[Savage Beast]

Very funny. Ve-ree funny.

[Savage Beast]

Yeah. How can anyone assume racial identity by those names. I certainly can't.

[gcruse]

They then buried the two suspected bodies.

Odd phrasing, but whatcha gonna do?

[xm177e2]

Forrest = named after Nathan Bedford Forrest of the KKK, so you can bet he's white

Carruthers = seems to be a black name, maybe there are whites with this name too, who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if this were a black hate crime...

[xm177e2]

Oops, Carruth not "Carruthers," D'OH. Anyway, the names are really too ambiguous (at least for me) to get any "feel" for whether the perps are white or black.

[crystalk]

Very probably means about a 70% chance give or take. If I had meant 90% I would have said "almost certainly." Many names would have yielded 95 to 99% or better, so those of you who claim there is room for ambiguity are right, but only up to a point, and when the articles give no information what is a person to do.

[Savage Beast]

I am too. Scum is equally distributed among all races. Anyone can think of some great examples. So are human decency and the capacity for heroism.

[proudofthesouth]

That poor man! To go thru this and see his son shot and dumped on him. I'm glad that he survived and was able to give a good enough description so the killers were caught. I would have like to have seen the look on the killers faces when they found out that the father survived!

[gcruse]

 when the articles give no information what is a person to do.

The fact that the crime made the
newspaper at all weighs against
black-on-white.  I invite you to
consider the horrific crimes committed
in Wichita, unless of course you never
heard of them, which just goes to
prove the point.

[r9etb]

Something odd about this story. Just too many odd things.

For example, they slit the dad's throat, but shoot the son.

They get inside by pretending to be cops, then kidnap the pair, and only after leaving do they bother to basically mug the guy.

Then they steal the housekeys before trying to kill the father.

Hate to say it, but I think dad is involved with something shady.

[RGSpincich]

Thanks for the additional info. Strange.

[Born to Conserve]

25% chance of Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton descending down to the area to protest. That's assuming that the four possibilities are of equal likelyhood, which is not likely. I think the chances of Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton descending down to the area to protest are more like about nil.

[Outlaw76]

Micheal and Jimmy = Black? I don't think so.

The nature of the crime and the ages of the perps also don't fit a 'typical' crime performed by American's of african decent.
That is a white crime.
Evil exists and does not care about the color of the skin.

[It's me]

I agree. Something fishy going on here.

[snowfox]

So did I. Clint Eastwood's "Hang 'em High", where some vigilantes hanged him but forgot to make sure that he was dead.

[CdMGuy]

I suspect there is more here than meets the eye on this case. It wouldn't surprise me to hear of a connect between The adult victim and Carruth.

[crystalk]

You are right, I never heard of them.

Why don't you post details?