COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — A registered sex offender is facing murder charges in the death of an 18-year-old who was found in a Columbia County field in September, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.
Detectives charged 47-year-old John Bowen Monday morning with the murder of Coyoete Turner, 18, who was found partially burned in a field off SW Haltiwanger Road on Sep. 3.
Bowen was previously named a person of interest in Tuner's death. He was already being held in the Columbia County Detention Facility on charges of violating his sex offender registration.
Investigators detailed several pieces of evidence in a newly released arrest report that led them to charge Bowen with murder.
When Turner's body was found, investigators located items beneath her body including a letter with a Suwannee County address, an arrest report states. Detectives went to the address, and discovered that Bowen was one of the residents living there, the report states. Bowen's sex offender registration did not list the residence and instead listed an address near where Turner's body was found.
According to an arrest report, detectives told Bowen to update his registration on the next available date.
On Sep. 7, Bowen went to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office regarding his sex offender registration. He confirmed to detectives that he falsified his address, and was arrested for violating his sex offender registration, a report states.
After Bowen was read his Miranda Rights, detectives questioned him about Turner. The report states that Bowen made "multiple statements about the [Turner's] death," but changed details in his story.
Everything Bowen told detectives regarding Turner's death is redacted from his arrest report.
The day Turner's body was identified, a person who described herself as Turner's aunt, said Turner lived with her and her boyfriend, who was identified as Bowen, years earlier. It's unclear if Bowen was a registered sex offender at the time he allegedly lived with Turner.
Following Turner's death, investigators obtained surveillance video from businesses near where her body was found.
Detectives identified Bowen in surveillance video changing his clothes inside a red Dodge Journey before entering a Sunstop store in Ellisville. The store is located just south of Howell Road which intersects the road where Turner's body was found, an arrest report states.
The Medical Examiner's Office has not finalized Turner's cause of death but confirmed to detectives that she died from trauma and her death was ruled a homicide, an arrest report states.
Based on the previous findings, detectives found probable cause to charge Bowen with Turner's murder.
Turner's mother, Eleanor Houston, previously told First Coast News in September that she did not believe Bowen could harm a child.
"You've got to have certain traits to do what you have done to my daughter, and he doesn't carry those traits," Houston said.
Bowen is being held at the Columbia County Detention Facility on no bond.