DUNDALK, Md. — On September 27, 1986, Bernadette Stevenson Caruso left work at the Eastpoint Mall in Dundalk and was never seen again. Nearly 40 years later, her family is still pressing for justice.
Bernadette's sister, Susan Bowerman, and her husband, Sam, want to see a resolution in the case.
"She was just easy going. Everything rolled off her shoulder kinda girl, a friendly, beautiful girl. She was always happy," Susan Bowerman told WMAR-2 News.
Caruso, 23, deeply cared for her 3-year-old daughter, Nicole. Caruso's mom helped her land a job at Shaw's Jewelers in the Eastpoint Mall.
Her bank accounts remained intact, so she didn't take her money and move elsewhere. Her green-gray Chevy Cavalier was never found, either.
For Caruso, this was all highly out of the ordinary.
"We were going through the woods searching for Bernadette. We were calling her home. We went to the home with the detectives. We went through all the standard things. We were heartbroken," Susan Bowerman said.
Baltimore County Police archives hold fliers plastered around the community at the time.
"She was described as a devoted mother, and basically, her daughter was her entire world. Family and friends said that she would never just up and leave her daughter and start a new life. So foul play is absolutely suspected," said Cpl. Dona Carter with the Baltimore County Police Department's Cold Case Squad.
The Bowermans have long publicly suspected Caruso's estranged husband, himself at one point a Baltimore County officer; though authorities never charged him, or anyone else, with a crime in relation to the case. The Bowermans say the couple had been in a custody battle, and said there were allegations of domestic violence. For years, the Bowermans have begged the state's attorney's office to bring charges, even protesting to make their case.
The lack of physical evidence, including that Caruso nor her car were ever found, prove major roadblocks for officials to charge anyone.
But Sam Bowerman, who himself looked into the case when he worked for Baltimore County Police Department as a profiler, disagrees.
"There's some very intimidating circumstantial evidence. And I believe from an investigative standpoint, even though there may not be any physical evidence, when you put together a lot of circumstantial evidence, circumstantial evidence can be just as incriminating and indictable and convictable in a court of law," Bowerman told WMAR-2 News over Zoom.
Police investigated a great deal over the years, including a series of false tips from an incarcerated man in the 2010s; though Cpl. Carter believes someone out there knows something.
"Whoever did something to her or made her disappear that night knows what happened, and it's quite possible that they confided in somebody. It's possible that they may have had help. I'm not saying that it did happen, but anything's possible," Carter said.
If you have any information that could lead to Caruso's case being solved, please call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-3943.
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