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Edgar Bowser, 62, has been granted medical parole, 46 years after he murdered Shrewsbury Police Officer James Lonchiadis, a married 28-years-old man with children at the time of his death, according to MassLive.
Though he’s being released early, Bowser is unlikely to be able to enjoy freedom. He is currently unresponsive after being diagnosed with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, throat cancer, and catching COVID-19. Bowser had been on a ventilator for weeks and was unresponsive when it was decided he should be released.
Bowser was being kept at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater when he was diagnosed.
News of Bowser’s release has shocked the victim’s family and area police.
In explaining the decision to release Bowser, parole agents said the murderer doesn’t have much longer to live. Bowser has served nearly 50 years in prison.
Lonchiadis died in March 1975 while investigating suspicious activity at a Route 9 parking lot in Shrewsbury. Bowser and two accomplices had tried to steal a corvette from a nearby gas station and had an attendant in the trunk of the car when Lonchiadis came upon the scene, according to MassLive. Bowser, who was 16 at the time, shot Lonchiadis in the chest, then took the officer’s gun, and used it to steal a vehicle to escape. Bowser was arrested 20 months later.
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