Dennis Bowman, 72, formerly of Monterey Township, pleaded no contest Wednesday morning in Allegan County Circuit Court to the second degree murder his adopted daughter in 1989.
His no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but he is not contesting the charges and the case is treated the same as any other conviction at sentencing.
Bowman acknowledged that he punched his step-daughter, Aundria, then 14, who fell backward down stairs.
The judge read a statement that said the defendant admitted “Aundria is dead because of me.”
Bowman and his wife had adopted Aundria as a baby, but she was reported missing in March 1989 and her body was found a year later, in a shallow grave on Bowman’s Monterey Township property. He also confessed to raping and assaulting a 27-year-old Holland woman in 1979.
He is now is serving a life sentence for murdering Kathleen Doyle, the 25-year-old wife of a deployed Navy pilot in 1980.
Bowman will be sentenced for the Allegan County crime on Feb. 7.
