Man Who Killed Shrewsbury Cop in 1975 Up for Parole

NATICK - Forty-two years after he murderedShrewsbury Police Officer James Lonchiadis Jr. in 1975, Edgar Bowser, who was paroled once and returned to prison for drug use, will appear before the state Parole Board later this month to argue he deserves his freedom for a second time.

Convicted of second-degree murder, Bowser, 62, is scheduled to appear before the state Parole Board on April 25.

Bowser was 16-year-old on March 5, 1975 when he shot and killed Lonchiadis, 28, who was investigating some suspicious activity in a parking lot on Route 9 in Shrewsbury. As it turned out, Lonchiadis had discovered an armed robbery. Bowser, his sister and brother-in-law were attempting to steal a Corvette from a gas station parking lot after locking the gas station clerk in the trunk of another car.

Although Bowser was a teenager, he was armed with a loaded .32-caliber handgun. Lonchiadis pulled into the parking lot and got out to question Bowser, when Bowser pulled out his gun and pointed it at Lonchiadis.

Lonchiadis begged Bowser not to shoot. "Don't shoot,'' Lonchiadis said. "I have a wife and three kids. I want to go home tonight.'' But Lonchiadis would never walk through his front door again.

Bowser shot the Lonchiadis once in the heart. Bowser claims he pulled the trigger when he saw Lonchiadis reach for his gun.

Bowser took the officer's gun and used it moments later in an armed robbery to steal the car, which he used to escape. The murder was unsolved for nearly two years, until Bowser was arrested in October 1976. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery in May of 1978.

Bowser had been denied parole five times between 1991 and 2003 because he "exhibits a sense of entitlement to parole.'' He was finally paroled in October of 2007 and released to a long-term residential program, which he completed in July of 2009. He lived with his girlfriend and her parents and seemed to be on the right path.

But on Oct. 27, 2010, Bowser tested positive for cocaine during a random drug test. He told the Parole Board he used cocaine to ease the pain of the death from a drug overdose of a young person he knew at work. Bowser's parole was revoked and he was returned to prison.

In its 2012 decision, the Parole Board wrote that Bowser was living a life with "considerable amount of deception incompatible with successful parole...''