Drug habit may have prompted electrocuted man's copper thefts, family says

For years, Cryston Swink feared getting a phone call from a police officer saying that her father had been killed.

Since Swink was a child, her father, Terry Bowers, had battled cocaine addiction and would periodically disappear on "drug binges" so his children wouldn't have to seem him high.

But with five years clean under her father's belt, Swink, who lives in Michigan, thought he had overcome the addiction.

"When he was clean, he was around and loved spending time with us," Swink said.

But two months ago Bowers disappeared again. Then last week Swink finally got the call she had been dreading for years.

Just before 10 a.m. Sept. 12, Orange County deputies found Bowers' electrocuted body along State Road 408. That was the first bit of news anyone in his family had heard about 57-year-old Bowers since he disappeared.

"My grandfather was here in Michigan and was on his way to come look for him when we got the phone call that he had died," Swink said.

Deputies say Bowers was attempting to steal valuable copper wiring from a utility pole between exits 1 and 2 on the toll road when he was killed by the electricity.

Deputies confirmed his identity Tuesday, and by Wednesday, his body had been cremated and sent to his father. Since his death, deputies have linked Bowers to about $100,000 in copper thefts from dozens of light poles along S.R. 429 from July 31 to Sept. 8.

In less than two months, Bowers managed to pull more than 25,000 feet of wiring from the utility poles, officials said.

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Drug habit may have prompted electrocuted man's copper thefts, family says