(Mark Dixie. Picture credit: The Guardian)
*Please be aware that the details shared in this post will be very disturbing. I have aimed, as always, to be as sensitive as I can be with the details, without taking the facts away from the case. If you would like to discuss this post with me or any of the cases I have previously covered on this blog, please email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com*
In this post, I will be looking back to September of 2005 when the horrific murder of a beautiful aspiring 18 year old model occurred. I remember being shocked as the pictures of this young, stunning girl was splashed across the TV screens and newspapers. Her death was nightmarish and the more details that were made available to the public, the more deeply disturbing the whole thing was. A beautiful, talented young girl who had her whole life ahead of her, a promising modelling career, a loving family, a handsome boyfriend and close friends, Sally Anne Bowman had everything to live for and she certainly was living her life to the fullest before it was so heartlessly taken away from her.
Sally was born on the 11th of September 1987 in Carshalton, South London to loving parents, Linda and Paul. She was the little baby sister of her three elder siblings and no matter what age she was, her three sisters would always treat her like she was their little princess. Linda and her four daughters were each blessed with stunning looks, piercing blue eyes and glossy blonde hair. Her sisters ventured into other careers and raising their families but Sally dreamed of a career in the beauty industry and was also enjoying her part time modelling career.
With her striking looks and mature, professional behaviour, poise and commitment to her fashion shoots, she quickly began to shine and offers from various brands were coming through thick and fast. She was being nicknamed 'The New Kate Moss' and the future looked incredibly bright for young Sally, she was often approached to promote products, wear outfits, tread the catwalk and be the face of up and coming or established brands. It was a dream come true for an aspiring model and she was just getting started. She attended performing arts school and signed to a popular modelling agency, she was going places and she was going to go even further. Sally Anne Bowman was going to be a name that was going to be known the world over. Unfortunately it was not going to be in the way that it was supposed to be. Sally was set for more success and that's what was supposed to happen but it didn't. It didn't because in the early hours of the 25th of September 2005, evil had crossed her path and there was no way that she could have foreseen what was going to happen just hours before as she was enjoying a girly night out.
Having just turned 18 years old, Sally had already achieved so much in her short life. Some would say that she was living the dream and that things were only going to get more incredible for her. Both herself and her boyfriend Lewis were quite a glamorous young couple but their relationship could be quite fiery at times. They would often have arguments which would result in either one of them storming off, refusing to answer each others calls, having shouting matches and arguing over petty things such as who was talking to who in a bar and a little bit of possessiveness going on but it was clear to see that they were both crazy about each other.
On the evening of Saturday 24th of September 2005, Sally had gone out for a few hours and had a few drinks. The usual girly evening, at some point she called Lewis and the pair had an argument. Lewis picked her up in his car and drove her to just outside of the apartment that she had been renting in Blenheim Crescent, Croydon. It was a lovely, quiet area that never usually saw any problems. The argument continued with Sally eventually getting out of the car, slamming the door shut and making her way towards her residence. Lewis drove off unaware that this would be the last time he would ever see Sally alive.
Unknown to Sally, she was being watched the whole time by a creepy, perverted and dangerous monster by the name of Mark Dixie. He had been hiding in the bushes watching the young couple as they argued and then carried on watching as Sally exited the car. When he saw that Lewis was no longer in sight, he charged at Sally and began what can only be described as a sickening and horrific attack. She was stabbed repeatedly and (obviously I have to be careful how I word this because it is absolutely horrendous) whilst she was lying in a pool of blood, either deceased or dying, he proceeded to carry out a disgusting and violent sexual assault on Sally Anne. She was so tiny and just around a UK size 6 to 8 so some of the stab wounds had actually gone straight through her, it was horrifying. The sick, perverted monster had carried out this evil and disgusting murder just hours after he turned 35 years old. He'd just been celebrating his birthday only hours earlier. Sally had lost so much blood and the scene was utterly horrific, like a bloodbath so much so that her beautiful blonde hair went completely dark because it was soaked in her own blood.
This piece of filth then stole Sally's little designer bag, her cardigan, her mobile phone and her underwear before fleeing the scene. He took these items as trophies. Sally's body laid there until 6:30am. When the neighbours were later questioned by the police, they claimed that they had heard some commotion just after 4am but that it sounded like a fox (they were used to hearing foxes sometimes at night and in the early hours of the morning) so they didn't think anything of it at the time. One neighbor did say that they heard a sort of dragging sound outside and they thought that they did see a man in the street but nothing else. In the morning around 6:30am a woman who was a neighbour had been thinking about the noises that she had heard a few hours earlier, the noises that she initially thought was a fox. The neighbour noticed as she looked outside that there appeared to be what looked like mannequin legs lying next to a skip, as she got closer she made the horrific discovery and immediately called the police and relevant authorities.
After Mark Dixie had fled the crime scene he returned to a friend's apartment where he had been staying. The friend was none the wiser about what Mark had done. He had also put Sally's belongings into a plastic bag and kept them hidden before leaving the apartment some time later.
Sally's bag, cardigan, mobile phone and underwear have never been found, Mark Dixie had repeatedly refused to say where they actually are, He had previously lied to the police about their whereabouts, claiming that he had thrown them in the skip at the time of the murder but the police had searched the whole area and found nothing.
The sickening murder of Sally Anne Bowman completely horrified anyone who heard the news, nobody could believe it and when the exact details were made public, everyone was stunned and sickened. It was made quite clear that this monster (who was unidentified at the time) had violated Sally Anne's body as she was deceased. It was just beyond a nightmare and nobody could imagine what her family must have been going through to not only lose Sally Anne in this horrific and evil way but to hear about how this monster disrespected her even in death. It was too much to cope with. I honestly don't know how the family were able to put one foot in front of the other with news like that.
So that piece of filth, Mark Dixie, who was originally from Streatham, South London had just celebrated his 35th birthday and had managed to evade justice until June of 2006. In his pathetic 35 years on earth up until that point, they were as you would expect from an individual like him....full of disappointment and nothing but trouble. He was involved with drugs and petty crime from a young age and this escalated into public indecency and sexual assaults. For a short period of time he actually managed to have a long term relationship with a woman who he had two children with and had lived in Australia for some time. It wasn't long before he was causing trouble over there, getting up to creepy behaviour and Australian authorities kicked him out of the country after he had been found to be carrying out indecent behaviour and a serious sexual assault of which he wasn't charged. The Australian authorities handling of this disgusting crime was a shambles and nothing was properly investigated. Despite the fact that they have DNA evidence now which confirms his guilt, they have yet to follow this up with an official charge. For some reason their dragging their heels on this.
Sometimes in cases where a murderer or sexual predator is caught (and in Mark Dixie's case, he is both) there can be a lazy attitude by authorities, especially if the crime was committed in another country. It's there's view that he's been found guilty of other crimes, he's serving a sentence so he's locked up and off the streets.
After returning to the UK, he had also spent some time in Spain before returning again. In June of 2006 he had been working as a chef in a pub in Surrey, England. Leading up to that point, as you can imagine, there was still news reports and information posters that were around appealing for information in regards to Sally Anne's murder. In the early stages of the investigation, Lewis, Sally Anne's boyfriend was initially considered to be a suspect. It was an agonising few days for Lewis and Sally Anne's family as they waited for Lewis's DNA results to come back, which obviously proved that he was 100% innocent.
So in June of 2006 as I just mentioned. creepy Mark Dixie who never seemed to be far away from trouble, had got into a fight at the pub. There was some sort of disruption over a football match and he ended up in an altercation which resulted in the police being called. He was arrested and it was at the station where he was having his finger prints etc taken that investigators ran his details through their database and it was there that they found a match for the number one suspect in the murder of Sally Ann Bowman. He was finally caught.
The nightmare should have come to an end there but this evil individual stood trial and Sally Anne's family, who'd already been through enough hell as it was because of this cretin, had to listen to the horrific lies coming out of his disgusting mouth. This absolute monster, without a shred of remorse, claimed that he was not responsible for Sally Anne's murder. He said somebody else had murdered her and that he had just happened to be walking by, saw her lying on the ground deceased and decided that he would basically take advantage of her body. Despite the fact that she was lying in a pool of blood, her hair was covered in blood, he claimed that he didn't know she was dead when he performed certain acts on her body. It was horrendous.
It is beyond upsetting that Sally Anne's family and Lewis had to go through all of that and to have to see Mark Dixie's hideous face and hear his hideous lies, I don't know where they got their strength from. He was finally sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years and the possibility of parole being 2040. He won't see the life outside of prison again unless it's by vehicle to a hospital or court because he was later found guilty of other offences and received additional life sentences. These other crimes were sexual assaults, so far we only know that he is responsible for Sally Anne's murder but he is suspected of others and this is still under investigation. There's a possibility that he may have committed murders in Australia in the early 1990's but nobody knows for sure. Investigators continue to look into these cases and his possible involvement in other crimes.
Mark Dixie is currently behind bars in Frankland prison in County Durham and will be 56 years old this year (2026).
Sally Anne was cremated at a private service involving her close friends and loved ones. Her remains were originally buried at the Croydon Cemetery next to where her funeral service was. In another horrific turn of events, some sick individuals had targeted Sally Anne's memorial stone, vandalising the grave so the decision was taken by the family to have Sally Anne's urn exhumed and kept at a private memorial in the family home.
This horrifying murder of Sally Anne Bowman and the details of the case from start to finish have always haunted me. Even after her murder the utter disrespect by that sick monster, the traumatic trial and then her poor family having to deal with sick individuals vandalising Sally's grave, it's just unbelievable. My heart goes out to her family.
RIP Sally Anne, you will never be forgotten. Your beautiful light will never fade.
Further Reading & Sources:
- Mark Dixie: Article | The Guardian
- Sally Anne Bowman: Article | Belfast Telegraph
- Sally Anne Bowman | Reddit Discussion Thread
- Sally Anne Bowman: Article | BBC News
- Sally Anne Bowman: Article | Sky News
- Sally Anne Bowman | Memorial
- Sally Anne Bowman | Documentary
- Sally Anne Bowman: Article | BBC News
As always, if you have made it this far in the post, I thank you so much. It's always heartbreaking with every case that I cover, especially with what happened to Sally Anne. You can imagine how she would have been living her best life right now, probably married with children of her own, a fantastic career behind her, enjoying the fruits of all the success of the years. As I mentioned before, she achieved so much at just 18 and had created such a buzz around her that you just knew that she was destined for bigger things. She is so very missed.
I hope you will join me in my next post and in the meantime, I hope to see you on my Socials
Stay safe and take care, until next time.....x
