Any Girdwood Mags know this woman: Laura Bowen?

**GoldMember** · 06-15-2020, 05:23 PM

Laura Bowen was a high school classmate and her obituary was in yesterday's paper here in Spokane. The only information I could find said she disappeared around March 17 and her body was found March 21. Anchorage police were investigating her death but I never found anything that stated the result of the investigation. I didn't really know her but am curious as she was a friend with other friends. This all seems a bit curious.

https://www.ktva.com/story/41905386/...7-uB_GbRJ-8_yg

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sp...Uf0MGu3sAjm8qA

**Danno** · 06-15-2020, 05:49 PM

is that the infamous Laura from TTips? I met her once in person (in Anchorage) but can't honestly remember what she looks like, it was 13 years ago. But I think that's her.

**riser4** · 06-15-2020, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by Danno

is that the infamous Laura from TTips? I met her once in person (in Anchorage) but can't honestly remember what she looks like, it was 13 years ago. But I think that's her.

THAT Laura?!?!?!?

**Danno** · 06-15-2020, 06:20 PM

I'm 99% certain that it is her.

**dunfree** · 06-15-2020, 06:28 PM

This piece from 2008 sure sounds like her
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/...6054147&page=1

sorry at her passing

**Danno** · 06-15-2020, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by dunfree

This piece from 2008 sure sounds like her
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/...6054147&page=1

sorry at her passing

I'm no longer 99% certain, I am 100% certain now after reading that.

RIP Laura.

**riser4** · 06-15-2020, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Danno

I'm no longer 99% certain, I am 100% certain now after reading that.

RIP Laura.

Well that sucks. Of course I am 100% certain I disagreed with everything she posted in the WOT.

PB · 06-15-2020, 07:09 PM

Whoa. I do remember fondly our disagreement about tidy whities and Conan.

RIP Laura.

**frorider** · 06-15-2020, 07:16 PM

Holy shit. RIP.

**GoldMember** · 06-15-2020, 07:38 PM

Well, okay, it's pretty evident some of you knew her to some degree. Any word on what happened?

**Danno** · 06-15-2020, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by GoldMember

Well, okay, it's pretty evident some of you knew her to some degree. Any word on what happened?

She was a rather, ahem, notorious person on TTips; I don't think any of us actually knew her beyond that. I did meet her IRL once like I said above. I sent a message to a friend in Alaska (taiya, for all you TTips historians) who I know had beers with her at least a few times to see if she knew anything. She didn't, but said she'd ask a friend in Girdwood. I'll report back if I hear anything.

**GoldMember** · 06-15-2020, 09:03 PM

Thanks! I didn't frequent TTips so have no reference. Too bad there's no archives, at least that I'm aware of. Thanks for your help.

**Tri-Ungulate** · 06-15-2020, 09:41 PM

Holy Shit.

She had a wicked sense of humor, and was ever the contrarian.

Never met her, but she sent me a cookie once.

RIP.

**bobz** · 06-15-2020, 09:43 PM

Wow, *Laura*!! She was most active on TTips' political bilge forum (I really don't recall her posting about skiing much, though she was a skier), and was one of those people who was most interested in "news" stories that were both right-wing and ridiculous: Obama not really being US born, the "whitey tape", "death panels", etc etc. She was so downright enthusiastic about these stories, just moving on to the next one when people cut them down, that I was kind of fascinated by her. That cheerful disregard for factual reality made her seem different from the other house GOPers, who tended to be somewhat more ideological. She was a big Sarah Palin fan. Little did I know that there was a mass culture like her who wouldn't become fully visible until Trump took office.

The thing is, though, she was actually nice about it (quite unlike some of the other major posters on her side). She didn't insult, and she didn't hate or personally attack. On the contrary, she posted a number of things that were friendly towards me and others. Her fear of a secretly Kenyan "manchurian" president was just as sincere as it was relentless; she wasn't trying to "own the libs" so much as to do us all a favor by showing us every possible angle of the dark story that we were too blind to see.

Anyway, I'm very sorry she's gone. It may sound like I'm trashing her in the first paragraph, but hey, that's the Laura I knew on the TTips forum. She was who she was, which included being basically decent, and I am sad that she left our world so early.

**Danno** · 06-15-2020, 10:05 PM

Before Sarah Palin, she was a witty person on the board, very smart with a great sense of humor. I was glad to share a beer with her in 2007. She went off the rails in 2008 (that's why the link dunfree posted sealed it for me, that the person here was "our" Laura). And I can't entirely agree with bobz, she posted some really vile and insulting things. It was always so disappointing to me, because she wasn't originally that way. She completely lost it, imo.

I hope she found peace somewhere along her journey.

**bobz** · 06-16-2020, 12:52 AM

I guess I mostly knew her from her "off the rails" years. Though I vaguely recall that she was rooting for Hillary Clinton in the '08 (certainly not the '16) Dem primary.

And yeah, I may have gone rose-colored-glasses on her a bit since then. But, recalling certain other individuals from that era (not going to mention any names) not at all in a good way, as in wow that guy was an unbelievable piece of shit, I can say without reservation that she was quite a bit more personable than just about anyone else speaking, however wackily, for her tribe.

I just re-read one of the WOT threads that I have archived (yeah, you're in it, Danno), started by Laura, with me very much on the opposing side. A certain other person came along to attack me, things got heated; after I got cuffed by the not good at his job head moderator (this was BCTalk), there was Laura, quick to speak up for me in the kindest of terms.

**Bunion 2020** · 06-16-2020, 06:36 AM

^^^ She was just slightly ahead of her time.

RIP.

**fhw** · 06-16-2020, 08:17 AM

Whoa! Always strange to hear of the passings of people I only know from the odd world of internet ski forums. There's a feeling of grief but it's ....... inchoate? Laura was fun until something snapped. The Obama presidency sent her in a weird direction and any ideological esprit de corps she and I shared was forever shattered. Then she turned up years later as a Trumper which was particularly disheartening. Anyway, next time I have a beer, I'll pour some out for her. 63 is far too young.

Bobz, you are a profoundly strange little man.

**iceman** · 06-16-2020, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by fhw

Bobz, you are a profoundly strange little man.

haha, I really don't have an image formulated of bobz but this is funny regardless.

Was never a TTips guy and never heard of Laura before this but 63's not old enough, RIP.

**Meadow Skipper** · 06-16-2020, 08:28 AM

Whoa. RIP.

Before she went all political (on the opposite side of the spectrum from me), she and I had a lot of T-tips PM conversations about AK and life in general. I remember that I had amused her with some snarky comment about helmet wearers’ attitude. I was kind of shocked and pulled back when she got political, but I really enjoyed our back-channel talks before that.

**Svengali** · 06-16-2020, 08:39 AM

Like Danno, only met her once, in/at about the same time frame (maybe I met Danno?) I remember Taiya and telemike being there. Also fairly certain that it is Teletips Laura; RIP Laura and the OG Teletips

**Danno** · 06-16-2020, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by Svengali

Like Danno, only met her once, in/at about the same time frame (maybe I met Danno?) I remember Taiya and telemike being there. Also fairly certain that it is Teletips Laura; RIP Laura and the OG Teletips

nah, when I met her it was just her and taiya. It's definitely her, the TTips group on FB confirmed (the ladies from the telechicas gone wild weekend confirmed).

**GoldMember** · 06-16-2020, 09:19 AM

Well, seems she had a presence on TTips that's somewhat interesting. She claimed to be independent in the ABC article, and probably was if she had been a Hilary supporter at one time then went for Palin. I will say that going for Palin really shouldn't be that surprising since Palin had an 89% approval rating as Governor at one time.

As I remember her from high school, she seemed to be pretty straight-laced, quiet, smart. I don't remember her as a skier AT ALL, which, if she skied back then, I likely would've known. There weren't that many and most of us tended to hang together as our own clique. She may have taken up skiing after high school and got more into it living in Girdwood. Don't know about that.

The discussion about her 'going off the rails' and that she was a family law practitioner opens up some possibilities as to what happened. Maybe suicide? Or a pissed off client doing her in? Hard to know but looking for answers, mostly out of curiosity but also for some of her old friends (via FB) who want to know what happened to her. So, any further info would be appreciated.

**GoldMember** · 06-16-2020, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Danno

nah, when I met her it was just her and taiya. It's definitely her, the TTips group on FB confirmed (the ladies from the telechicas gone wild weekend confirmed).

Danno, can you link the TTips group page? I'd like to read what's there, unless it's a private group.