FAMILY RACKED BY CIA COVER-UP

The Agency Lied About a 2001 Plane Downing in Peru That Killed a Woman
and Her Daughter, a Report Says.

Former Poquoson resident Gloria Luttig learned this week that her
daughter's and granddaughter's deaths were shrouded by a CIA cover-up.

"My daughter was murdered. My granddaughter was murdered," Luttig said
during a phone interview from her home in Pace, Fla., outside Pensacola.

Veronica L. "Roni" Bowers, 35, was aboard a small floatplane April 20,
2001, flying with her husband and two children from Brazil to their
houseboat on the Amazon River in Iquitos, Peru, where they lived and
worked as missionaries.

A U.S. anti-drug surveillance plane alerted Peru's military that the
Cessna 185 the Bowers were aboard was operating without a flight plan
and in airspace frequented by narcotics traffickers -- two allegations
that are disputed.

A Peruvian warplane followed and fired shots at the
Cessna.

"There was no communication. It happened very fast. The planes flew by
first, did some swooping and then came in from behind and started
shooting," Veronica's brother-in-law -- Phil Bowers, a pilot who sat
with his brother during a government debriefing on the situation --
told The Associated Press in 2001.

One of the bullets hit Veronica in her back, zipped through her body
and went into the skull of her infant daughter, Charity, who sat on
her mother's lap. Both died.

The plane made a crash landing in the Amazon River in front of
hundreds of witnesses in the Peruvian village of Huanta. The surviving
passengers included the pilot, Kevin Donaldson of Morgantown, W.Va.;
Veronica's husband, Jim Bowers; and their 6-year-old son, Cory, who
clutched the plane's pontoons.

"One bullet that killed them both," Gloria Luttig said. "And my
grandson, 6 years old, having to jump out of a plane into the Amazon
with fire all around and piranhas. It should never had happened."

Luttig paused, crying on the phone Friday as she talked about her
daughter's death just days before she and her husband, Garnett "John"
Luttig, plan to drive to Porter, Texas, to see the older of their two
surviving children, Garnett Jr. They have another son, Pat Luttig, who
lives in Gloucester.

"And this is a hard time of year," Luttig said.

It got harder for the family when reporters in Michigan and Virginia
started calling this week to ask whether she had heard about the CIA
cover-up.

Excerpts of a Central Intelligence Agency internal investigation
released Thursday said the agency tried to hide negligence in the
case. The report said agency officials lied to Congress and withheld
information from federal investigators -- including senior Bush
administration officials -- looking to see whether a crime had been
committed by intelligence agents.

Sections of the report were released by Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra,
ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Veronica and
Jim Bowers lived in Hoekstra's district.

Hoekstra's office sent a letter to CIA Inspector General John
Helgerson, asking to declassify other parts of the report, which was
submitted in August.

The document was turned over to the Justice Department, which closed
its investigation into the case in 2005 without any prosecutions. A
CIA spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the agency's internal
review was "still open" and that no decisions had been made regarding
disciplinary action.

As difficult as it is to talk about it, Veronica's family members want
the public to know.

And, they said, they want justice.

"You shoot a woman and a baby in the back ... there's still more
cover-up," said Veronica's brother, Garnett Luttig Jr., during a phone
interview from his home outside Houston.

"Somebody knows, and somebody is accountable for that final action. ..
We've always wanted answers, and we never got any."

Veronica Luttig graduated from Poquoson High School in 1982. She
wanted to be a missionary even when she was a girl, her mother said.
She was a counselor at a Christian summer camp, Camp Open Arms, on the
Chickahominy River, where she was paid $10 a week.

After graduating from high school, Veronica went to Piedmont Bible
College in Winston-Salem, N.C.

At college, Veronica wouldn't date men planning to be pastors, her
mother said Friday. She wanted to be a missionary, so she dated only
missionaries. That's how she met Jim Bowers, who had grown up in
Brazil, where his parents were missionaries. They married Nov. 3, 1985.

The couple lived in Germany while Jim was in the Army. They then
started doing missionary work with the Association of Baptists for
World Evangelism. The organization operates a theological seminary, a
camp, a center for pregnant women and schools in Lima, Peru, and other
cities.

The couple tried to have children but weren't able because of
infertility struggles. They adopted Cory in 1994 and Charity shortly
after her birth Sept. 14, 2000.

Jim Bowers is in Africa doing missionary work, but he and Cory will
get together with the Luttigs over the holidays, Gloria Luttig and
Garnett Jr. said. He has since remarried and has two daughters.

After so much news media attention, he had to move on with his life,
Gloria Luttig said. It's different for Gloria and her husband.

"It's hard for a mom and dad to get on with our lives when our only
daughter was killed and especially in such a horrific way," Gloria
said.

Shortly after Veronica's death, the Luttigs hired an attorney in
Washington in an effort to get some answers from the federal
government. Their investigation yielded a lot of information. They
have a videotape of the plane being shot down. And they have an audio
recording of the conversation that led to the plane being shot down.

"They were laughing and carrying on," Gloria said of the voices in the
recording.

At this point, neither Gloria nor Veronica's older brother, Garnett
Jr., expect to find out the whole truth.

However, they hope that someone will face criminal
charges.

"For seven years, it's been brushed under the table," Garnett Jr.
said.

"That's all we've ever wanted, is someone telling us who killed my
sister and my niece. ...

"We've never been able to get anybody to admit, 'Hey, we made a
mistake.'"