A 34-year-old South Dakota man is behind bars after police say he brutally murdered and beheaded his own mother in their front yard.
Bowen Fladland was arrested on July 8 and charged with both first- and second-degree murder in the death of 70-year-old Marlene Fladland. According to investigators, her body was discovered in the front yard of their home in Clark, South Dakota.
“This was a beheading case,” South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told local outlet KELO. “We are in the process of gathering evidence, items of evidentiary value… There will be an autopsy.”
Fladland is being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
According to a probable cause affidavit, police responded to the home after a family member reported that Marlene had previously said Bowen had assaulted her. When officers arrived, they found her decapitated remains outside the house.
Fladland was later found in the nearby town of Watertown and agreed to speak with police. During a post-Miranda interview, he allegedly admitted to kneeling on his mother’s neck until she stopped moving—then using a tool to remove her head.
This wasn’t the first time Fladland was accused of violently attacking his mother.
Court documents reveal that in 2023, Marlene told police she had been choked and threatened by her son on more than one occasion. In one incident, she said she awoke to him screaming and attempted to calm him, only for him to allegedly grab her throat. The following morning, he reportedly attacked her again, and she fled to the bathroom.
She told police that when she opened the door, Fladland was standing there holding two butter knives and threatening to kill her. He later pleaded no contest to aggravated domestic assault and received a suspended sentence with supervised probation.
Tragically, the violence didn’t stop there.
“She was such a sweet person,” neighbor Sandy Herrick told KELO. “When I walked by, she would always say ‘Hi.’ I’m devastated. It gave me the creeps. I had a hard time sleeping that night.”
Fladland has not yet entered a plea in the murder case. The investigation remains ongoing.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org for confidential support.
Death penalty is the only answer for him. He killed his own mother. Why should the tax payers pay to feed & cloth him in prison. He’ll only get out later on and kill someone else. We have to stop this madness to keep cold blooded murders in prison!
Well I guess what I have heard is true, the police will do nothing until you are killed.Vety sad this man should have been in a place where he cannot get out