Couple Sought in Slaying of Van Nuys Woman Arrested

A murder suspect profiled last week on “America’s Most Wanted” was arrested Friday in Panorama City on suspicion of killing a Van Nuys woman who disappeared as she was driving home from Arizona in 1990, authorities said.

Billy Ray Riggs, 43, and his wife, Hilda Sims, 28, were arrested about 12:15 p.m. as they drove up to an apartment building on Van Nuys Boulevard near Plummer Street, Los Angeles Police Officer Dan McVay said.

Riggs is suspected of killing Jamie Michele Bowie, 24, who was last seen in April, 1990, on Interstate 10 in Arizona as she drove from Phoenix to her home in Van Nuys. Her bullet-riddled body was found a month later near Indio.

Bowie’s Volkswagen Beetle was found in Fresno last September and was traced to a repair shop where it had been sold two days after Bowie’s disappearance by a couple resembling Riggs and Sims, said Detective Sal Pina of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Bowie apparently had car trouble and was seen speaking to a couple fitting the description of Riggs and Sims, who also were driving a Beetle, Pina said.

The pair were transferred Friday to a Riverside County jail in Indio. Riggs, a Texas native, faces a murder charge and was wanted for auto theft and a parole violation in Beaumont.

Sims, of Phoenix, is being held for questioning in the Bowie case.

“America’s Most Wanted” already had broadcast two segments on the slaying in 1990. Last week’s report included for the first time the names and pictures of Riggs and Sims. It generated 173 phone calls. “Even his blood relatives were calling with information,” Pina said.

A tip led authorities that night to a home in Inglewood where Riggs apparently had been staying. When police arrived, they found an uneaten--but still warm--Chinese dinner left on the coffee table.