A Dorchester man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder of a 29-year-old New Jersey woman, who he bound, gagged and set on fire alongside commuter rail tracks in Bridgewater more than seven years ago.
A Plymouth Superior Court jury on Wednesday found Fernando Owens, 51, guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping of Ashley Bortner, 29, of New Jersey, a woman he thought was involved in the death of his own son earlier that day.
On Friday, Judge Elaine Buckley sentenced Owens to life in prison. He is the second of three people charged in connection with the murder. Julian Squires, 49, was found guilty of the same counts in June of last year and is currently serving life in state prison. Shannon Squires, 46, is next scheduled to appear in court on July 20.
“I am proud of the work that this jury did to come to a just verdict in this case,” said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz in a statement following Owens’ verdict. “They heard the evidence of what transpired during a 24-hour period that day in November of 2015. Fernando Owens lured Ashley Bortner in, kept her against her will, and then, he killed her. I hope that with today’s outcome and some passage of time, Ms. Bortner’s family will find some sense of peace.”
Bridgewater Police responded to a 911 call just before midnight on Nov. 3, 2015, reporting a fire burning alongside the MBTA commuter rail tracks in Bridgewater.
There, they discovered the body of Ashley Bortner, who had been “hog-tied,” in Cruz’s description at the time, an electrical cord around her neck, her face wrapped in a towel, a gag in her mouth and roughly 70% of her body burned.
Owens fled to the Dominican Republic following the murder, but authorities engaged in an international manhunt and he was arrested on March 8, 2016, in the Dominican Republic , according to the U.S. Marshal’s office. Marshals returned him to Massachusetts that week to face justice.
Julian and Shannon Squires, the others charged in the case, are a married couple from Manchester, N.H., who prosecutors say misled police about their whereabouts, as phone records put them near the scene of the crime around the same time Bortner’s body was found. Both were indicted on murder and aggravated kidnapping charges in the case, with Julian Squires convicted last year.
Prosecutors say they believe Owens killed Bortner because he was under the impression that she was involved with the shooting murder of his son, Dominic Owens, who was shot dead earlier the same day on Shepton Street in Dorchester. Bortner and the younger Owens knew each other and the father called Bortner 13 times before he murdered her.
“It was our belief from the outset that the reason why Ashley was murdered by Fernando Owens and others was the fact that they believe she had information regarding Owens’ son, who had been murdered in Dorchester the night before her homicide,” Cruz said in March 2016. “I’m not sure if I’d call it retaliation as much as they were trying to get information, which may have led to retaliation.”
