Two children were likely dead since at least last fall and their bodies moved several times to different homes before their remains were found in a basement freezer in their mother's house in southern Maryland, authorities said Wednesday.

Renee Bowman is jailed and suspected of killing and freezing her two adopted daughters - who would be 9 and 11 - and abusing a third. Based on information she has given, investigators are working on the premise that the girls were killed when the family lived in Rockville, said Lt. Paul Starks of the Montgomery County (web|news) police. Bowman's former Rockville landlord has told police the family moved in November, Starks said.

Detectives are trying to figure out where the family lived and when "and, more importantly, when and who last saw these girls alive," Starks said.

Friends say Bowman lived all over the D.C. area in recent years, including houses in NE Washington and Prince George's County -- all the while, she was moving the freezer as she relocated, the friends said.

Calvert County deputies on Saturday found the remains of the girls encased in freezer ice at Bowman's home in Lusby, about 60 miles southeast of Rockville. They searched the house after arresting Bowman, 43, on a child abuse charge in the beating of her youngest daughter, who is 7.

Dr. David Fowler, Maryland's chief medical examiner, said preliminary autopsies had been conducted on the remains but that laboratory results were not back yet. He said he was prohibited by law from discussing the results because the case remains under investigation. He did not release a cause of death.

Bowman has told investigators that the remains were those of her daughters, but authorities were awaiting autopsy results to confirm their identities. 

Meantime, ABC 7/NewsChannel 8's Natasha Barrett has contacted the man identified by friends and neighbors as Renee Bowman's longtime live-in boyfriend, but he didn't want to talk about allegations surrounding his former girlfriend.

Bowman is being held on child abuse and assault charges in Calvert County. A search of her home turned up human remains in a basement freezer, police said. Bowman allegedly told investigators the remains were that of two of her adopted daughters.

Reached by phone, Joe Dickerson sounded "frantic", ABC 7/NewsChannel 8's Natasha Barrett reported Wednesday.

Lt. Bobby Jones of the Calvert County Sheriff's Office said investigators are still trying to determine when Bowman's boyfriend, Joe Dickerson lived at the Lusby home, for how long and what he might know about the children. They say he is cooperating.

Investigators are not calling Dickerson a suspect.

The remains found in the freezer have still not been officially identified. Autopsies on the bodies began Tuesday, but were still not complete as of Wednesday evening, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported.

Two of Bowman's adopted daughters are still officially listed as missing. A third daughter remains hospitalized after suffering horrific abuse.  She could be released into foster care as soon as Thursday.

Friends also say Bowman had stopped working and was living off the $2,400 a month she received through a federal program for her three adopted daughters. Bowman has also received in a settlement after she hurt her back in a car crash years ago.

Her then-attorney said Wednesday she had received money for medical costs and missing work at a doctor's office at Washington Hospital Center. But Jude Iweanoge says he doesn't even recognize his former client anymore.

"It just didn't look like Renee," said Iweanoge of her police mughsot. "The Renee I know, she's a nice person, easygoing and easy to get along with. That's the person that I know."

Iweanoge visited the Calvert County Detention Center Wednesday evening, hoping to speak with Bowman.

"Just to see and talk to her to find out exactly, you know, how she's doing and everything, just to find out exactly what's going on," he said.

Bowman also had a brush with the law at least once before.

Nine years ago, attorney Deidra McEachern defended Bowman in a case in which she was convicted of threatening a 72-year-old man over damage to her car. She recalled that Bowman stable with a professional demeanor.

She was shocked to learn her former client was accused of killing her children.

"I didn't even recognize her," McEachern said. "The person on TV, she looks deranged."

Bowman, who at the time was working as an appointment scheduler at a surgery center in the District of Columbia, was accused of threatening the man and demanding $900 for repairs to her car. She told the man she was going to "get the drug boys around the corner, break into his house and assault him," according to a police officer's affidavit.

McEachern said she thought Bowman's denials were believable and that Bowman's boss testified she had been at work at the time it happened. However, a judge in 1999 found Bowman guilty of a misdemeanor and gave her a 180-day suspended sentence and one year probation.

Bowman was in the process of adopting a child and was worried a conviction would be an obstacle, McEachern said.

In fact, the conviction did not stand in the way, nor did bankruptcy. Bowman adopted her oldest daughter in 2001 and the younger sisters in 2004 from the District of Columbia, after serving as their foster mother.

Financial stability is a requirement for becoming a foster parent and for adopting, said Roque Gerald, interim director of the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. The case has prompted advocates to question how D.C. officials evaluate potential parents.

School officials in Montgomery and Calvert counties and other districts in the area said they have no record of the girls ever being enrolled for classes.