Athol couple offers $10,000 reward for information on son’s killer

Clifford “Cory” Fowler hadn’t been heard from in a week, and his parents were worried.

So, on Feb. 18, they drove to Fowler’s Spokane Valley apartment and turned the handle of his unlocked front door. They saw his body almost immediately, in a pool of blood on the living room floor. The 33-year-old had been shot multiple times.

Now, after six months of grieving, the Fowler family is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who steps forward with information leading to an arrest. His parents, Dan and Patty Fowler, believe their son’s killer was someone who knew him personally.

“I’m tired of feeling like I’m dying of a broken heart,” Dan Fowler said Friday. “I think it’s time to do something about it.”

Cory Fowler grew up in the family’s home in Athol, Idaho, and graduated from nearby Timberlake High School.

After serving four years in the Navy, he went to Portland State University in hopes of becoming a high school English teacher. But his GI Bill ran out and student loans began to weigh on him, so he took a break from classes and went to work at Starbucks. His parents said he was determined to get back in school.

Then he learned his girlfriend, who lives in North Idaho, was pregnant. So he packed his things – including several guitars, a mandolin and a copy of his favorite book, “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” – and moved back to the area.

“He wasn’t perfect by any measure, but he was a good man, and he worked hard, and he just wanted to be a good father,” Patty Fowler said.

Cory Fowler got a job marketing health insurance, but he and his girlfriend broke up soon after their daughter was born, his parents said. An expensive custody battle ensued, and Fowler was looking forward to his first unsupervised visit with his daughter, they said.

Deputy Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said detectives are working with little evidence.

Detectives “have suspicions. They have ideas about what happened,” Gregory said. “But they don’t have enough to move forward with charges. There’s not a whole lot there.”

Detectives found several spent bullet casings from the apartment, but the casings were a different size than the wounds on Fowler’s body, according to court records. Detectives have filed multiple warrants to search Fowler’s computer, cellphone and email records, as well as the girlfriend’s phone and email records.

Detectives have asked the public for information about a .380-caliber handgun possibly involved in the crime. They believe it was sold by a private party within the last year in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area.

The sale likely included ammunition from Rottweil, a German ammunition manufacturer; the head stamp markings would have read “RWS.”

Crime Stoppers of the Inland Northwest is offering a $1,000 reward for information on the case. Anyone with information is asked to call (800) 222-TIPS or visit crimestoppers inlandnorthwest.org. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

“People should do the right thing regardless of money, but hopefully this will motivate someone to come forward and give us some answers in this case,” Gregory said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Cory Fowler’s mother. She is Patty Fowler, not Nancy Fowler.