5 key details about Mansa Musa Muhummed's crimes ahead of Girl in the Garage: The Laura Cowan Story on Lifetime
Girl in the Garage: The Laura Cowan Story on Lifetime is a dramatized version of Laura Cowan’s harrowing story and the torture she and her two children had to endure in 1998, at the hands of her husband Mansa Musa Muhummed.
In 1998, Laura and her kids were imprisoned in a garage and subjected to abuse. Laura remained optimistic, and in 1999 she was able to send a letter with information about the torture to a post office employee.
Muhummed was taken into custody in 1999 after this letter was turned over to the police. Although justice was delayed by a decade, Mansa Musa Muhummed eventually received seven consecutive life sentences for his crimes in 2009.
5 key details to learn about Laura Cowan's ex-husband Mansa Musa Muhummed's crimes
1) Members of the family remembered the horrific details of the torture and testified
In their testimony, Mansa Musa Muhummed's wives and children accused him of beating them and showing them no mercy. He allegedly threatened to beat them for stealing food, improperly reading sections from the Koran, and other offenses. According to his children's accounts, he starved everyone else while eating "like a king." Allegedly, he would also organize fights between his boys.
2) Marlon Boddie's arm was broken by Mansa Musa Muhummed
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Marlon Boddie, Mansa Musa Muhummed's son, recalled some harrowing details in an interview. He revealed that for years his father would hang him upside down, beat him for hours, and make him eat his feces and vomit.
As per Boddie, his father also broke his arm once. He added :
“He broke my arm once and wrapped a towel around it real tight like a cast. Imagine what it’s like to see your dad split open your head, then sew it up with a needle and thread.”
3) Mansa Musa Muhummed's daughter, Sharon Boddie, did not want him released from prison
When Mansa Musa Muhummed was sentenced in 2009, his daughter Sharon Boddie, then 28 years old, begged the judge to not be lenient toward him and to ensure that he was not released from prison since she was sick of his horrific torture.
She told the judge:
"I’m very afraid of him. I really don’t want him to get out of jail at all. Please, Your Honor, don’t show him any mercy because he never showed any mercy to his kids.”
4) Mansa Musa Muhummed kept Laura Cowan confined in the garage for 8 months
Lawra Cowan spoke to A&E True Crime on January 8 about her horrific past and revealed that she and her children were confined in a dark garage. There was no proper place to urinate other than a bucket and she and her children were stopped from entering the main house. Reportedly, Mansa Musa Muhummed would physically abuse the children and se*ually abuse Laura Cowan.
Recalling her past horrors, Laura stated:
"The only time he would let me out, it’d be because we had buckets in there to urinate because he wouldn’t let us come into the main house to use the bathroom or wash up. So, every two days or so he would take me and my son, and we’d walk out in the backyard and dump the buckets of urine."
5) Marva Barfield was "truly afraid" of Mansa Musa Muhummed
Marva Barfield, one of Muhummed’s wives was arrested and jailed for a year on charges of "child endangerment" as per the LA Times. However, she was later released when she swore to testify against her husband. She said in court:
"I married him at 18 and got out at 45. I was scared of him. I want to apologize to my kids for not doing more, but I was truly afraid of him.”
To learn more about this case watch Girl in the Garage: The Laura Cowan Story. It airs on Lifetime on January 18 at 8 pm EST.
