The Related Press
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — The husband of a South Florida vice mayor has been charged with fatally capturing his spouse at their residence, in keeping with a police affidavit.
Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was discovered lifeless April 1 by officers checking on her well-being, and her loss of life was being investigated as a home violence incident, Chief Brad Mock stated at a information convention.
Her husband, Stephen Bowen, 40, was charged with premeditated homicide and tampering with or fabricating bodily proof and was being held at Broward County’s predominant jail, in keeping with on-line jail information.
On-line court docket information don’t listing an lawyer who may touch upon Stephen Bowen’s behalf. Nobody responded instantly to messages left by The Related Press at telephone listings for Stephen Bowen and his family. An individual hung up at a kind of telephone numbers.
After Metayer Bowen didn’t present for a gathering on the morning of April 1 or reply to makes an attempt to achieve her by telephone, a police official at that assembly requested officers to test her residence, in keeping with the affidavit.
When officers entered the house, they discovered Nancy Metayer Bowen lifeless in a second-floor bed room, her physique wrapped in blankets and rubbish baggage, in keeping with the affidavit. A pillow was discovered on the mattress with burn marks and string as if it was used as a silencer, the affidavit stated.
In a police interview, Stephen Bowen’s uncle stated Stephen got here to his residence on April 1 and advised him he had shot his spouse 3 times the evening earlier than. “When requested why, Stephen Bowen stated that he ‘couldn’t take it anymore,’” the affidavit states.
The affidavit states Stephen Bowen’s mom stated he advised her March 31 that he had a panic assault and was going to talk along with his spouse about it.
Metayer Bowen, town’s first Black and Haitian-American feminine commissioner, was elected in 2020 and reelected in 2024 and appointed to serve a second, one-year time period as vice mayor in November, in keeping with her biography on town’s web site. She was an environmental scientist and earlier than serving as a commissioner she led environmental justice efforts throughout Florida with a concentrate on group resilience.
Metayer Bowen additionally served because the vice chair of the Florida Democratic Social gathering. In a press release, Social gathering Chair Nikki Fried remembered hugging Metayer Bowen at a management summit two weeks in the past, “by no means imagining it might be one in every of our final moments collectively.”
“She liked her group deeply and believed, with each fiber of her being, that a greater and extra equitable future was doable for all of us,” Fried stated. “Above all, Nancy was my pal and a pal to everybody who has ever believed that democracy was value preventing for. The world is much less shiny with out her in it.”
Metayer Bowen gave a lot of herself to Coral Springs, which is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Fort Lauderdale, Metropolis Supervisor Catherine Givens stated on the April 1 information convention.
“She wasn’t only a chief. She was the sunshine in each room that she entered. She was a gradual voice in troublesome instances, a compassionate soul who lifted others up and a pal to so many,” Givens stated. “Our hearts are really damaged.”
