Insets: Stephen Bowen and Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen (Coral Springs police). Background: Cops investigate after Bowen allegedly murdered his wife Metayer Bowen (WTVJ).
Using a pillow as a makeshift silencer, a Florida man blasted his wife, a vice mayor of a Sunshine State city, three times with a shotgun before he went to sleep with her body still upstairs, cops say.
Stephen Bowen stands accused of first-degree murder in the death of Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen, who was found dead in their home on Wednesday evening.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit released Thursday afternoon by police, officials first learned something was amiss when Metayer Bowen failed to show up to a scheduled commission meeting Wednesday morning.
When Metayer Bowen wasn”t responding to text messages or phone calls, the police chief had one of his patrol officers go to her home to check on her. Another city employee also texted Bowen, who responded that he couldn’t reach his wife either. Police calls to Bowen went unanswered, per the affidavit.
Officers arrived at the home around 10:20 a.m., but saw no vehicles in the driveway, nor did anyone answer the door. A neighbor reported seeing Metayer Bowen walking her dog around midnight, but hadn’t seen her since.
Cops noted seeing some damage on the second floor of the home which was indicative of “outward force” from a projectile. There was drywall debris on the ground.
Shortly after 1:30 p.m., officers spotted Bowen’s pickup truck in a parking lot and began surveilling him. Bowen was allegedly seen handing a bag that appeared to contain a rifle to a relative.
Minutes later, cops received a 911 call from the man who received the bag from Bowen. The man said that Bowen revealed to him that he “did something” to his wife and she was “not alive,” the affidavit stated. According to the man, Bowen allegedly admitted to shooting his wife three times with a shotgun the previous night. Asked why he shot her, Bowen said it was because he “couldn’t take it anymore,” per cops.
Bowen allegedly went downstairs after shooting her and went to sleep.
With that information in hand, officers had what they needed to enter Metayer Bowen’s home to conduct a safety sweep. They discovered Metayer Bowen’s body in her bed. Investigators also found three spent shell casings wrapped with her body in a blanket.
They also located a pillow with burn marks that Bowen allegedly used to muzzle the shotgun blast. Cops did not publicly divulge a motive.
According to her biography, Metayer Bowen was elected to the Coral Springs commission in 2020 and reelected four years later. She began serving her second one-year stint as vice mayor in November. Metayer Bowen was the first Black woman and Haitian American elected to the commission. She also served as the vice chair of the Florida Democratic Party.
“Nancy was not simply our Vice Chair of Haitian Outreach. She was a scientist. An environmentalist. A brilliant barrier-breaker who made history as the first Black and Haitian-American woman elected to the Coral Springs City Commission,” Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement. “A Vice Mayor who showed up every single day for the people she served. She loved her community deeply and believed, with every fiber of her being, that a better and more equitable future was possible for all of us. Above all, Nancy was my friend and a friend to everyone who has ever believed that democracy was worth fighting for. The world is less bright without her in it.”
