A harrowing incident has shaken a Florida community as authorities report that a man used a pillow as an improvised silencer to fatally shoot his wife, the vice mayor of a city in the Sunshine State. The accused, Stephen Bowen, allegedly shot Nancy Metayer Bowen three times with a shotgun before going to sleep, leaving her lifeless body upstairs.

Stephen Bowen now faces charges of first-degree murder following the tragic death of Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen. Her body was discovered at their residence on Wednesday evening, bringing a grim end to a day filled with growing concern over her whereabouts.

The alarm was first raised when Metayer Bowen failed to attend a scheduled commission meeting on Wednesday morning. As outlined in the probable cause affidavit released by police on Thursday afternoon, her absence prompted immediate concern among city officials. Efforts to contact her through text messages and phone calls went unanswered, leading the police chief to dispatch a patrol officer to her home for a welfare check.

City employees also attempted to reach out to Stephen Bowen, who claimed he was unable to contact his wife. However, when officers tried to call Bowen, their attempts were met with silence, according to the affidavit.

Officers arrived at the couple’s home around 10:20 a.m. and noted the absence of vehicles in the driveway and the lack of response at the door. A neighbor mentioned having seen Nancy Metayer Bowen walking her dog around midnight, but she had not been seen since, adding to the growing concern for her safety.

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.”