‘Terrible’: Florida Vice Mayor Whose Body Was Found in Wrapped in Blankets Mourned Brother, Parkland Shooting Survivor Who Died By Suicide Mere Months Ago
Authorities investigating the murder of the vice mayor of a South Florida city have pinned her husband as the prime suspect in a killing that […] ‘Terrible’: Florida Vice Mayor Whose Body Was Found in Wrapped in Blankets Mourned Brother, Parkland Shooting Survivor Who Died By Suicide Mere Months Ago
Black News 
Authorities investigating the murder of the vice mayor of a South Florida city have pinned her husband as the prime suspect in a killing that comes just months after the public official buried her younger brother, a survivor of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen, 38, was found dead in her home on April 1 after police were called to conduct a welfare check.
The vice mayor’s absence from city meetings that same morning and her failure to answer calls from city employees and family members prompted concerns, according to a probable cause affidavit cited by CBS News.
Officers called to her home saw signs of possible damage to the home’s exterior that were consistent with explosives and projectiles.
A SWAT team forced its way into the home and found her body in blankets and inside garbage bags. Investigators also found evidence that she had been shot, including spent shotgun shells near her body.
A preliminary investigation revealed that her death was connected to an “incident that was domestic in nature,” and authorities took her husband, 40-year-old Stephen Bowen, into custody.
A witness also told detectives that Bowen admitted to shooting his wife multiple times the night before, and then sleeping downstairs. Investigators tracked Bowen down using surveillance and license plate readers and found his pickup truck in Fort Lauderdale.
Police said he tried to get rid of the murder weapon by placing it in a bag and handing it to another person.
Bowen was jailed without bond on charges of premeditated murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Metayer Bowen’s cause of death has not yet been released and authorities have not yet identified a motive for the deadly shooting.
The shocking killing comes as Metayer Bowen was still grieving a deeply personal loss that had already shaken her family.
Just months earlier, she mourned the death of her younger brother, Donovan Joshua Leigh Metayer, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed.
The 26-year-old died in December 2025 after what his family described as a years-long battle with mental illness stemming from the trauma of the shooting.
Family members said the effects of that day never left him.
“In the months that followed, Donny began to withdraw,” they shared. “Depression, guilt, emotional instability, and long periods of isolation replaced the vibrant young man we once knew.”
They said he ultimately died by suicide after struggling with schizophrenia, just weeks after a Risk Protection Order expired, allowing him to legally purchase a firearm.
Metayer Bowen, herself, publicly honored her brother in the aftermath, asking for support for a fund in his name and thanking those who showed compassion to her grieving family.
Now, those close to her are grappling with a second devastating loss in less than a year.
Metayer Bowen became the first Black Haitian-American female Commissioner of Coral Springs when she was elected in 2020, according to the city website.
She was re-elected in 2024 to serve as the city’s vice mayor and appointed by her fellow commissioners in late 2025 to serve a second, one-year term as vice mayor.
Before serving on the Coral Springs commission and city council, Metayer Bowen spent years as an environmental advocate, and “led environmental justice efforts across the state of Florida, focusing on enhancing community resilience,” the city website states.
The Bowens were married in 2022.
Stephen Bowen is the chief operating officer of a non-profit and statewide Masonic organization based in Hollywood, Florida, and has an active license as a certified radiologic technologist, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
While Metayer Bowen regularly made several loving and affectionate social media posts about her marriage, Bowen’s Facebook shows no photos of his wife, but only pictures of himself, and videos of one of his nonprofit’s events and his time at a gun range.
Family members, colleagues, and Florida lawmakers released statements about Metayer Bowen’s legacy after news of her death circulated.
In a statement, her family said she was a “dedicated public servant who committed her life to improving the lives of others.”
“Throughout her years in public office, she led with integrity, compassion, and an unwavering sense of purpose. She believed in bringing people together, listening to those she served, and working tirelessly to create positive change in her community. To us, she was a source of strength, wisdom, and love—someone who always put others before herself,” the family’s statement on Instagram reads.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Reid called her a “brilliant barrier-breaker” who “loved her community.”
“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,” Fried said, per NBC News. “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.”
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz echoed Fried’s sentiments about Metayer Bowen’s steadfast care for her community.
“I’m in shock. I was just with her on Saturday. She just buried her brother. She was about to announce she was running for Congress. Nancy was one of the nicest people I worked with. Always fighting for her community, always pushing to help. She had such a future. This is terrible,” the Florida congressman wrote on X.
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