MIAMI — Relatives of the husband of murdered Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen knew she was in danger and urged police to break down the door of her home Wednesday afternoon to make sure she was alive, 911 calls released Friday show.

Metayer Bowen’s husband, Stephen Bowen, 40, is in Broward County jail on a premeditated murder charge. Police say he shot his wife three times with a shotgun. Officers found her body wrapped in blankets around 2:20 p.m Wednesday.

About a half hour before tactical officers forced their way inside the house at the 800 block of Northwest 127th Avenue in Coral Springs and found her body, Bowen’s relatives called 911 telling a dispatcher to tell police to break in “by whatever means.”

“Tell them to break down the door,” a woman, whose name was redacted from the audio, told the dispatcher. Police were already at the house because Metayer Bowen’s colleagues and family had not seen her or heard from her since Tuesday. She had missed a city council meeting and a meeting for a charter school board Wednesday morning.

Officers went to her house around 10:20 a.m. Wednesday and didn’t see anyone at home or any cars in the driveway, according to Stephen Bowen’s arrest affidavit. The department then began a missing-persons investigation.

After the woman told the 911 operator to have officers break in, the operator responded that they did not have a reason to do so, nor a warrant. That’s when a man, who identified himself as Bowen’s uncle, got on the phone and said, “I’m going to give you a reason,” and said his nephew told him that morning that he “did something to” Matayer Bowen.

“I asked him if she was alive, and he said no,” the man, whose name was also redacted on the tape, told the dispatcher.

Police later interviewed the uncle, who told them he spoke with Bowen about 10 a.m., and his nephew asked him to hold onto a shotgun for a couple of weeks, warning he would need gloves or a bag to handle it, the arrest affidavit states.

The uncle told officers that he asked Bowen if he had shot someone. According to the arrest report, Bowen replied that he had shot his wife three times the night before.

Colleagues had been worrying about Metayer Bowen all day long.

Luwam Ghermay, an administrative manager in Coral Springs, told police he received a text from Metayer Bowen’s phone around 8 a.m. titled “Discussion Items” but did not hear from her again, according to police. Ghermay then reached out to Stephen Bowen, asking if he could let his wife know people were looking for her, according to the affidavit.

“Hey Luwam, texted her. She is not picking up,” Bowen replied, according to the arrest report. When Ghermay followed up, noting that Metayer Bowen had missed two meetings, Bowen asked where she was and said her car was not at their home.

Ghermay then urged him to call police Maj. Edmond DeRosa, who had already directed officers to respond to the couple’s home.

A neighbor told police they had seen Metayer Bowen walking her dog around midnight. Officers tried calling Bowen several times but received no response.

About an hour later, Bowen’s parents, Lincoln and Yvonne Bowen, arrived at the home, according to the report. They had spoken with Metayer Bowen’s mother, who said police were trying to locate her daughter. Bowen’s parents said they had no way to enter the house and that the last time they had spoken with their son was around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

During the talk with his parents, Bowen, who is a certified radiologic technologist, told them he had experienced a panic attack at work — listed in the affidavit as Delray Medical Center — and planned to speak with his wife about it. His mother told police she was unaware of any marital problems between the couple, according to the affidavit.

Around 12:30 p.m., officers returned to the home. This time, one officer noticed “defects” on the exterior of the second floor that appeared “indicative of outward force” and “consistent with damage caused by projectiles,” detectives wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Police later found Bowen by using license-plate reader data, which showed his Ford F-150 in a parking lot at an apartment building at 551 NW 42nd Ave. in Plantation. Detectives say Bowen met with another man and handed him a bag that looked like a firearm case.

The man then went into the building with the bag and later came out without it, the report states. Police detained Bowen at the scene. The man later told police that he and Bowen were both Masons and that he thought they were getting together that day to discuss a meeting.

The man told police he did not know what Bowen had done but recalled Bowen saying, “They’re here for me,” as officers moved in, the report states.

According to Bowen’s uncle, Bowen told him Wednesday morning that he “couldn’t take it anymore.” Bowen stayed at the uncle’s home for about two hours, during which time other family members arrived and were told what happened. He eventually left alone in his truck shortly after noon, saying he planned to meet with an attorney.

Search warrants were later carried out at the Bowens’ home and the Plantation apartment. Inside the couple’s Coral Springs home, detectives found three spent shotgun shells wrapped in blankets with Metayer Bowen’s body, according to the affidavit.

Detectives also recovered a pillow with burn marks and string, which investigators believe may have been used as a makeshift silencer, the report states.

A preliminary examination showed a gunshot wound to Metayer Bowen’s left shoulder. At the Plantation apartment, detectives recovered a shotgun inside the same bag they said Bowen had handed off earlier in the day.

Court records do not list an attorney for Stephen Bowen, nor a court date for his first appearance before a judge.

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.