THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, July 10, 1980BUNNELL WOMAN HELD IN DEATH OF HUSBAND
A Bunnell woman, apparently distraught over a domestic quarrel, shot and killed her husband as he approached her Sunday afternoon, police say.
Francis Bowers, 53, was being held early this week in Flagler County Jail in the murder of her husband Jesse Eugene Bowers, 56.
Bowers was found alongside his wife's car when Bunnell Patrolman Dave Dempsey and Flagler County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Terrell arrived on the scene.
According to Dempsey, the couple had quarreled at the home of friends at 200 N. Anderson St. in Bunnell earlier in the day.
Mrs. Bowers left the house and reportedly told a neighbor, with whom she hitched a ride, that she was going to kill her husband. The woman went to her home at 410 N. Church St. and returned to the friend's house in the family car.
As Bowers approached the vehicle, his wife allegedly fired one shot from a .22-caliber piston. The shot hit him in the left chest.
After being shot, Bowers continued to approach the car. He opened the door and pulled the gun from her hand and then turned back toward the house, called for help and collapsed, police said.
Bowers was pronounced dead at Bunnell Community Hospital about 3 p.m. An autopsy Monday revealed he died of internal bleeding caused by the bullet ricocheting off his rib cage and severing several arteries before lodging in the spine.
An eyewitness to the shooting called police just seconds before the incident. As police arrived, Mrs. Bowers said she was tired of her husband beating her.
Bowers would have been 57 Monday.
