The pastor who discovered two bound children and the body of their mother in a house in Clayton County on Monday said he had repeatedly expressed concern about her relationship with the man who now faces charges of stabbing her to death and of kidnapping her daughter.
Korean Bowden, 32, was found dead and two of her three children were found tied up at their home in Riverdale. Her boyfriend, William Nazario, 33, was arrested Monday night in Bartow County with Bowden's 9-year-old daughter. On Tuesday police filed murder and kidnapping charges against Nazario.
"I advised her that he had a violent spirit," said Pastor Jean Ward, who said he went to the house Monday after neither he nor Bowden's family members could reach her.
He told the AJC that he had counseled the couple for about a year. "They broke up, they got back together. I advised them that they weren't ready to be together at all."
Ward, pastor of Power of Faith Christian Center in Lithonia, was at the Bowden home Tuesday afternoon with family members trying to sort out how things went so wrong in the troubled relationship.
The couple had known each other for about two years, Ward said. Ward said he had known Bowden for more than four years and his daughter and Bowden's 12-year-old daughter were best friends.
He said he hadn't heard from the family since Friday, when the 12-year-old sent him a Facebook message.
"I came here Monday morning to check on the family. Every blind, every curtain was shut tight," Ward said of the house in the 100 block of Lexington Court. As he checked the back of the house, Ward said he saw the 12-year-old girl appear in a window. Her eyes were covered, Ward said. "I called her name and she recognized my voice and I asked her to open the door, but she said she was afraid that he was still in the house." Ward said she asked who the child was referring to, and she replied, "Will."
Ward said he kicked in the door and found a second child, age 4, bound in a bathtub. He called police who came to the house and discovered Bowden's body.
Ward said Bowden kept telling him during counseling that she didn't fear Nazario. "She kept saying ‘he won't hurt me, pastor," said Ward. "I tried to tell her. I expressed to her the concerns that I had."
Ward said he met Bowden when she lived in Decatur. He said the couple had moved to Acworth from Decatur and recently to Clayton County from Acworth.
On Monday night, Bartow County Sheriff's deputies and investigators took Nazario into custody at the America's Best hotel on Glade Road in Acworth. The 9-year-old girl was found with Nazario, police said.
Police initially charged Nazario with false imprisonment and aggravated sexual battery, and on Tuesday afternoon, they added the murder charge.
The children were with the state Department of Children and Family Services on Monday night.
Clayton Police spokesman Otis Willis said Nazario was neither the youngsters' father nor related to Bowden.
Ward said a fund has been set up to help defray the cost of the funeral for Bowden and to help the children. Donations are being accepted at any Wells Fargo Bank.
"You have to understand these children have lost their mother, and their father in not in the picture right now," Ward said. He said the children had a loving extended family. "We want to make sure we do all we can to help," he said.
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