LOUISA COUNTY, Va. -- The Louisa Sheriff’s Office is waiting for autopsy results to return from the Medical Examiner’s Office before officially concluding a husband and wife found fatally shot in their home died in a murder-suicide. Major Donald Lowe said it appeared Charles Wilson shot his wife Stacey Bowers in the living room, and then killed himself in the bedroom, but it was still too early to make an official determination.
Lowe said Bowers and Wilson died sometime between 8:15 and 8:55 a.m. Sunday morning at their home on Wild Turkey Drive.
“Her daughter allegedly had asked her, 'hey is it okay to come over, can you watch my kids?' She said yeah, come on over. Forty-five minutes later she shows up and discovers a gruesome scene,” Lowe said.
Lowe said by all accounts it sounded like the couple, who only married a year ago, was happy together.
Charles Wilson and Stacey Bowers
“Everything we’ve heard so far is your normal couple newly married,” Lowe said.
Bowers worked as a waitress at the Mineral Restaurant, and before her death, she waited on Nancy Astrella multiple times a week.
“She was kind of my bartender, grief counselor, you know, BFF all rolled into one,” Astrella said.
Astrella said she admired her friend and her marriage.
She said it was Bowers’ second marriage after her first husband died suddenly several years ago.
“Somebody over 20 had found true love and it was really cool,” Astrella said.
As investigators work to figure out what happened, a jar with Bowers’ picture on it sits atop the counter where she served so many, filled with donations for her family from friends still coming to terms with her sudden death.
“It’s that finality of, oh crap, she’s not coming back…it’s not a bad dream,” Astrella said.
AGoFundMe account has been set up in Bowers’ name.
