Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper stood at the podium and spoke in a subdued and somber tone as he described a family’s murder-suicide with three women shot to death and the shooter clinically dead after shooting himself in the head.
“The information I’m going to give you is sad, it’s tragic, it’s heartbreaking and totally, totally was unnecessary,” the sheriff said.
Leeper said if there’s any positive it’s that a 5-year-old girl who witnessed it was physically unharmed.
It happened about 8 p.m. July 24 at a home on West 12th Avenue in Hilliard. Leeper identified the shooter as Christopher Bobby Rowell, 34. He was at a hospital waiting for his organs to be harvested. Leeper did not initially identify the others, but the Sheriff’s Office later identified them as Marissa Leara Rowell, 32, Sandra Gayle Fogarty, 71, and Alisha Lael Fogarty, 33.
Leeper said there hadn’t been any other domestic-related calls to the home.
Reader discretion is advised considering the graphic details about to be reported below.
When deputies arrived to the shooting, there was no response but determined the door was unlocked, the sheriff said.
“As the door was opened, they observed a female on the floor between the living room and dining room lying in blood,” Leeper said. Continuing their search, they “then observed a male subject lying on the floor in the living room in a puddle of blood with a black assault-style rifle beside him. As they continued their protective sweep of the residence, they then found a female in the hallway bathroom with blood and brains splattered all over the wall and the floor. They found another female lying in a pool of blood on the floor in a bedroom across the hall from the bathroom.”
After assuring that no one else was in the home, the women were obviously deceased but they determined the man still had a slight pulse. He was airlifted to a hospital.
“It appears the shooter first shot the female in the living room/dining room area, then shot the female in the bathroom and then shot the female in the bedroom,” Leeper said. “He eventually returned to the living room where he shot himself in the head.”
Neighbors across the street told them the 5-year-old girl who was there at the time was banging on the door for help.
“The child said she was in the back of the house, heard a gunshot,” Leeper said. “She came down the hallway and seen a female on the floor in the living room/dining room area. Another female grabbed her, put her in the bathroom, when that individual was shot.”
The sheriff confirmed it was a domestic incident and that they have a theory what happened but want to investigate it further. He also did not want to release their relationships yet but said they were all related. The Times-Union confirmed that Marissa Rowell was the wife.
Leeper said the 5-year-old was naturally in shock and traumatized but is a very strong and brave girl. She’s now safe with other relatives.
He said he wasn’t aware of any mental health issues with Rowell but noted there were other loaded weapons in the home. Nassau County court records show only two minor issues with Rowell, the most recent a county ordinance violation of dogs at large in 2015 and the other a charge of sale or delivery of cannabis in 2013 that wasn’t prosecuted due to a pretrial intervention agreement.
Property records show Rowell and his wife purchased the 27148 W. 12th Ave. home in 2023. His wife’s Facebook states they married in 2017 and had a daughter in 2020. Her last post was in July 2024. Christopher Rowell’s Facebook profile image is of a skeletal figure flipping a middle finger on terrorism as well as an image of a Confederate flag. It states he went to Yulee High School and his last post was in February 2024.
Nassau County family murder-suicide reminiscent to William Broyles case
For some in Nassau County, the deaths bring to mind another horrific case in 2021 where a Jacksonville church music director killed his wife, son and daughter in their Callahan home.
Following several competency hearings and mental health evaluations since William Broyles, 60, called the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office and told them what he had done, he was allowed to plead guilty on May 13 and was sentenced to life in prison.
On Dec. 1, 2021, Broyles shot his wife Candace, 57, son Aaron, 28, and daughter Cara, 27, and was lying on his back on the driveway of their Deer Run Road home to await for deputies.
He told investigators he shot his wife in the living room, then daughter in her bedroom and son in his bedroom. He even got another gun to shoot the son again. He said he shot them all multiple times so they wouldn’t suffer, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
There were no prior calls for service to the home that Leeper was aware of at the time, nor were there any court filings involving the family in Nassau County.
Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church listed Broyles as its director of Music Ministries and church musician for 23 years in Jacksonville. The church website described him as happily married for 30 years. He also was listed as director of engineering at Sunoptic Technologies also in Jacksonville.
This story has been updated with the victim identifications.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Nassau sheriff somberly reports family’s murder-suicide with a 5-year-old survivor
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
