Vincent, Bowling met eight years ago

The 1998 death of a Nash County woman may have sparked the relationship authorities allege ended with the murder of Julie Bowling.

Mark Bowling, then 27, directed Peggy Joyner Parker's funeral on Oct. 9, 1998, at Bowling Funeral Home in Rocky Mount, according to Parker's death certificate.

Parker was the stepmother of then-19-year-old Rose Delores Vincent (who was Rose Delores Parker before her marriage), who, along with Mark Bowling, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the Dec. 8 shooting death of Julie Bowling, 45.

Deputies initially reported Vincent's middle name as Deloris, but her birth certificate and marriage license show it to be Delores.

Bowling and Vincent had a short romantic relationship after the funeral, according to sources close to Vincent who asked not to be named.

"He was really friendly, so he was speaking to everybody (at Parker's funeral)," Peggy Parker's nephew, Robert Poland, said of Mark Bowling. "It didn't look to me like he was pinpointing her."

The funeral was held at the Bowling Funeral Home chapel, with about 100 people attending, said Poland, who lives in Rocky Mount. The Rev. Ruben Batchelor – who also gave the eulogy for Julie Bowling last week – officiated the funeral, according to Parker's Telegram obituary.

Less than a year after the funeral, Bowling married Julie Rowland.

And in August 2000, Vincent married Rodney Scott Vincent, who declined to comment for this story.

In 2005, about five years after the Vincent marriage, Mark Bowling and Rose Vincent reunited romantically, Nash County Sheriff Dick Jenkins has said.

The relationship, authorities charge, may have led to the 911 call at 7:30 a.m. Dec. 8 reporting the death of Julie Bowling, a radiation therapist at Nash Day Hospital's cancer treatment center.

"My friend, Julie Bowling, she didn't show up for work, and she's in the garage dead," the horror-stricken coworker who found Bowling's body at her River Glenn home told the 911 operator. "She's dead."

Investigators, seeing no sign of robbery or entry into the house, quickly said they believed the shooting was not a random killing.

When the call came to Mark Bowling's cell phone to notify him of his wife's death, he was snorkeling in the waters of Crystal River, Fla.

At about 5 p.m. Dec. 9, Rose Vincent and Mark Bowling, who had returned from Florida, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

According to search warrants from the Nash County Sheriff's Office, 27-year-old Rose Vincent confessed to the shooting the day after it happened.

Vincent's childhood, by several accounts, was challenging.

When she was 9, her 17-year-old stepbrother, Richard Wayne Joyner, waited outside for 57-year-old store owner Harvey Skinner to return home from work on Dec. 1, 1988, then shot him multiple times with a 12-gauge shotgun, according to Telegram archives.

Joyner, who said he killed Skinner while robbing him for rent money, confessed to the shooting the day after it happened.

A high school dropout, Joyner was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but his sentence was later reduced to life in prison.

The rest of Vincent's childhood was also disturbing, said Debbie Poland, Vincent's stepaunt who lives in Liberty.

Peggy Joyner Parker married Vincent's father, John Parker, in 1982, when Vincent – whose biological mother was out of the picture – was almost 3 years old.

John Parker was a controlling man filled with jealousy, Poland said. Peggy Parker wasn't allowed to visit her family or even call her mother, she said. John Parker had an abusive attitude, she said. Evenutally, all five of his stepsons moved out of the house.

At John Parker's current residence, a single-wide trailer down a long dirt path that weaves past a cotton field in rural Nash County, a sign at the driveway entrance states: "Trespassers will receive free lead if caught in the act."

A rooster prowls the yard, which is littered with old Power Wheels and other miscellaneous junk, while a tire rests against the light pole. A security camera mounted above the trailer door records anyone who may try to enter. Parker could not be reached for comment.