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Newport News pastor beaten to death in Florida

Posted at 1:49 PM, May 01, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-01 19:42:36-04

Newport News, Va. - Newport News pastor John Henry Bowser, 76, is dead after Jacksonville authorities say 24-year-old Terrence Rashad Wright bludgeoned him to death.

Bowser, who founded Glorious Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Newport News in 1959, also had a branch of the church in Jacksonville where he would regularly visit.

Police said Wright drove Bowser's car to a Jacksonville police substation late Tuesday morning, and told officers that he killed someone by beating them in the head with a hammer.  Authorities discovered Bowser's lifeless body in the kitchen of his Jacksonville home with severe head trauma.

Bowser's daughter told NewsChannel 3 her father was helping Wright get on his feet by paying him for odd jobs around the house.  Melisa Bowser said church members there had seen Wright and Bowser together earlier in the week.

The CBS affiliate in Jacksonville reports that police say Wright killed the Apostle over money so he could buy drugs. WTEV also reports that Wright had drug charges in 2009 and a petty theft charge in 2012, and jail records show Wright only got of jail a few weeks ago.