“To know that she gave and gave and gave and it wasn’t enough, hurts me.” said Patrice Bowden, Taterea McGuire’s mother.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Patrice Bowden remembers the moment she learned what true love was.
“She is like a breath of fresh air. She’s my firstborn,” said Bowden as she described her oldest daughter, Taterea McGuire. “To have her and love her was like, oh my goodness.”
She is grateful that McGuire, a mother of four, got to experience that true love too.
“They were her everything,” said Bowden. “She would never leave her children, never ever, ever.”
When she couldn’t reach McGuire on the night of Dec. 2 and the day after, Bowden became worried. “I immediately knew something wasn’t right. I talked to her every single morning,” said Bowden.
She reported her daughter missing and requested a welfare check.
According to documents obtained by WFAA, Bowden and McGuire’s children told Arlington Police that McGuire and her boyfriend, LeDarren Tilley, had been fighting. McGuire’s children also told police that Tilley carries a gun.
An arrest warrant stated Tilley, who is not the children’s father, told police he had not seen McGuire since dropping her off at home Monday night and returning the next day to take the kids to school. “I was devastated because we didn’t know where she was,” said Bowden.
On Dec. 5, that devastation only got worse after a landscaping employee found McGuire’s body in a wooded area off Greenbelt Road owned by the City of Fort Worth Water Department. The arrest warrant showed she was shot multiple times and was partially clothed. Law Enforcement also placed Tilley’s vehicle in that same location the night she went missing. Tilley is charged with murder.
“She gave him her everything and this is what you do to her,” said Bowden. “To know that she gave and gave and gave and it wasn’t enough hurts me.”
Bowden said her daughter planned to end the relationship with Tilley. She shared a photo of McGuire and her children joining a church the day before she was killed.
“To know that she’s no longer here with them saddens me because now I’m it,” said Bowden. “Those babies need me. And I have to do everything in my power to keep them protected, and I will.”
McGuire’s family has a GoFundMe. To support, click here.
