Woman killed in Tamarac triple murder told police about suspicious backpack, calls reveal
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Amber Alert unravels triple murder in Tamarac
Nathan Alan Gingles is accused of abducting his 4-year-daughter and killing her mother, grandfather and a neighbor in Tamarac.
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Six weeks before she was shot to death, a fearful Mary Gingles called the Broward Sheriff’s Office to report how her estranged husband had left a suspicious backpack in her garage that she would later discover contained duct tape, plastic restraints and ”items that he would need to murder me.”
While the couple’s 4-year-old daughter Seraphine can be heard in the background calling “Mommy,” Mary nervously told the BSO operator, “I don’t know what to do. I’m at a loss. Obviously the current court order is not doing anything,” according to the recording of the Dec. 29 call obtained by the Herald.
Mary, 34, who obtained a restraining order against her husband, Nathan Gingles, 43, the next day, was shot to death on Feb. 16 along with her father and a neighbor in a quiet Tamarac neighborhood. Nathan, an Army vet, has been charged in the murders. BSO says its divers fished out of a nearby lake the semiautomatic handgun and silencer he allegedly used in the murders. He has pleaded not guilty.
The recordings of two calls obtained by the Herald reveal Mary’s fearful state but show her determination to document her husband’s behavior.
During the approximately two-minute call on Dec. 29, Mary told the BSO operator she checked her home security camera and saw Nathan had left the house with “less than he came in.”
Mary’s father reviewed the camera footage and told her Nathan had left something behind in the house. Mary said she later found the backpack in the garage when her landlord came to fix a leak.
Mary, in the unredacted BSO report obtained by the Herald, described the backpack’s contents as “very weird” and concerning. She provided BSO with photos of the items, which she said included restraints, garbage bags, gloves, Saran Wrap, hand sanitizer and rags. She also documented the backpack’s contents in a Feb. 6 domestic violence court filing.
“Nathan has entered my home, left a backpack full of items that he would need to murder me, a note with, ‘Needle — Air Embolism, Psych Med OD, Waterboarding’ written on it, staged a ladder outside my house, and left windows in my house ajar. I think a reasonable person would consider those ‘steps to murder’ me,” Mary wrote in the divorce filing, court records show.
READ MORE: 10 days before she was murdered, Mary Gingles detailed how dangerous her husband was
Ten days later, Nathan stormed into the Plum Bay community in the predawn hours and shot Mary, her father David Ponzer, 64, and neighbor Andrew Ferrin, 36, whose home she sought refuge in after Nathan stalked and Tasered her, deputies say.
Car tracker incident
In her Jan. 10 call to BSO, which lasted seven minutes, Mary mentioned two incidents — one on Oct. 29 and the December backpack issue. She wanted to know whether BSO was going to pursue a breaking and entering charge against Nathan, who had a restraining order preventing him from going within 500 feet of Mary’s home, court records show.
In October, Mary discovered a tracker on her car; she later found a receipt showing that Nathan had purchased an item from the tracker’s company, according to court documents. Mary’s divorce attorney had recommended she check her car for a tracking device, according to an unredacted BSO incident report obtained by the Herald.
Mary told the operator she thought the tracker would be an “easy case.” But a criminal probe, Mary detailed, didn’t come until December, when she spoke at length with BSO Sgt. Brittany King.
King is one of eight BSO deputies suspended by Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony for their role in the overall investigation, whether on the day of the murders or during previous calls to the house. She was the investigator assigned to several of Mary’s calls, according to BSO incident reports the Herald obtained.
Mary also told the operator that her attorney wanted her to check on her history of calls she made to BSO. From February 2024 to January 2025, Mary called the sheriff’s office 14 times about her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior, a BSO call log reviewed by the Herald shows.
She asked the BSO operator if any officers could testify in court after a Broward judge granted her a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Nathan on Dec. 30. She was seeking a permanent restraining order.
When the operator asked her questions about having an officer testify, Mary was confused over the operator’s description of the court processes: “I’m so sorry, I’m not familiar with this at all.”
She also repeatedly apologized to the operator, being solicitous as she recounted the incidents.
“I have had kinda a lot of issues lately,” she said, her nerves palpable.
But, she noted, “I report every time I find something.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Linda Robertson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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