A man with an alleged history of domestic abuse has been arrested and is now facing three murder charges after police say he murdered his ex-wife, her father, and another man while abducting his four-year-old daughter on Sunday morning.
Nathan Gingles, 43, was picked up after a statewide Amber Alert in Florida on Sunday led to his discovery and arrest, according to a statement from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. This after police responding to a shots fired call had no idea at first there was a missing child. The girl was ultimately recovered unharmed.
Now, Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ reports he is facing three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm, as well as violation of an injunction to not have contact with his child or her mother, and interfering with custody of a minor, per the Broward Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched just after 6 a.m. on Sunday in Tamarac, a part of the Miami metropolitan area, after reports of a shooting, per the news outlet. Upon arrival, they found David Ponzer, 64, shot on the back patio of a house.
It was while investigating this shooting that deputy’s discovered that Ponzer’s granddaughter had been allegedly taken from the home by Gingles. According to WTVJ, home surveillance video from a neighbor spotted Gingles walking with his daughter at 6:13 a.m., just minutes after the shooting was reported to police.
As deputies divided their forces, some went on the trail of Gingles, who they found an hour after the Amber Alert when his vehicle was spotted outside a Walmart in North Lauderdale, per the outlet. The girl was found safe and Gingles was taken into custody.
Back at the murder scene, police were searching for the girl’s mother, Mary Gingles, 34. She was ultimately found shot to death inside the home across the street from where her father’s body was discovered. Also dead from gunshot wounds inside was the home’s resident, Andrew Ferrin, 36.
How Ferrin came to be involved in the shooting, and how Gingles’ body came to be in his house, was eventually uncovered as a mother’s desperate attempt to find help after she’d been shot.
Mary had initially been part of the Amber Alert issued, according to the Miami Herald, with police suspecting that perhaps Gingles had abducted both his daughter and his ex-wife. When he and his daughter were picked up, though, there was no sign of Mary.
Speaking to local ABC affiliate WPLG, a neighbor noted footprints in the ground, saying that they belonged to Mary as she ran door to door in the neighborhood seeking help before she and Ferrin were shot and killed.
Court records reviewed by the station detail three different cases filed in family court last year involving the Gingles. Mary filed a domestic violence case on February 9, 2024, with a second domestic violence case filed on December 20, 2024, including her petition for protection, which was granted on January 22, 2025.
Additionally, the news station found a dissolution of marriage case filed February 20, 2024, that mentioned both spouses as receiving military benefits. The license plate that was part of the Amber Alert, and helped lead to the arrest of Gingles, had a line at the bottom reading, “U.S. Army Honorably Discharged,” per WPLG.
The divorce filing claims that both Mary and her daughter had been physically abused by Gingles, notes WTVJ. One allegation listed in the petition claims their daughter witnessed Gingles drag her mother upstairs in a chokehold. He also purportedly “sang songs about killing his wife,” per the document.
Attorneys for the estranged couple had been scheduled to meet on March 19 for a hearing. Now, Gringles is in jail without bond on all charges, save the custody interference charge, which has bail set at $2,500, according to our team.
Mary’s divorce attorney, who had also represented her in those aforementioned domestic violence cases, called her death a “senseless tragedy.”
A friend of Mary’s named Lupita told WTVJ, “It shouldn’t get to this point. The system needs to be fixed. That’s where my frustration is coming in, because loved ones… look at all the lives that have been affected because of one person’s action.”
