A North Carolina man is accused of murdering a nurse he met on a dating app and then FaceTiming his friends hours after her death to show them her body, according to police.
Christopher Whitley, 31, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the strangling death of his girlfriend, 34-year-old Auriel Lowe, police say.
According to The News & Observer, police found Lowe’s dead body inside her apartment in Durham, North Carolina, on Sept. 10.
Authorities were dispatched to Lowe’s apartment after a series of 911 calls from Whitley’s friends, who said Whitley had confessed to Lowe’s murder and recorded images of her body to prove it.
“This man just â this man murdered his girlfriend. My friend just called me. He murdered his girlfriend and then switched to FaceTime ⊠and she’s laying on the floor,” one friend reportedly told a dispatcher.
Whitley’s friend made that 911 call at 10:22 a.m. on the day of the murder, according to police.
The caller said she believed Whitley was at Lowe’s house and gave dispatchers his name and number. Police used that information to contact Whitley’s phone service provider, AT&T, which tracked Whitley’s phone to Lowe’s apartment.
Police were dispatched to Lowe’s address around 12:30 p.m.
According to WNCN, Whitley barricaded himself inside the apartment with a gun, triggering a standoff with officers. He eventually surrendered himself to the police after speaking with family members on the phone, who persuaded him to turn himself in.
Upon entering the apartment, authorities found Lowe’s body. Paramedics officially declared her dead at 2:30 p.m.
Investigators say that several hours elapsed between the time of the murder and the time first responders found Lowe’s body. Lowe’s death certificate said she was strangled around 5:30 a.m. Whitley started calling his friends later that morning.
One of the callers told dispatchers she feared Whitley would retaliate for the police call, telling an operator, “I’m the only one that fâing knows. Heâs gonna know itâs me.”
However, another one of Whitley’s friends also called authorities to tell them that Whitley “committed a crime against his girlfriend.”
Family members said Lowe had been quietly dating Whitley for about three months after meeting him on a dating app.
Lowe’s stepmother said her daughter was “being private” about her relationship, leading the family to believe more was happening than Lowe would admit.
“I think he may have been overpowering her, based on what I’ve seen ⊠So she may have been afraid to speak up if he was there,” Teresa Lowe told the Observer.
After Lowe’s death, other women took to social media to recount their abusive relationships with Whitley after meeting him on dating apps, according to the Observer.
In 2019, Whitley was convicted of assault causing bodily injury to a family member. He was given a suspended sentence of a year in prison and 15 months’ probation for the crime.
“She just picked the wrong guy, unfortunately, and she didn’t know how to vet him,” Lowe’s stepmother added. “What I’m upset about is those dating apps; they need to do more background checks.”
Lowe’s mother told WNCN that her daughter “wanted to be a mom,” and “find a good guy and settle down and have kids.”
“And all that was taken away from her, all that promise. Weâre robbed of that part of her,” Lowe said.
âAll the words youâve heard a thousand times, theyâre so true,â Paul Lowe, Aurielâs father, added. âYouâre just numb. You donât know what to feel for a while. Itâs a unique kind of pain losing a child.â
Family members started a GoFundMe to raise donations for Lowe’s burial expenses. They wrote that Lowe had just started working her “dream job” when she was killed.
“Auriel was a nurse whose calling was to save lives. She had just begun her dream job in nurse anesthesiology at Duke University Hospital â a path she worked tirelessly to achieve,” the GoFundMe page reads. “She was kind, brilliant, full of promise, and deeply loved by her family, friends, and colleagues. If she wasnât at work, she was at church or finding ways to care for others.”
Whitley remains in jail without bail.
