A North Carolina-based nurse, Auriel Lowe, 34, was tragically murdered by a man she met on a dating app, as per the chilling details revealed through a series of 911 calls. The alleged perpetrator, Christopher Whitley, 31, confessed to the crime to a friend via FaceTime, showing the lifeless body of Lowe in her Durham apartment on September 10.
The friend, who received the horrifying FaceTime call from Whitley, immediately contacted the police. The friend reported that Whitley had killed his girlfriend and then switched to FaceTime, showing her body lying on the floor. The friend was the only one privy to this information at the time.
Lowe had recently begun her dream job as a nurse anesthetist at Duke University Hospital, a position she had worked hard to secure. Her family and friends expressed their grief over her tragic death in a GoFundMe description, describing the circumstances as “devastating and unfathomable.”
Teresa Lowe, Lowe’s stepmother, shared details of her stepdaughter’s journey. She revealed that Lowe had been in the ICU during her residency for two and a half years and had just been promoted to her career path in the operating room to move towards nurse anesthesiology. She also disclosed that Lowe had met Whitley on a dating app and had been seeing him privately for a few months.
In the wake of Lowe’s death, several women have come forward on social media, accusing Whitley of abuse after meeting him on dating apps. Whitley had a previous conviction in Texas for assault causing bodily injury to a family member in 2019, for which he received a suspended sentence of a year in jail and 15 months of probation.
Teresa Lowe expressed her frustration with dating apps, stating that her stepdaughter had unfortunately chosen the wrong man and didn’t know how to vet him. She criticized dating apps for their lack of thorough background checks.
Following the murder, Whitley locked himself in Lowe’s apartment and began reaching out to people, according to police. One individual who received messages from him alerted authorities, stating that Whitley confessed to committing a crime against his girlfriend. The friend initially thought it was a joke until Whitley sent pictures of the victim.
Police reports indicate that five hours passed between Lowe’s death and Whitley’s confessions to his friends. Lowe’s autopsy showed she was strangled around 5:30 a.m. and was declared dead by paramedics around 2:30 p.m. after police were called. Whitley’s family reportedly persuaded him to surrender after he barricaded himself inside Lowe’s apartment. He was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and is currently held without bail at the Durham County Detention Facility.