A North Carolina nurse, who was seeking a life partner to start a family with, was tragically killed by a man she met on a dating app. The chilling details of the crime were revealed through a series of 911 calls, where the alleged murderer, Christopher Whitley, 31, confessed to a friend via FaceTime, showing the lifeless body of Auriel Lowe, 34, in her Durham apartment on September 10.
A friend of Whitley’s contacted the police, recounting the horrifying FaceTime call. “He murdered his girlfriend and then switched to FaceTime … and she’s laying on the floor,” the friend reported. “I’m the only one that knows.”
Lowe had recently started her dream job as a nurse anesthetist at Duke University Hospital, a career she had worked tirelessly to achieve. Her family and friends, in a GoFundMe description, expressed their grief over her tragic death, describing the circumstances as “devastating and unfathomable.”
Lowe’s stepmother, Teresa Lowe, shared details of her stepdaughter’s journey. “She was in ICU during her residency for two and a half years, and she had just literally gotten promoted into her career path in the operating room to move towards her nurse anesthesiology,” she said. She also revealed that Lowe had met Whitley on a dating app and had been seeing him privately for a few months.
In the aftermath of Lowe’s death, multiple 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, “She just picked the wrong guy, unfortunately, and she didn’t know how to vet him. What I’m upset about is those dating apps; they need to do more 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.