Background: The Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County, West Virginia (Google Maps). Inset top: Donald Pennington (West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority). Inset bottom: Angel Whitaker (GoFundMe).
A man in West Virginia is accused of killing a woman and tossing her remains in the woods after promising her a new job in a new city.
Donald Pennington, 59, is in the Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County, West Virginia, records from the West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority show. He has been charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a body in connection with the death of Angel Whitaker, Bristol, Virginia, NBC and The CW affiliate WCYB reported.
As a fundraiser set up by Whitaker”s eldest son put it, “our mother was murdered in West Virginia by someone we thought we could trust.”
Whitaker was reported missing about a month ago in Bristol, a small city in the southern part of the state on the border with Tennessee. She had reportedly moved about 100 miles north to Bluefield, West Virginia, where Pennington resided.
The two are said to have known each other from when Whitaker worked at the O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Bristol. According to her sister — who made the report that she was missing — Pennington offered Whitaker a job in Bluefield as an assistant manager, and that is why she made the move.
In court records obtained by the regional outlet, investigators maintain that Facebook messages, surveillance footage, and witness statements show Pennington killed Whitaker and then dumped her body in a wooded area near Bastian, Virginia, about 18 miles from Bluefield.
Authorities are conducting an autopsy on Whitaker’s body. Law&Crime has reached out to the Bluefield Police Department and authorities in Virginia for more information.
Whitaker and Pennington were not just work acquaintances but also a romantic couple, per reporting from area CBS and Fox affiliate WVNS. However, by April, their relationship is said to have deteriorated.
On May 12, an ex-girlfriend of Pennington reportedly met with police investigating Whitaker’s disappearance and told them, “you’re not going to find her, he murdered her.” She also claimed her ex had called her to say he and Whitaker were constantly arguing.
Pennington allegedly admitted to the ex-girlfriend that on April 17, Whitaker threatened him and he “snapped,” picking Whitaker up by her throat and choking her until she suffocated. He reportedly showed the ex a picture of Whitaker from the victim’s phone.
The GoFundMe set up by Whitaker’s son suggests her family did not know about her move to West Virginia. He said she “had been missing for a month” until they got the “heartbreaking news” of her death. Whitaker was also a mother to a 17-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.
“My siblings and I are all very young and we simply cannot afford the funeral expenses on our own,” the fundraiser states.
Pennington was booked into jail on May 13. It is unclear when he is due in court.
