A West Virginia man is behind bars, accused killing a woman who moved from Virginia after he offered her a job.
Angela Rose Whitaker’s body was found a wooded area near Bastian, Virginia, last week, WCYB reports.
Donald Pennington has been charged with her murder. Court documents say Whitaker’s sister told investigators she moved to Bluefield, West Virginia — where Pennington lived — after he offered her a job as assistant manager at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store.
The two had met, investigators said, when Pennington worked at an O’Reilly store in Bristol, Virginia, where Whitaker lived at the time.
Court documents reveal Facebook messages, surveillance video and witness statements linking Pennington to the woman’s death and the disposal of her body.
According to WVNS, the sister said that Whitaker hadn’t been heard from since April 14 and that she had moved to Bluefield in January. The sister said she and Pennington met in 2018 and began a romantic relationship, but the Facebook messages appeared to show their relationship deteriorating after the move.
The sister said that Whitaker moved to a hotel in Princeton to get away from Pennington, and the hotel confirmed she had been there from April 9 through April 13.
Pennington reportedly told detectives he last saw Whitaker on April 17, when she reported showed up for work drunk. He said he took her back to their home in Bluefield but that she was gone when he returned.
A month later, the documents say, an ex-girlfriend of Pennington reportedly met with investigators and told them that he had killed Whitaker. She said he told her the pair were constantly arguing and that on April 17, he had left work to break up an argument between her and one of his family members.
He reportedly told her that Whitaker threatened to kill him and he “snapped,” picking her up by the throat and choking her to death. He reportedly showed the ex-girlfriend a picture of Whitaker taken with the victim’s phone.
Then Pennington soaked Whitaker’s phones and bleach and destroyed the sim cards. The ex-girlfriend said she met with Pennington at. Lowe’s, where he bought bags of concrete. The two drove to Bastian, and Pennington allegedly buried Whitaker’s body.
The ex-girlfriend took investigators to the Bastian location, but cadaver dogs didn’t find the body.
Later, the ex-girlfriend provided further information from the Life360 app. The investigators confirmed Pennington’s Lowe’s purchases and obtained search warrants for his home and car.
Meanwhile, Virginia investigators found spilled concrete and other evidence, including rocks placed to look like a tombstone. Nearby, they found Whitaker’s body.
Pennington has been charged with second degree murder and concealment of a dead body. He’s being held at Southern Regional Jail on a $500,000 bond, WCYB said.
Featured image: Donald Pennington/Southern Regional Jail
