A mother of three was reportedly enticed to her demise by a man who persuaded her to relocate her life by offering her a job over 100 miles away from her residence.
Angel Whitaker, aged 37, departed from her home in Bristol, Virginia, in January of this year for a new job in Bluefield, West Virginia, approximately 100 miles distant, after her former colleague Donald Pennington, aged 59, allegedly proposed an assistant manager position at an auto parts company. Angel had met Pennington previously at an automotive shop in Bristol in 2018 and initiated a relationship with him, eventually moving in with him upon relocating to West Virginia.
However, Angel’s family lost contact with her in April of this year, leading her sister Angela to report her as missing on May 4. Investigators claimed that the relationship between Angel and Pennington had deteriorated after she moved in with him.
Angela informed the police that her sister had taken up residence in a hotel in Princeton a few weeks before disappearing, explaining that she did so to create distance between herself and Pennington due to the tensions they were experiencing. Angel was last spotted on April 17 after purportedly arriving at work in an inebriated state. Pennington allegedly stated to the police that he had driven her home but found her missing upon his return from work later that same day.
More than a week after Angel was reported missing, Pennington’s ex-partner contacted the authorities and asserted, “You’re not going to find her, he murdered her.” She further disclosed to the police that the two had been engaged in constant arguments in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. Investigators alleged that Pennington had informed his ex that he had left work on April 17 to intervene in an argument between Angel and a family member. He later claimed that Angel had threatened to kill him, as per reports from WVNSTV.
Subsequently, Pennington purportedly met his ex at a shopping complex that day and alleged that Angel had threatened him, prompting him to lose control. His ex-partner claimed that Pennington grabbed Angel by the throat and strangled her until she ceased breathing, displaying to the ex a photo of Angel’s lifeless body taken with her own phone.
Investigators contended that Pennington disposed of Angel’s phones by submerging them in bleach and then destroying their SIM cards. The ex-girlfriend informed the police that she subsequently met Pennington at a Lowe’s in Bluefield, where he purchased multiple bags of concrete before driving approximately 18 miles to Bastian, where he purportedly buried Angel.
She guided investigators to the location, where Virginia State Police cadaver dogs were deployed for a search but failed to discover Angel’s remains. The ex also handed over her phone to investigators, confessing that she had erased messages from Pennington regarding the alleged murder.
Pennington was apprehended on May 13 and is presently detained at West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and concealing a body. Angel is survived by her children Braiden, 18, Daizy, 17, and Christopher, 12.
Braiden has initiated a GoFundMe campaign to assist the family in covering the expenses for his mother’s funeral. In a poignant post, he expressed, “Our mother, Angel Whitaker, had been missing for a month until we recently received heartbreaking news about her case… We are devastated and struggling to process this loss. My siblings and I are all very young, and we simply cannot afford the funeral expenses on our own. We are setting up this GoFundMe to help with funeral arrangements and to give our mother the proper goodbye she deserves, surrounded by her loved ones.”