Content warning: This article mentions instances of violence leading to death.
Donald Pennington from West Virginia has been accused of murdering a woman who was allegedly his ex-girlfriend and dumping her remains in a wooded area after allegedly promising her a new job in a new city. He was arrested and booked into jail on May 13, 2026.
Court records reviewed by local media indicate that investigators used Facebook messages, surveillance footage, and witness statements to conclude that Pennington killed Whitaker and dumped her body in a wooded area near Bastian, Virginia, about 18 miles from Bluefield, West Virginia.
Donald Pennington, 59, is currently being held at the Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County, West Virginia, according to records from the West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority. He has been charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human body in connection with the death of Angel Rose Whitaker.
According to WVNS News, police received a criminal complaint on May 4, 2026, from a woman who claimed that her sister, Angel Rose Whitaker, was missing from Bristol, Virginia, a small city near the Tennessee border.
The woman further said that she had not heard from or seen Whitaker since April 14, 2026. She told the authorities that Whitaker had moved to the Bluefield area, West Virginia, in January 2026 to live with a man who was identified as Donald Pennington.
The woman also told the police that Angel Rose Whitaker and Donald Pennington knew each other from Whitaker’s time working at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Bristol. While the two people were on good terms, their relationship changed when Pennington offered Whitaker a position in Bluefield as an assistant manager. She accepted the job opportunity and shifted to Bluefield.
Several media reports claim that the two eventually began a romantic relationship, which went downhill by April. On May 12, an ex-girlfriend of Pennington met with investigators and reportedly told police, “You’re not going to find her, he murdered her.”
She also said Pennington had contacted her and shared details about the ongoing arguments with Whitaker, and that Pennington told her that on April 17, the two got into a heated argument.
According to Pennington, Whitaker threatened him on impulse after which he “snapped,” grabbed her by the throat, and strangled her until she died. Later, Pennington allegedly showed her a photo of Whitaker taken from her phone.
View this post on Instagram
According to a Facebook clip, Angel Rose Whitaker had allegedly been a victim of domestic abuse and was facing differences with her boyfriend, Pennington. Meanwhile, a day before she went missing on April 16, she reportedly posted a series of sad posts that allegedly showed she felt distressed about her life.
Whitaker had three children. Her eldest son created a GoFundMe page to help cover burial costs. “My siblings and I are all very young and we simply cannot afford the funeral expenses on our own,” the fundraiser stated. He mourned her tragic death and said, “Our mother was murdered in West Virginia by someone we thought we could trust.”
At the time of writing, Donald Pennington’s next court date has not yet been made public.
