Mom of three, Angel Whitaker, allegedly murdered by man who lured her to West Virginia with job offer

A tragic incident unfolded in Virginia when a mother of three, Angel Whitaker, was allegedly lured to her death by a man she was romantically involved with. The man, Donald Pennington, reportedly enticed Whitaker with a job offer that convinced her to uproot her life and move over 100 miles to West Virginia.

Whitaker, 37, left her Bristol, Va., home in January 2026 for a new job in Bluefield, W.Va., after Pennington, 59, offered her an assistant manager position at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Bluefield. The two had met at a Bristol auto shop in 2018 and started a relationship, leading Whitaker to move in with Pennington after relocating to West Virginia.

However, by April, Whitaker’s family had lost contact with her, prompting her sister Angela to report her missing on May 4. Investigations revealed that the relationship between Whitaker and Pennington had become strained after she moved in with him. In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Whitaker had even moved into a hotel in Princeton to distance herself from the situation.

Whitaker was last seen on April 17, 2026, when she showed up to work intoxicated. Pennington claimed he drove her home, but when he returned later that day, Whitaker was gone. More than a week after she went missing, Pennington’s ex-girlfriend met with investigators and implicated him in Whitaker’s murder, stating that he had choked her to death during an argument.

The ex-girlfriend detailed how Pennington disposed of Whitaker’s phones and buried her body in Bastian, Va. Although cadaver dogs were deployed to search for Whitaker’s remains, they were not found. Pennington was arrested on May 13 and is currently held at West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority, pleading not guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of a body.

Whitaker leaves behind three children, for whom a GoFundMe page has been set up by her family to help with funeral expenses. This tragic story serves as a reminder of the dangers that can arise from toxic relationships and the importance of staying vigilant in unfamiliar situations.