Amber Compton.Photo: HONAKER FUNERAL HOME
A Virginia corrections employee is accused of killing his girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant with his child.
Dustin Barret Owens, 38, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his 35-year-old girlfriend Amber Dawn Compton.
Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Compton dead in her Vansant home just before 10 p.m. on Oct. 22 after they received a call about “a missing female.”
She had been shot multiple times.
“We are still trying to establish a timeline of her movements and what she had done in the past few days prior to the discovery of her body,” Buchanan County Chief Deputy Sheriff Eric Breeding tells PEOPLE. “The last time she was seen alive was Thursday evening.”
Owens was tracked down at his home and taken into custody in the early morning hours of Oct. 23.
Dustin Barret Owens.Southwest Virginia Regional Jail
“During the course of death investigation, statements and evidence was received that led investigators to apply to the magistrate and receive a warrant for 1st degree murder on Dustin Barret Owens,” a sheriff’s press release reads.
Breeding says Owens and Compton both worked at the Keen Mountain Correctional Facility in Oakwood, Va. According to her obituary, Compton, a mother of three, received her associates degree in nursing at Southwest Virginia Community College before working as a registered nurse with the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Breeding says investigators believe “the suspect was the father but we are going to confirm that with DNA testing.”
Breeding says investigators do believe they know the motive behind the slaying, but did not elaborate due to the ongoing investigation.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
“We feel like we do have a motive that would be fairly easily proven,” he says.
Compton’s mother Rachel described her daughter as a “wonderful, wonderful mother,“News Channel 11reports. “A wonderful daughter. Everything that she did always [was] done [for] the benefit of her children.”
He was arraigned Monday but has yet to enter a plea. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12.
It is unclear if he has retained an attorney.
source: people.com
