The family of a pregnant woman and her preborn child who were murdered is demanding justice, which they say isn’t being completely served.
Amber Compton was seven months pregnant, according to police, when she was shot to death last year, allegedly by her boyfriend Dustin Owens. Owens was a corrections officer at Keen Mountain Correctional Facility, where Compton was a nurse. The family protested outside of a Buchanan County Courthouse before a bond hearing for Owens, saying Compton’s preborn baby was murdered, too, but is not being acknowledged.
“I just want everybody to remember that there’s two bodies in that casket and not one,” Rachel Compton, Amber Compton’s mother, said, according to WCYB. “Currently, he is charged with first-degree murder, my daughter was 8-months pregnant when she was killed. There’s two bodies in that casket, and not one. I do not want my granddaughter to be forgotten, she was part of this tragedy, and I want her to be remembered here. We are still waiting for the charges to be increased from first-degree to aggravated murder, that was mentioned up there.”
Compton’s cousin, Donna Lester, added that they hope the publicity makes a difference. “We don’t want to forget her, she is the person that we are here for, representing,” she said. “She was a good girl, she was a nurse, she worked hard for her family.”
In the hearing, bond was denied, which Buchanan County Commonwealth Attorney Gerald Arrington said was the right decision. Arrington, whose term will be up later this year, said the next administration could choose to charge Owens with aggravated murder due to the report from the medical examiner’s office.
Compton was shot 10 times at close range; of those, five of them struck the preborn baby.
“My office and I have put a lot of emotional energy and effort into seeking justice for Ms. Compton, and while we wish we could see it through to its end, we take pride in what we have accomplished thus far,” Arrington said. “We hope and pray that this hearing brought comfort to the Compton family and that God continues to comfort and heal them moving forward.”
