Behind Closed Doors: The murder of Lauren Charles | FOX 5 DC

[Music] thank you it's a very calculated thing to come down the stairs while someone's sleeping and go in their room and kill them tell me exactly what happened from church and I think my wife is Big it was personal and repeated blows appeared one of the primary objects that he attacked her with was a statute of Buddha I can only imagine what was going through ahead because she was alive he went through Great Lengths to make sure that there was no blood are you sure she's beyond help sir the 911 call was very calm he set up his Alibi right away he's a psychopathic narcissist to me right to take her life I think that this haunts you until your last miserable day that was uh what we called an honor [Applause] honestly I wish that America had had the death penalty Mr so much love is not just an emotion right it's a choice that you make every single day to care for a person there for them and be in this with them if you're not breathing Lauren Charles a daughter stepmother and a friend who was found brutally murdered inside of her North Kensington home on a Sunday morning in March of 2021 the bedroom she was found in completely destroyed was it a robbery or a crime of passion there's a lot of hate in that crime scene a lot of anger a lot of hate this was a Savage killing the the forensics and the crime scene seem to suggest she may have actually even been asleep when the beating began everything in the house is looks completely normal the bedroom is completely just destroyed the dresser drawers were pulled from the dresser and just completely dumped upside down and stacked on top of each other the bed was actually lifted and put on its side up against the wall with blood you know smeared on the bottom of the bed blood was everywhere it was on the back of the door it was all along the walls you can see you know bloody handprints all over the carpet in the bathroom Lauren Charles died at the hands of who those closest to her call a monster it appeared one of the primary objects that he attacked her with was a statute of Buddha she was beaten about the head trauma broken nose eye sockets broken ribs Savage beating and then ultimately she was suffocated by him by taking a pillowcase and shoving it down her throat this was a brutal brutal killing that brutal killing ending the bright life of a 40 year old woman who loved ones say brought people together she never seemed to fear anything she was so good at loving everyone she encountered she was the smartest person I've ever known bravest person I've ever known she was amazing bubbly go-getter she knew exactly what she wanted and she the love that she had for people Lauren grew up in New Orleans Lauren and I met in high school The Story Goes that she didn't particularly care for me at the time I had a lot of energy and was kind of all over the place from there she went on to Johns Hopkins where she studied public health and sociology we were basically together every if not every weekend every at least four or five days a week where we just talk you know go out to lunch go shopping together we did basically almost everything together from there Lauren went to school in New York and eventually Law School in Oregon before arriving in D.C lion and I met at the doj we were both contractors there she was my best friend she was my maid of honor love is not just an emotion right it's a choice that you make every single day Lauren's Community spanned across the country it was strong but friends say she wanted to build a family she met her future husband Reginald Dunlap Jr or Reggie as she called him in 2016. the two met online a she was very excited when they met she called me after their first date Lauren was very brave about everything in life including love she really had this optimistic Outlook that she should keep putting herself out there until she found the right guy um and he Charmed her I think that he promised Lauren everything that she wanted I didn't think they were going to last just because I know who Lauren was and she is that outgoing person very hospitable always has her door open to people I met him at a Japanese garden festival in southeast DC she asked me afterwards when we were alone but then I think of a boyfriend and my response was because I need another first impression because this one did not work for me many of her friends said similar things that Reggie was quiet he did not have too much personality we'd invite her out to you know anything cookouts whatever sometimes he'd come sometimes he wouldn't he didn't talk much friends say there were other red flags he I was living with his mom but Lauren couldn't meet her she couldn't come to his house ever he would only come to hers the status of his job was always in flux always not clear the address that he had given her she went to visit him as a surprise only to find out that there was nothing at that address I think it was a vacant lot um and it just it was like a slap in the face I remember early on uh a couple of us being like Lauren could do so much better but we wanted to be happy so if she's happy we'll support this when Lauren and Reggie decided to get married Lauren's dad John tried to step in I have a brother in Fairfax well he was living in Fairfax at the time and I asked him to speak with her I thought that coming from me it would not be received the same way I did not like the idea that she was marrying him and his assessment was she pretty much knows what she's doing and so the two got married in 2019 but even the wedding seemed a bit off to Lauren's friends my husband threw him his bachelor party because there was no one else at the wedding for him and the only people that attended were Lauren's male friends or like her female friend's husbands when they were saying involves I pledged to allow her to make her decision and not in interject my opinion so I stayed out of it from that regard still ahead the 9-1-1 call made from inside of the Montgomery County home plus the device found at the crime scene that became the focal point of the case Lauren Charles and Reggie Dunlap met in 2016. they got married in 2019. Lauren's friends and family had reservations about the relationship but it wasn't until 2020 in the middle of the pandemic that Lauren realized she needed a change he was a leech I basically his best way to describe him who was using Lauren who he was married to as his meal ticket for basically everything he was telling her her friends made him uncomfortable his her friends weren't nice to her I mean he was isolating her him telling her that he was the only way she could have a kid he was gaslighting her he was all of that is abused so she would tell me that she'd have to go out to her car to have to talk to her friends or have to leave the house to talk to her friends because he would use whatever she said on the phone against her he would go around the house take pictures of their wedding from their photos from their wedding and put them up around the house she would take them down and he would put them back up in her own bedroom as part of this manipulation and this controlling Behavior look this woman began sleeping with a knife in her bedroom because she feared her husband at another point in time she actually went out and bought mace to have in her bedroom all of these things were done because she had fears in October of 2020 she sent me a text message and said you know I'm going to be leaving him he's been cheating on me and this is not the first time and that's when I knew that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes that I I didn't realize she had finally started to share some things with me because some of her friends were taking it upon themselves to do their own investigations and background checks I was like you know I'm going to do a background check and then that revealed other things about his life [Applause] like he had two children he had not told her about he was told by her that he had to be out of the house by the end of March so time was running out her understanding was that she couldn't get him out because uh because of the moratorium on evictions and she was hesitant about seeking a protective order he would tell tell people that we were we're not going to get we're not going to get divorced we're going to work these things out he was spreading false information trying to control her then on March 7 2021 Lauren was killed inside her bedroom they were sleeping in separate bedrooms so he says he went to bed so he hadn't seen her and then when he woke up in the morning he got up and walked the dogs ate breakfast said that he went to church did not attempt to speak to Mrs Charles at all and that when he returned he found her in her bedroom deceased that's when Reggie called 9-1-1 the 911 call was very calm um he set up his Alibi right away he gives his name the address I just got him from church and I think my wife is dead okay and what makes you think that sir because she's not breathing okay is she cold she's like yeah okay police respond to the call they arrived you know not priority not lights and Sirens because they didn't understand the gravity of the situation because of the 9-1-1 call his description of it really underplayed it and seemed to be inconsistent with somebody who would actually come upon the scene that he came upon now having said that did he pretend to cry and weep and put his hands in his face yeah he did that for a long period of time [Music] a bottle of bleach was dumped on her body to try to You Know cover any DNA or anything I don't know I guess I'm assuming he's trying to cover DNA or Prince or something I don't know what he was trying to do but that clearly came from the um the laundry room downstairs [Music] there are her hand prints on the door on her way out and she ultimately dies right at the foot of her door to her bedroom as she's trying to escape her murderer and then afterwards he took the time to fake a burglary ransacked the room pulled out all the drawers Reggie beat Lauren with the statue of Buddha then suffocated her the pillowcase may have suggested that maybe the blows didn't kill her maybe there was some agonal breathing maybe there was some signs that she was still alive and he wanted to make sure he finished the job when you walked in that house it reeked of bleach you felt like you were in a swimming pool or worse it was a horrible horrible stench of bleach and for him to claim that he came in went and changed his clothes nothing's wrong everything's good and goes down into the kitchen and eats a cookie and there is a half eaten cookie on the counter in the kitchen that is cold-blooded [Music] I Can Only Imagine what was going through her head because she was alive you can tell she was alive because of Just The Way the crime scene was um she was on her her bed but then her fingerprints were on the wall so she was trying to get away investigators arrest Dunlap that day for murder but when they returned to the scene they make a discovery that unravels the entire case he disabled her Apple watch so that it could no longer record at some point in time during the killing he destroyed her watch he actually turned his own devices off and between about two o'clock in the morning at 11 o'clock the next morning his devices went were dead and silent and turned back on the next morning still ahead another secret the information Lauren learned before her death that helped investigators including a near fatal interaction decades earlier because I dated Reginald Dunlap Jr and he tried to kill me an Apple Watch and cell phone data all things investigators say LED them to Reggie Dunlap for the murder of his wife Lauren Charles but the evidence doesn't end there there were two women that he was involved with while he was married to miss Charles one of the Mistresses had shared some texts with me that he was demanding her uh like her debit card numbers passcodes to her social media accounts and things and there had been potential people in the past who had thought protective orders against him and the fact that he had assaulted a young woman at Howard University years before this that young woman at Howard University is Nikki peel we spoke to her about that night 20 years ago he seemed like a fun guy if not particularly mature he he did seem like he was someone that was charismatic they had dated for a year and a half off and on and we were in bed and I asked him to close the window and I asked him probably about three or four times I like it's cold can you please close the window and then out of nowhere he just turned over and jumped on me and he took pillow and he proceeded to smother me with the pillow and then he took his hands and he put them around my throat and he just squeezed with all his might and I remember then I could see his eyes at first he looked angry but then he just went blank and I was truly terrified and I just think I must have sent up a prayer to God or something and I just with the last little bit of energy I had I fought him off and um you know he released me Nikki says she thinks he only let her go because her roommate was in the room next door she says she chose not to report it to police because of the shame she felt afterwards 20 years later in two years after the murder of his wife 45 year old Reginald Dunlap Jr was convicted and Lauren Charles brutal death Mickey wrote a victim impact statement for dunlap's sentencing although it was over 20 years ago Reggie was a liar a cheater and a gaslighter even then I realize now how lucky I am to be alive unfortunately and so very tragically her kindness to this dangerous man who did not deserve her took Miss Charles away from her family friends and colleagues who loved her so much Dunlap was sentenced to life in prison with almost 55 years suspended he won't have a chance to get out until he's nearly a hundred years old we reached out to Reggie dunlap's lawyers they tell Fox 5 neither Dunlap or his legal team were available to interview they tell us he maintains his innocence and disagrees with the jury's decision at his sentencing Dunlap spoke he said that he continued to love the family and that he wished that he had known all the things that Lauren was saying to them because he would have liked to have told his side of the story um as to what was happening with their marriage and had them understand that they were still you know trying to work out their marriage which had everyone shocked that he would continue even even in his sentencing to try to manipulate everybody into believing that he's the victim in this family and friends showed up in full force for the trial more than two dozen people the gallery was spilled they said at the trial that they've never had so many witnesses that they've had to fly in from all over the country because that was that was large community I wanted to jump over everybody and I knew the bailiff would have taken me out of there so I wanted to jump over everybody and just attack him I did I the anger I didn't realize I had it in me until I saw him when the verdict was read I got up and walked out of the courtroom and when I was outside in the lobby I just stood up there it was no Elation Lauren's family and friends hope her story can help others who might find themselves in a similar situation the attacks were gruesome the pictures were awful they are staying in my memory forever um but I do absolutely hate the fact that she died in Terror she didn't nobody deserves that abuse does not always begin with physical attacks so if you are in a relationship and you're being controlled and manipulated and gaslighted um that to you should be more than a disappointment it should be a red flag that something is really wrong and that you should act now to make a plan for yourself to exit that relationship because it can cost you your life abuse doesn't always look like physical violence I think a lot of women and people who are friends of people who are experiencing those type of relationships don't realize that that's abuse and that it is a big morning sign coming up Lauren leaves behind a lasting Legacy in the ways she's being remembered across the country Lauren Charles was a beloved daughter and friend her memory will live on in the lives she touched not having her physically present I miss her so much she was just in our lives with that piece missing um that we just try to fill with love and try to fill with um just living life for her in the memory of her she linked up all of her people together and loved them all she was really really good at meeting people where they were she's the smartest person I've ever known bravest person I've ever known um and we're going to honor her memory we're all doing our own things their scholarship funds and Donor advised funds the University of Oregon's law school has set up a scholarship in her behalf and there's a women's shelter um that has rooms named after her in New Orleans Lauren I love you I tell her that now I still have her pinned on my message iPhone message so she is at the top if you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 thanks for joining us I'm Jacqueline matter

Channel: FOX 5 Washington DC

Views: 248,537

Keywords: true crime, crime special

Id: wrfmar27lS0

Length: 22min 8sec (1328 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023