DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — The family of a Duke University nurse is mourning her death after investigators said she was killed by her boyfriend.

31-year-old Christopher Whitley is in the Durham County jail after being charged with the murder of 34-year-old Auriel Lowe on Wednesday.

"All the words you've heard a thousand times, they're so true," Paul Lowe, Auriel's father, told CBS 17. "You're just numb. You don't know what to feel for a while. It's a unique kind of pain losing a child."

In court on Thursday, a Durham County judge denied bond for Whitley. Police said the suspect allegedly barricaded himself inside of Lowe's apartment in south Durham before a standoff with officers.

Police had set up a perimeter with their rifles drawn, before Whitley eventually surrendered.

Lowe's family to

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