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Dallas Lowery (Columbus Police) and Heather Chapman (Advantage Funeral & Cremation Services by Schoedinger)
A 33-year-old man in Ohio may spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing the mother of his child, executing her with a single bullet to the face inside her home, then leaving their newborn alone with the body for over an hour before calling the police and claiming she had killed herself.
A jury in Franklin County found Dallas Lowery guilty on one count each of murder, felony murder, domestic violence, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and tampering with evidence in the 2022 slaying of Heather Chapman, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. At the time of Chapman’s death, the child she shared with Lowery was 2 months old.
He was acquitted on one count of aggravated murder, which requires evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Lowery planned to kill Chapman.
According to a news release from the Columbus, Ohio Division of Police, patrol officers at about 9:15 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2022, responded to a call reporting a shooting at a residence in the 1700 block of Melrose Avenue. Upon arriving at the address, first responders said they found an adult female — later identified as Chapman — suffering from what appeared to be a gunshot wound.
Emergency medical personnel with the Columbus Fire Department were dispatched to the scene where paramedics at about 9:22 p.m. pronounced Chapman dead. Police said that homicide detectives took over the investigation “due to some suspicious circumstances” at the crime scene.
According to court documents obtained by Columbus CBS affiliate WBNS, Lowery was the person who placed the initial 911 call. He reportedly told the emergency dispatcher that Chapman had shot herself. However, police at the scene said they could not locate a firearm at the house.
Initially, police said that Lowery refused to give them a statement regarding Chapman’s death. He would later reportedly tell investigators that he was the only person at the home — aside from their 2-month old child — when Chapman shot herself.
After several weeks of investigation, authorities identified Lowery, whose romantic relationship with Chapman had ended just before she died, as the primary suspect in her death.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that Chapman had recently broken up with Lowery when he came to her home to pick up some of his belongings on the night of Feb. 22, but fatally shot her instead. He then left the residence — leaving the newborn daughter alone with Chapman’s body — giving the murder weapon to a friend named Terry Parrish before going back to his hotel room to shower and change clothes.
Lowery then reportedly went back to Chapman’s residence and called the police.
Police later found the murder weapon in Parrish’s car. Parrish reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence. As part of the deal, Parrish was required to testify against Lowery at trial. Per the Dispatch, Parrish told jurors that one day prior to Chapman’s death, Lowery had contacted him multiple times and said he was going to shoot her in the face.
“He’s a man of his word. He shot her in the face,” Franklin County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dan Meyer reportedly said.
Lowery is currently scheduled to appear in court again for his sentencing hearing on April 25.
