BUCHANAN COUNTY, Va. (WJHL) – The mother of a pregnant Buchanan County woman who was reportedly murdered over the weekend told News Channel 11 that the suspected killer was the father of the unborn child.

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) reported Monday that Amber Compton was found dead Saturday night at her home on Sunset Hollow Road in the Russell Prater area. The sheriff’s office said she had been shot several times.

Dustin Barret Owens, 38, was arrested and charged with her murder, according to the BCSO. Owens was Compton’s boyfriend, and both of them were employed by the Virginia Department of Corrections at the Keen Mountain Correctional Center, investigators revealed.

Compton’s mother, Rachel Compton, said her daughter now leaves behind three children. She described Rachel as a woman who worked tirelessly to improve her station in life.

“She went through RN school – she was a nurse,” Rachel Compton said of her daughter. “She went through nursing school while she was pregnant. She fought through for the benefit of her children.”

Amber Compton was seven months pregnant at the time of her death, according to the BCSO. Her mother said Owens was the father of that unborn child. Amber co-parented her other three children with an ex-partner.

Rachel Compton told News Channel 11 she had had concerns about her daughter’s relationship with Owens.

“I was in fear,” she said. “He was safe, he was a good guy because how could they let him work here if he wasn’t?”

The sheriff’s office announced Monday that additional charges against Owens will be filed.

Rachel Compton said she wants the community to remember her daughter as she does.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful mother,” Compton said. “A wonderful daughter. Everything that she did always [was] done [for] the benefit of her children.”

As of Monday, Owens was being held by the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority without bond.