OWOSSO, Mich. — A mid-Michigan man is opening up to Fox 47 about his relationship with one of the victims of the double homicide in Ingham County.
32-year-old Julie Mooney was found dead at the Knight's Inn in Meridian Township on Friday.
27-year-old Kiernan Brown is charged with her murder.
Carla Bayron talked with Mooney's boyfriend on Monday who is devastated by her death.
Connor Barnes of Owosso says his girlfriend knew her killer... and she was betrayed.
"She was tragically taken away. How the hell do I keep going?"
In the eight months, Barnes and Julie Mooney were together, Barnes says the 32-year-old changed his life for the better.
"She was particular, she was driven, she was a passionate mother. She enjoyed her independence and her free time."
Barnes says it was her big heart that made her help Kiernan Brown... who has now been charged with her murder.
"It seems like she was under the impression that he was having a very, very difficult time and she was willing to do whatever she could to make it better."
Barnes says Brown and Mooney were co-workers at a Chili's in Okemos.
"She wanted to help somebody that night and she was betrayed and I'm torn up over that."
Barnes say Mooney was going to help Brown check himself into rehab Friday... But Thursday night, she got a call from him asking if she could meet him.
"10:20-ish, I get a text that says she couldn't find him. As I learned later on, they did meet up, somehow."
Mooney was later found dead at the Knight's Inn in Meridian Township.
But Barnes doesn't want his girlfriend to be remembered as a victim.
"She was driven to make other people's lives better."
And he wants justice... not vengeance.
"I hear her telling me like, don't hate this person. I didn't, I tried to help him. It's really tragic that, I can still have that kind of compassion for somebody. I think she taught me that to some degree."
Mooney leaves behind two kids, a seven and eleven-year-old.
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