Saturday 4 June 2022 06:43 AM PICTURED: Jilted lover, 33, who shot dead his Iowa ex, 22, and her friend, 21, ... trends now
The jilted boyfriend who shot dead his ex and her friend before turning the gun on himself outside an Iowa church was arrested for harassing her just days before the massacre.
Jonathan Lee Whitlatch, 33, was arrested on May 31 in Boone County, Iowa, for impersonating a public official and third-degree harassment of Eden Mariah Montang, 22, after she ended their relationship.
Montag was granted a retraining order against him, while Whitlatch posted bond and was scheduled to appear in court June 10.
Two days after his arrest, Whitlatch fatally shot Montang and her friend Vivian Renee Flores, 21, in the parking lot outside Cornerstone Church of Armes, near Des Moines, Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said. He then turned the gun on himself.
The suspect had also been awaiting trial on a charge of sexual abuse stemming from an incident last October when he twice put his hand down a woman's pants and attempted to penetrate her at a nightclub in Cedar Falls, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. The alleged victim was not Montang nor Flores.
The incident was caught on surveillance cameras. Whitlatch told authorities he didn't remember much about the incident because he'd been drinking. Deposition interviews in the case were scheduled to start later this month.
Meanwhile, Montang, 22, a devout Christian and Iowa State University student, had posted about abusive relationships just a week before she was killed.
'It's not about who YOU are - how smart you are, or how confident you are - it's about who THEY are,' she wrote, 'The way they make manipulation look like they have your best interest at heart, the way they're in fact sincere when they are sorry but don't end up changing their behavior, their abusive upbringing that perpetuates pain. Hurt people - hurt people.'
And on May 11, Montang posted another message: 'Be careful. Manipulation can feel like love.'
On Friday, her father, Terry Montang, paid tribute to his daughter.
'I'm proud to have been her father,' Montang said from the church stage, 'And I don't know what more there is to say that she's with the Lord. And she did her best to walk the walk.'
The attack was the latest deadly shooting to rock the US, following killings in New York, Texas, California and Oklahoma in recent weeks.
A photo of Jonathan Lee Whitlatch and Eden Montang together from Montang's Facebook profile. Just one week prior to her murder, Montang made a post on Instagram talking about abusive relationships
Jonathan Lee Whitlatch, 33, (left in his mugshot when he was arrested for third-degree harassment and impersonating a public official after a domestic situation), fatally shot, Eden Mariah Montang, 22, (right)and Vivian Renee Flores, 21, in the parking lot outside Cornerstone Church of Armes, near Des Moines, Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said
Authorities conducted a search of Whitlatch's residence after the shooting and discovered ammo for the 9MM pistol that had been purchased just an hour prior to the shooting, as well as an AR-15 unrelated to the attack.
Montang and Flores were attending a bible study at Cornerstone Church in Ames, where both went to Iowa State University.
It was a program both were encouraged to attend that co-mingled students with high schoolers. There were 80 people in attendance which led Fitzgerald to suggest that the shooting could have been much worse.
'He was there for a specific purpose, which he accomplished,' the sheriff said.
The church held a service to pray for the victims on Friday morning, with several members embracing each other while unable to hold back tears.
Whitlatch and Montang together in a social media photo. Whitlatch murdered Montang with a 9MM pistol following a fallout with her, the local sheriff said at a Friday press conference
