Raymond 'DJ Freez' Rowe's fiance at time of Christy Mirack murder: 'I wasn't hiding anything' (2024)

Editor's note: This story was originally published Friday, May 31, immediately following an episode of NBC Dateline.

By all appearances, Dec. 21, 1992, was a normal day.

Monica (Figueroa) Whalen left early for her 7 a.m. shift at the former Community Hospital.

Her fiance Raymond Rowe typically left for work at ServiceMaster after she did.

“We went to work, came home, had dinner, went on with our lives,” recalls Whalen.

But a 25-year-long police investigation, DNA testing and a recent guilty plea have told a different story of Rowe’s day.

That morning, Rowe went to the home of 25-year-old school teacher Christy Mirack, who lived-in Greenfield Estates, a development near his workplace.

Rowe raped her and beat her to death.

The identity of Mirack’s killer went unsolved until last year, when police matched DNA samples from the scene with Rowe, who spent the years since the young woman’s murder building a reputation as a popular disc jockey named “DJ Freez.”

Rowe was sentenced in January to a life in prison without parole.

Whalen did not recognize Mirack, but she remembers hearing about her murder. Whalen may have even talked about it with Rowe.

But the fact that he was responsible?

That shocked her as much as it did anyone else.

A young romance

Whalen and Rowe met in 1990 at the Icebox, a former club in the 300 block of Queen Street.

They quickly hit it off and started dating.

She, a 19-year-old, hardworking nurse. He, three years her senior and a charming disc jockey.

They were engaged in 1992 and got married the following October.

They lived together, first with his parents and then got their own place on Chestnut Street.

Both started working at the Chameleon Club. Investigators have conjecturedMirack and Rowe may have met there; a ticket to the club was found in her wallet after she was killed.

“We worked, partied, worked, partied. That was our lives,” Whalen said. “We didn't think about things like murder.”

It was a youthful, happy relationship, she remembers. Sometimes they would have fights. She might get jealous of how he talked to a girl, or he would make a comment about the clothes she was wearing. But he never laid a hand on her, she said.

After their divorce, she learned some of her family members didn’t like him and they thought he was controlling.

“I was in love,” she said, shrugging.

He filed for divorce in 1996. They separated. Whalen started going to church and became determined to make the marriage work. He didn’t, so she eventually signed the papers and the divorce was finalized in 1998.

But after the divorce, she’d see him in passing in Lancaster.

It wasn’t until last summer that she was forced to think about the details of their relationship again.

Sickened by the news

On June 25, 2018, two state troopers in suits came to Whalen’s workplace at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Leola practice. They said they needed to talk to her for a few minutes.

The conversation turned into a three-hour interview, as the troopers began asking about her relationship with Rowe.

Earlier that morning, he had been taken into custody at his East Lampeter Township home, charged with killing Mirack.

Through the interview, Whalen learned what police were getting at.

That evening, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman announced the case against Rowe.

She watched the news conference.

She threw up.

Survivor’s guilt

At first Whalen, 48, was afraid to talk about her former husband.

She’s been happily married for 16 years and has three daughters.

She didn’t believe it when she learned that Rowe was charged.

“Everyone already crucified him and made him guilty,” she said.

But the guilty plea brought a sense of clarity.

Rowe’s public defender told the court he admitted his guilt from the start.

Whalen, who has since started seeing a therapist, has recognized she’s dealt with survivor's guilt of her own.

“Could it have been me?” she asked.

Whalen has become more comfortable with sharing her story. Recently she agreed to an interview with an NBC Dateline reporter. The show aired Friday night at 10 p.m.

“I want people to know I wasn’t hiding anything,” Whalen said.