Murder victim put in prayer request for alleged killer just days before her violent death

Murder victim Donna Alexander of Grand Prairie, Texas, put in a prayer request for the man who allegedly murdered her just days before she died.

According to a Monday report by KTVT-TV, 36-year-old Donna's ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Mitchell, was charged with her murder.

What are the details?

Donna died on Sept. 24 after Mitchell drove her to the hospital on Sept. 21, alleging that she'd fallen in the shower.

Police charged Mitchell with murder after his version of events were not consistent with Donna's injuries.

The Texas business owner and mother of two children grew up in Chicago in an abusive home, where she was often witness to domestic violence.

Donna — who opened up a business called the Anger Room, where people could safely smash, break, and destroy things to relieve stress and avoid taking it out physically on others — was reportedly the victim of domestic violence.

Just days before her death, Donna put in a prayer request for Mitchell at Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie.

"Her very last prayer request was for her assailant," associate pastor Brian Carter said. "His heart's not right and [she] pray[ed] that his heart would soften."

Instead of continuing to share her prayer requests with the church's staff and fellow congregants, Donna  will visit the church one last time on Wednesday for her funeral.

What did the ex-boyfriend do?

Donna's sister, Lauren Armour, told KTVT that Donna "waited until it was too late" to do something about the abuse.

"Don't wait till it's too late," Armour said, and told People that her sister "kept praying to God to fix [Mitchell]."

"She kept saying [in her personal journals], ‘I know [Mitchell] has problems, I know that he has post-traumatic stress, but he’s who I want to be my husband. Please fix him,'" Armour added.

Armour told People that Donna and Mitchell argued the day before she was injured. After the argument, Donna  dropped Mitchell off and warned him to stay away.

"She returned home and went about her day with her children, and then apparently he went out to some nightclub prior to showing up at her house," Armour said.

Armour said that Mitchell was reportedly "beating on [Donna's] door" around 3 a.m. on Friday when she was at home with her 12- and 14-year-old children.

"He then went around to the back of the house where my sister's room was and broke the window," she continued. "The children said they heard arguing and screaming — their mother screaming. The children said that went on for a while until it got really quiet. The children texted their mom, asking, 'Are you okay? Is he gone?' or 'Are you gone? What's going on?'"

Authorities said that Mitchell took Donna's cellphone and responded to the kids' text messages as if he was her.

Mitchell reportedly wrote, "I'm fine, just get up in the morning and get ready for school."

He then took Donna to the hospital around 5 a.m.

"[Donna] was in a coma [with] her brain swelled," Armour said, and noted that the hospital diagnosed her sister with blunt force trauma to the head.

What did Donna's sister find at the home?

Later, when Armour and her mother visited Donna's home, they saw "blood in the bathtub," "blood in the shower and everywhere else."

"There's no way she could have just slipped in the shower," Armour said.

"[Mitchell] took away a life that he did not have a right to take," Armour added. "No one has a right to take a life that is not theirs. That is my sister. She is a daughter and a mother — gone."

Donna's father, Donald Alexander, said that Donna's death is particularly upsetting, as she'd spent a good majority of her life putting a stop to domestic abuse and protecting victims.

"At 14, she knew what she wanted to do," he said. "She was really adamant about domestic abuse and working to do something for the community."

The family set up a Facebook page to receive donations for burial-related costs.

Authorities are holding Mitchell is at the Tarrant County Corrections Center in lieu of $250,000 bail.