Donald Lang Death | Raquel Strudwick Arrested for First-Degree Murder of Partner in Burlington, CA

Donald Lang Death – A quiet Thursday morning in Burlington, North Carolina, turned deadly on March 6, 2025, when police found 23-year-old Donald Lang shot to death inside a car in the 2300 block of Eric Lane, a sprawling apartment complex parking lot off Maple Avenue.

The Burlington Police Department got the call just before 9 a.m., rolling up to a scene that was anything but routine—Lang slumped in the driver’s seat, blood marking the end of a life cut short.

“It was eerie, too still after all that,” a resident said, peering from a balcony as officers taped off the area, a stark contrast to the usual hum of this working-class corner.

Cops moved fast, piecing together a story that pointed straight to 21-year-old Raquel Strudwick, now locked up in Alamance County Jail on a first-degree murder charge, no bond in sight. Police say Strudwick and Lang were in a relationship, a detail that’s got folks whispering about what went wrong between them.

Was it a flash of rage, a slow burn that snapped, or something else? “They were together, then this—it doesn’t add up yet,” a neighbor said, shaking his head at the news. Strudwick was nabbed close to the scene, a gun recovered nearby, though the cops aren’t spilling much beyond that, leaving the why to simmer unanswered for now.

The parking lot at Eric Lane’s a typical spot—cars lined up, kids’ bikes leaning against walls—not the kind of place you’d peg for a murder. But there Lang was, dead from what police hint was multiple shots, his silver Honda Civic turned into a crime scene. “You hear about stuff like this, but not right here,” another tenant said, watching detectives work under the morning sun.

Burlington’s no stranger to violence—nine homicides last year alone—but a killing this personal, this close, hits different, especially with a young couple at the center. The police are calling it a domestic thing, not random, a label that’s cold comfort to a community rattled.

Investigators aren’t saying much, just that it’s active—shell casings bagged, witnesses questioned, and Strudwick’s arrest locking in the first big piece. First-degree murder means intent, premeditation, a charge that’s heavy for a 21-year-old now staring down life in prison if it sticks.

“She didn’t run far—makes you wonder what she was thinking,” a local mused, eyeing the cop cars still parked tight. Lang’s family hasn’t spoken out, but you can feel the weight—23, gone in a flash, a kid who was somebody’s son, somebody’s love, now a name on a report. The how’s clear enough; the why’s where the shadows linger, begging questions about love turned lethal.

Friday’s breaking cold, and Burlington’s waking up to a case that’s already shifting the air around Eric Lane. Strudwick’s in a cell, her next stop a courtroom, while the police keep digging—motive, history, anything to make sense of a shooting that ended one life and flipped another upside down.

“It’s a damn shame, all of it,” an older resident said, sweeping his stoop as the news vans rolled in. Nine homicides in Alamance County this year now, and this one’s personal—a partner’s hand on the trigger, a car turned tomb. Until the cops lay it all out, the story’s half-told, leaving Donald Lang’s memory and Raquel Strudwick’s fate tangled in a morning that changed everything.