The fiancée of one of the six victims killed in a Monday shooting spree in Muscatine, Iowa, is speaking out, remembering a man she says was full of energy, ambition, and joy for life.

Dakota Whitlow was fatally shot at D.W. Designs on Grandview Avenue, one of three separate locations where authorities say a gunman carried out a deadly attack tied to a domestic situation. Police later confirmed the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Whitlow’s fiancée, Audrey Perdue, described a relationship that moved quickly from the very beginning — a connection that almost didn’t happen at all.

“We had agreed to go to a restaurant here in Muscatine and the restaurant was closed,” she recalled.

What could have been a disappointing night instead turned into something unforgettable. The couple decided to try another restaurant, and that spontaneous change led to a second date in the same evening.

“We didn’t want it to come to an end so we had our first and second dates on the very same night,” Perdue said.

Over time, their relationship deepened, culminating in a proposal at the Mark Twain overlook, with help from Perdue’s sister.

“Before I knew it, Dakota was down on one knee at the Mark Twain overlook asking me to spend the rest of our lives together and my sister came out of the bushes taking pictures,” she said. “It was what every girl dreams of.”

Perdue said Whitlow’s passion for life was especially evident in his love of cars and mechanics.

“Cars were everything to Dakota,” she said. “Anything that went fast and made a lot of noise, bikes, cars, you name it, he was into it. It was the first thing on his mind in the morning, it was the last thing before we went to sleep.”

He had also turned that passion into a career, co-founding a metalworking shop with a close friend where he built and modified vehicles he had always dreamed of working on.

Just weeks before his death, Whitlow achieved another lifelong goal when he purchased a 2001 Corvette Z06.

“We got to drive around and take joy rides and it was the last thing he had wanted to fulfill as his childhood dream,” Perdue said. “It was to have a shop and to have a Corvette and he got to accomplish both of those things. I only wish that he could have been around longer to enjoy the fruits of his labor.”