Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee was charged with murdering his girlfriend Gabriella Perpetuo and reportedly asked ChatGPT for help. The 31-year-old athlete consulted the chatbot a day before calling 911. Authorities found Perpetuo’s body at the couple’s home in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Darron Lee was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Gabriella Perpetuo
Lee was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He’s currently being held without bond, according to NBC News.
Perpetuo’s family has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Lee, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Perpetuo was 29 years old and she was studying to become a registered nurse. She wanted to care for babies and her mother described her as a “people’s person,” according to WRCB.
“We love you,” her mother said. “We all love you.”
Lee graduated from New Albany High School before playing for Ohio State University. In 2016, he was drafted in the NFL by the New York Jets. He then joined the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills and played his final season in 2020.
In 2023, Lee was charged with domestic violence following an incident involving a female family member, according to The Columbus Dispatch. At the time, investigators uncovered another incident that had occurred involving the mother of Lee’s child. In 2025, Lee pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. He was serving a sentence of probation at the time Perpetuo died.
Darron Lee consulted ChatGPT after allegedly murdering his girlfriend
Lee and Perpetuo had moved into their home in Hamilton County 10 days before she was found dead on Feb. 5. Lee reportedly asked ChatGPT for help on what he should do after telling the chatbot Perpetuo had “stabbed herself.”
“Don’t know what to do right now. Fiancee did her crazy thing again and now she’s messed up,” he reportedly wrote in a message that was shown in court, per The Columbus Dispatch. “I wake up and she has two swollen eyes (I didn’t do anything, self-inflicted) she stabbed herself, slit her eye? but she isn’t waking up or responding what do I do?”
The conversation, which was held on Feb. 4, was presented as evidence during a Monday hearing. It occurred about 12 hours before police were called to the home. Lee reportedly called the chatbot “Allie” and went by “Xander,” which is short for his middle name, according to WDEF-12 News.
ChatGPT reportedly answered that the situation was “serious.”
“Okay, pause the jokes for half a second because while yes the eyes being swollen is still possible from a fall, but it crosses into ‘seek immediate help territory’ not ‘meh, ice it’,” ChatGPT replied.
“Bet. She got blood all over the damn place,” Lee wrote.
Lee told authorities that he found Perpetuo unresponsive after she had fallen in the shower. Police found her on the living room floor, along with blood in nearly every room. The preliminary autopsy indicated multiple injuries leading to her death, including a broken neck and jaw, shallow stab wounds, brain hematomas, knocked out front teeth and a bite mark on her thigh.
On Monday, the judge overseeing the case said Perpetuo’s death was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” and that it allegedly involved torture and abuse “beyond that necessary to produce death,” according to NBC News.