Remembering Kari Whitley

Kari Whitley was a woman with a huge heart and she never let anything get her down.
Instead of remembering the 43-year-old as a the victim of a heinous Gulfport murder, that’s the way Texas native Laura O’Halloran wants Coast residents to know her high school and college friend: as a woman who overcame the adversities, such as brain cancer, still managing to bring laughter to others.
O’Halloran says Whitley moved to the Coast and worked for the Biloxi VA for many years, but complications from her brain cancer caught back up with her and forced her to live in a nursing home.
Shortly after, O’Halloran says Whitley met Doug Bryant, the man accused of killing her at their apartment complex in Gulfport Wednesday, allegedly using an object to strike her in the head.
O’Halloran says she was devastated after Whitley’s sister told her of the murder yesterday and wanted the Coast to know the good woman Whitley was.
Whitley’s husband, Doug Bryant, is accused of killing her at their Legacy at Gulf Pointe apartment. Just two years ago, Bryant served time for simple domestic assault. He also faced disorderly conduct and resisting arrest charges.
Now he is under a million dollar bond for murder.