he was:
Sarah Butler was nervous. The 20-year-old college student had borrowed the keys to her mother’s van, explaining she wanted to meet up with a friend while home in Montclair, N.J., over Thanksgiving break. What she didn’t mention, though, was that the “friend” was an online acquaintance offering to pay her $500 for sex. She had backed out of meeting him in person before, authorities say, but this time, she planned to go through with it.
“You’re not a serial killer, right?” she messaged him before leaving the house.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver was exactly that, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 23-year-old is accused of murdering three women and attempting to kill a fourth, and authorities say Butler was his final victim. Before the two met on Nov. 22, 2016, he searched the Internet for information about date-rape drugs and homemade poison, according to the North Jersey Record. Ten days later, Butler’s body was found in a nature reserve, covered with leaves and detritus. She had been strangled.
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According to prosecutors, Wheeler-Weaver targeted young black women who turned to sex work while coping with mental health issues or homelessness. His thinking, authorities say, was that no one would notice if they disappeared. “They were viewed as somehow less than human, less valuable,” Essex County assistant prosecutor Adam Wells said last month, according to NJ.com.
Butler, a longtime lifeguard at the local YMCA and second-year student at New Jersey City University who was known for her talents as a dancer, was something of an exception. After she disappeared, her friends and family launched a sting operation that led authorities to identify Wheeler-Weaver as the prime suspect in a months-long crime rampage that took place in abandoned houses and budget motels across northern New Jersey.
Wheeler-Weaver has admitted he was with each of the murder victims shortly before they disappeared, but denies responsibility for their deaths, NJ.com reported. His attorneys contend the victims “put themselves in vulnerable positions,” and point out Wheeler-Weaver cooperated with investigators, which they argue “is not the conduct of a guilty individual.”
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“He told police where he had last seen them and that they were alive and safe,” his public defender, Deirdre McMahon, said in court last month, according to NJ.com. “What happened to them afterward is not at the hands of Mr. Wheeler-Weaver.”
With a carefully trimmed beard and rectangular glasses that give him the affect of a graduate student, Wheeler-Weaver “doesn’t look like someone who would’ve done something like this,” Wells acknowledged during a court hearing last month. After the first of his alleged victims, 19-year-old Robin West, was found dead in September 2016, police described him as a “calm” and “helpful” witness who gladly answered their questions.
West, a Philadelphia native who struggled with mental health issues and left home at a young age, was days away from celebrating her 20th birthday when she vanished, alarming her family when she failed to respond to their messages about party plans. On Sept. 1, 2016, authorities got a call about a fire at an abandoned house in Orange, N.J. Inside, they found the 19-year-old’s body, which was so badly scorched that it took nearly two weeks to identify her through her dental records.
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When questioned by police, Wheeler-Weaver said he had taken West out to eat on the day that she disappeared, NJ.com reported. Then, he claimed, he dropped her off at a different abandoned house, roughly two blocks away from where the fire started. While investigators were puzzling over the crime, another woman disappeared.
Joanne Brown, who had been grappling with homelessness and mental health issues, was seen getting into Wheeler-Weaver’s car before she was reported missing in October 2016. Less than two months later, a work crew found the 33-year-old’s remains inside yet another vacant house in Orange. Her nose and mouth were covered with tape, and a jacket was tied around her neck. She had been strangled.
By the time Brown’s body was found, another woman had come forward to describe a terrifying encounter with Wheeler-Weaver. The woman, who was 34 at the time and is identified only as “T.T.” in court documents, had turned to sex work after becoming homeless. By Nov. 15, 2016, though, she was several months pregnant, and looking for another way to make money. She told authorities she agreed to have sex with Wheeler-Weaver, but actually planned on tricking him and taking his cash.
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The two met up at a cheap motel in Elizabeth, N.J., then left in Wheeler-Weaver’s car. In court last month, the woman testified that Wheeler-Weaver, clad in a ski mask, handcuffed her and covered her mouth with duct tape before raping her in the back seat and almost strangling her to death. She repeatedly lost consciousness, she said, but woke up just long enough to formulate an escape plan.
Using quick thinking, she convinced Wheeler-Weaver to take her back to the motel, where she had left her cellphone, then locked him out of the room while she dialed 911. But police who responded to the call were more interested in figuring out if she was a prostitute, she said in court last month.
According to NJ.com, an officer from the Elizabeth Police Department who was called to testify said that he initially didn’t believe the woman when she called to report a kidnapping because she waited an hour to do so.
More at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...eaver-trial-murdering-three-women-new-jersey/
Sarah Butler was nervous. The 20-year-old college student had borrowed the keys to her mother’s van, explaining she wanted to meet up with a friend while home in Montclair, N.J., over Thanksgiving break. What she didn’t mention, though, was that the “friend” was an online acquaintance offering to pay her $500 for sex. She had backed out of meeting him in person before, authorities say, but this time, she planned to go through with it.
“You’re not a serial killer, right?” she messaged him before leaving the house.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver was exactly that, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 23-year-old is accused of murdering three women and attempting to kill a fourth, and authorities say Butler was his final victim. Before the two met on Nov. 22, 2016, he searched the Internet for information about date-rape drugs and homemade poison, according to the North Jersey Record. Ten days later, Butler’s body was found in a nature reserve, covered with leaves and detritus. She had been strangled.
AD
According to prosecutors, Wheeler-Weaver targeted young black women who turned to sex work while coping with mental health issues or homelessness. His thinking, authorities say, was that no one would notice if they disappeared. “They were viewed as somehow less than human, less valuable,” Essex County assistant prosecutor Adam Wells said last month, according to NJ.com.
Butler, a longtime lifeguard at the local YMCA and second-year student at New Jersey City University who was known for her talents as a dancer, was something of an exception. After she disappeared, her friends and family launched a sting operation that led authorities to identify Wheeler-Weaver as the prime suspect in a months-long crime rampage that took place in abandoned houses and budget motels across northern New Jersey.
Wheeler-Weaver has admitted he was with each of the murder victims shortly before they disappeared, but denies responsibility for their deaths, NJ.com reported. His attorneys contend the victims “put themselves in vulnerable positions,” and point out Wheeler-Weaver cooperated with investigators, which they argue “is not the conduct of a guilty individual.”
AD
“He told police where he had last seen them and that they were alive and safe,” his public defender, Deirdre McMahon, said in court last month, according to NJ.com. “What happened to them afterward is not at the hands of Mr. Wheeler-Weaver.”
With a carefully trimmed beard and rectangular glasses that give him the affect of a graduate student, Wheeler-Weaver “doesn’t look like someone who would’ve done something like this,” Wells acknowledged during a court hearing last month. After the first of his alleged victims, 19-year-old Robin West, was found dead in September 2016, police described him as a “calm” and “helpful” witness who gladly answered their questions.
West, a Philadelphia native who struggled with mental health issues and left home at a young age, was days away from celebrating her 20th birthday when she vanished, alarming her family when she failed to respond to their messages about party plans. On Sept. 1, 2016, authorities got a call about a fire at an abandoned house in Orange, N.J. Inside, they found the 19-year-old’s body, which was so badly scorched that it took nearly two weeks to identify her through her dental records.
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When questioned by police, Wheeler-Weaver said he had taken West out to eat on the day that she disappeared, NJ.com reported. Then, he claimed, he dropped her off at a different abandoned house, roughly two blocks away from where the fire started. While investigators were puzzling over the crime, another woman disappeared.
Joanne Brown, who had been grappling with homelessness and mental health issues, was seen getting into Wheeler-Weaver’s car before she was reported missing in October 2016. Less than two months later, a work crew found the 33-year-old’s remains inside yet another vacant house in Orange. Her nose and mouth were covered with tape, and a jacket was tied around her neck. She had been strangled.
By the time Brown’s body was found, another woman had come forward to describe a terrifying encounter with Wheeler-Weaver. The woman, who was 34 at the time and is identified only as “T.T.” in court documents, had turned to sex work after becoming homeless. By Nov. 15, 2016, though, she was several months pregnant, and looking for another way to make money. She told authorities she agreed to have sex with Wheeler-Weaver, but actually planned on tricking him and taking his cash.
AD
The two met up at a cheap motel in Elizabeth, N.J., then left in Wheeler-Weaver’s car. In court last month, the woman testified that Wheeler-Weaver, clad in a ski mask, handcuffed her and covered her mouth with duct tape before raping her in the back seat and almost strangling her to death. She repeatedly lost consciousness, she said, but woke up just long enough to formulate an escape plan.
Using quick thinking, she convinced Wheeler-Weaver to take her back to the motel, where she had left her cellphone, then locked him out of the room while she dialed 911. But police who responded to the call were more interested in figuring out if she was a prostitute, she said in court last month.
According to NJ.com, an officer from the Elizabeth Police Department who was called to testify said that he initially didn’t believe the woman when she called to report a kidnapping because she waited an hour to do so.
More at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...eaver-trial-murdering-three-women-new-jersey/
