On the evening of October 7, 2016, 15-year-old Mawa Doumbia, a female of African descent, left her family's home in Newark, New Jersey. It was the last time her father and sister would see her alive. After she was reported missing, efforts to find the teenager were unsuccessful, and for years her fate remained a painful mystery for her loved ones. The initial investigation stalled as she was considered a runaway.
The case took a grim turn on May 9, 2019, when decomposed human remains
were discovered face down on the second floor of a derelict carriage house on Main Street in Orange. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be homicide by ligature strangulation. It would take more than two years, until November 5, 2021, for forensic analysis to positively identify the remains as those of Mawa Doumbia, finally giving her family a devastating answer to their questions.
The investigation into her death, aided by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Cold Case Unit, uncovered extensive digital evidence that pointed to a suspect already behind bars. Khalil A. Wheeler-Weaver, a resident of Orange, was identified as the man responsible for Mawa's death. Investigators determined that on the day she disappeared, Wheeler-Weaver had met the young girl online and convinced her to meet with him for sex. It is alleged that he then traveled to the area near her home, took her to the vacant carriage house, strangled her to death, and concealed her body within the abandoned building.
At the time he was charged with Mawa's murder in March 2022, Wheeler-Weaver was already a convicted serial killer. He was serving a 160-year prison sentence for a series of brutal crimes committed in 2016, which included the murders of three other women—Sarah Butler, Robin West, and Joanne Brown—and the kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a fourth woman who managed to survive. His method was consistent: he used online applications to lure his victims before attacking them. Wheeler-Weaver was later indicted for Mawa Doumbia's murder in October 2022.
