In the fall of 2016, a 20-year-old female college student named Sarah Butler tragically became the final victim of a serial killer. A student at New Jersey City University and a talented dancer, Butler was home in Montclair, New Jersey, for the Thanksgiving break when she made plans to meet an online acquaintance. On November 22, 2016, she connected with a man who had offered her money for a sexual encounter.
Before leaving her home, she sent him a message that would later prove to be chillingly prescient: 'You're not a serial killer, right?'.
Days turned into a week with no word from Sarah, prompting her family to report her missing on November 23. Her friends and family, desperate for answers, took matters into their own hands. Accessing her social media accounts, they identified the man she was last in contact with and orchestrated a plan to lure him to a public place, where police were waiting. This pivotal move provided authorities with their prime suspect. On December 1, 2016, the search for Sarah came to a devastating end when her body was discovered in the Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange, concealed under a pile of leaves and debris. An autopsy later confirmed that she had been strangled to death.
The investigation quickly led to the arrest of 20-year-old Khalil Wheeler-Weaver of Orange, New Jersey. Cellphone data placed him with Butler on the night she disappeared and at the location where her body was found. As investigators delved deeper into Wheeler-Weaver's activities, a more sinister pattern emerged. He was linked to the deaths of two other women, 33-year-old Joanne Brown and 19-year-old Robin West, who were also killed in the preceding months. Authorities also connected him to the kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a fourth woman who had survived her attack.
Prosecutors argued that Wheeler-Weaver targeted women he believed were vulnerable and whose disappearances might go unnoticed. In 2019, after a two-month trial, a jury found Khalil Wheeler-Weaver guilty on all counts, including three counts of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated sexual assault. He was later sentenced to 160 years in prison for his crimes. The case highlighted not only the dangers of meeting strangers online but also the extraordinary efforts of a victim's loved ones in their pursuit of justice.
