A New Jersey woman meeting a man from the internet texted him asking, 'You're not a serial killer, right?' 10 days later she was found dead.
Michelle Mark
A woman who was found dead at a New Jersey nature preserve had asked a man just days earlier whether he was a serial killer, authorities testified in court Thursday.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver has been charged with murdering three women and trying to murder a fourth. He has pleaded not guilty.
At trial, authorities testified about his phone records and internet search history, which revealed that he had Googled date-rape drugs less than two hours before 20-year-old Sarah Butler asked if he was a serial killer.
Butler's grieving family and friends found her conversations with Wheeler-Weaver, and created a fake profile to lure him to a new meeting — where police were waiting.
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When 20-year-old Sarah Butler agreed to meet up with a man she talked to on the social media network Tagged, she messaged him asking, "You're not a serial killer, right?"
Unbeknownst to Butler, the man she was speaking to had Googled date-rape drugs less than two hours earlier.
Butler was found dead 10 days later in New Jersey's Eagle Rock Reservation, hidden underneath a pile of leaves and sticks, the North Jersey Record reported.
The details were revealed during testimony from police at the trial of Khalil Wheeler-Weaver on Thursday, where he has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges and one attempted murder charge.
Prosecutors allege that Wheeler-Weaver waged a killing spree during the fall of 2016, strangling and asphyxiating Butler, as well as 19-year-old Robin West and 33-year-old Joanne Browne. They also accused him of trying to kill a fourth victim known only by the initials T.T.
In court on Thursday, authorities detailed a slew of disturbing internet searches Wheeler-Weaver had made, including, "How to make homemade poisons to kill humans," and, "What chemical could you put on a rag and hold to someone's face to make them go to sleep immediately."
Around the same time, the searches also showed that Wheeler-Weaver searched for "police entrance exam practice test," in an apparent effort to learn to become a police officer.
Police testified that they tracked Wheeler-Weaver's phone, which placed him at the address of an abandoned building that had been set on fire with West's body inside on September 21, 2016.
Prosecutors said the phone records also showed that Wheeler-Weaver circled back after initially driving away, so he could watch the firefighters put out the blaze.
But prosecutors said last week that his one "fatal mistake" in the alleged murder spree was choosing Butler as a victim. They said the woman's grieving family members and friends found her online conversations with Wheeler-Weaver, and created a fake Tagged profile to lure him to a new meeting.
This time, police were there to meet him. Wheeler-Weaver was arrested on December 6, 2016.
"Sarah's friends and family are the heroes of this case," Essex County assistant prosecutor Adam Wells said in court, according to the North Jersey Record.
Michelle Mark
A woman who was found dead at a New Jersey nature preserve had asked a man just days earlier whether he was a serial killer, authorities testified in court Thursday.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver has been charged with murdering three women and trying to murder a fourth. He has pleaded not guilty.
At trial, authorities testified about his phone records and internet search history, which revealed that he had Googled date-rape drugs less than two hours before 20-year-old Sarah Butler asked if he was a serial killer.
Butler's grieving family and friends found her conversations with Wheeler-Weaver, and created a fake profile to lure him to a new meeting — where police were waiting.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
When 20-year-old Sarah Butler agreed to meet up with a man she talked to on the social media network Tagged, she messaged him asking, "You're not a serial killer, right?"
Unbeknownst to Butler, the man she was speaking to had Googled date-rape drugs less than two hours earlier.
Butler was found dead 10 days later in New Jersey's Eagle Rock Reservation, hidden underneath a pile of leaves and sticks, the North Jersey Record reported.
The details were revealed during testimony from police at the trial of Khalil Wheeler-Weaver on Thursday, where he has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges and one attempted murder charge.
Prosecutors allege that Wheeler-Weaver waged a killing spree during the fall of 2016, strangling and asphyxiating Butler, as well as 19-year-old Robin West and 33-year-old Joanne Browne. They also accused him of trying to kill a fourth victim known only by the initials T.T.
In court on Thursday, authorities detailed a slew of disturbing internet searches Wheeler-Weaver had made, including, "How to make homemade poisons to kill humans," and, "What chemical could you put on a rag and hold to someone's face to make them go to sleep immediately."
Around the same time, the searches also showed that Wheeler-Weaver searched for "police entrance exam practice test," in an apparent effort to learn to become a police officer.
Police testified that they tracked Wheeler-Weaver's phone, which placed him at the address of an abandoned building that had been set on fire with West's body inside on September 21, 2016.
Prosecutors said the phone records also showed that Wheeler-Weaver circled back after initially driving away, so he could watch the firefighters put out the blaze.
But prosecutors said last week that his one "fatal mistake" in the alleged murder spree was choosing Butler as a victim. They said the woman's grieving family members and friends found her online conversations with Wheeler-Weaver, and created a fake Tagged profile to lure him to a new meeting.
This time, police were there to meet him. Wheeler-Weaver was arrested on December 6, 2016.
"Sarah's friends and family are the heroes of this case," Essex County assistant prosecutor Adam Wells said in court, according to the North Jersey Record.
