How to Catfish a Serial Killer [5]

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Someone’s Hunting Us"

Episode 5: How to Catfish a Serial Killer
Date: February 17, 2026
Host/Reporters: Daisy Calavia Robertson & Rebecca Everett (NJ.com)

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Episode Overview

This episode presents a harrowing account of law enforcement's failure to protect Black women targeted by serial killer Khalil Wheeler-Weaver in New Jersey. It focuses on the aftermath of survivor Tiffany's encounter with Wheeler-Weaver, the police disbelief that followed, and how another victim, Sarah Butler, was lured and murdered—only for her friends and family to ingeniously turn the tables and help catch her killer. The episode powerfully examines the intersection of race, sex work, victimhood, and justice, spotlighting the community effort that ultimately stopped the killer when authorities failed.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tiffany's Escape and Police Response

[01:10–10:10]

• Tiffany escapes from Khalil Wheeler-Weaver and manages to contact the police, but the response is dismissive and skeptical.
• Police Bodycam Audio: Tiffany describes her ordeal to the officers, still handcuffed and visibly shaken, but is met with interrogation and disbelief.
  • Quote [03:10] (Police officer): “So you let him duct tape you or what happened?”
  • Quote [08:13] (Rebecca Everett on Detective Carvalho): “Throughout the interview, Tiffany desperately tried to walk the detective through the details… But Carvalho wouldn’t listen. He barely let her talk.”
• Tiffany asks to speak privately; the officers refuse. She is forced to recount her assault in public and is treated as criminal, not victim.
• Ultimately, Tiffany does not trust police, refuses an ambulance, and takes herself to the hospital.
  • Quote [05:36] (Tiffany): “I’m not gonna tell somebody I got raped… for them to sit there and say, well, we don’t believe you, or treat me like I’m lying. That’s the worst thing…”

2. Systemic Police Disbelief and Negligence

[10:10–13:40]

• Discussion with Najayla Ree of the NJ Red Umbrella Alliance reveals how Black sex workers, in particular, are routinely dismissed or mistreated by police.
  • Quote [10:35] (Najayla Ree): “It’s more convenient for us to just be criminals that they could arrest because we are seen as criminals first, victims maybe.”
• Police failed to interview Khalil despite Tiffany giving his full name; meanwhile, focus remained on grilling Tiffany about her own actions.
• No forensic evidence was processed; critical leads ignored.
• Officers involved were later promoted; reporters revisit them, receiving no real acknowledgment or accountability.
  • Quote [13:03] (Chief Patrick Shannon): “I really don’t recall, so… today is my 41st anniversary with my wife, and we’re on our way out…” [deflecting responsibility]

3. How Victim Blaming and Bias Cost Lives

[13:40–15:14]

• A retired NYPD sergeant tells hosts he’d have arrested both Tiffany and Khalil, indicating ongoing systemic bias:
  • Quote [14:10] (Retired NYPD Sgt. Jacalone): “I would have locked them both up… you’re dealing with a different category of people here.”
• While police badger Tiffany, Khalil is free and quickly begins hunting again via dating apps.

4. The Sarah Butler Case: A Contrasting Investigation

[15:35–24:00]

• At college, Sarah Butler interacts with “Lil Yacht Rock” (Khalil) on Tagged, negotiating a meetup for money.
  • Notable Moment [19:27]: Sarah jokes, “You’re not a serial killer, right? lmao.” He flatly denies it.
• Sarah disappears after picking Khalil up in her mother’s van.
• Unlike previous cases, Montclair police react immediately and thoroughly, launching an emergency search—contrasting starkly with police responses in Newark.
  • Quote [25:21] (Daisy Calavia Robertson): “The cops here treat missing girls as emergencies, not throwaways.”
  • Quote [27:08] (Daisy): “The urgency Montclair police showed… was a night and day difference…”

5. The Critical Role of “Social Capital”

[28:12–29:02]

• The hosts discuss why Sarah’s case mobilized such urgency—her strong family, community standing, and the perception that she “wasn’t a throwaway.”
  • Quote [28:37]: “What set Sarah apart from the other victims was, quote, social capital.”
  • Quote [28:47] (Robert Jackson): “She did not fit his typical … profile, which was somebody who he could just… discard and the world would forget.”

6. Friends and Family Use Detective Work to Find Khalil

[29:19–31:09]

• While Montclair police act, Sarah’s family and friends simultaneously conduct their own digital investigation, using her Tagged account and cell records to trace Khalil’s identity.
• The chilling discovery of Sarah’s abandoned van and wig devastates the search, confirming family fears.

7. Turning the Tables: Catfishing the Serial Killer

[31:38–37:32]

• Four days after Sarah’s disappearance, Khalil is lured to a Panera by a fake Tagged profile—created by Sarah’s friends—while police lie in wait.
  • Quote [33:41] (Daisy): “The tables had turned. Khalil Wheeler Weaver… was the one being hunted now. He’d been catfished.”
  • Quote [33:56] (Daisy): “It was young women, not police, who did the dirty work.”
• Sarah’s loved ones show extraordinary initiative, hatching and executing the plan that delivers Khalil to police.

8. Police Interviews with Khalil: Lies and Missed Opportunities

[37:32–41:02]

• Police question Khalil but, lacking evidence, do not treat him as a suspect or arrest him. Khalil remains calm and even offers a “cooperative” walkthrough.
• Khalil invents stories, provides an alibi, and fabricates another suspect. Police work diligently on leads, but are initially limited.
• Surveillance and cell phone data lead them to Eagle Rock Reservation, where Sarah’s body is found, confirming Khalil’s guilt.

9. The Aftermath and Community Mourning

[41:02–43:04]

• The episode closes with Sarah’s funeral; the emotion of her fellow dancers is palpable.
  • Quote [41:51] (Robert Jackson): “They were so distraught they couldn’t complete the dance. … I mean, you could feel the heartbreak.”
• Community shock and grief underscore how violence against overlooked women could—and did—happen anywhere.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Police Response

  • [03:12] Daisy Calavia Robertson: “Again, that’s a law enforcement officer speaking to a victim.”
  • [13:03] Chief Patrick Shannon: “We always took our call seriously, you know, we didn’t just blow people off…”

• On Police Scepticism & Racism

  • [03:30] Rebecca Everett: “And it’s that disbelief, that skepticism, and perhaps that casual racism that’s at the heart of this whole story.”

• On Community Difference

  • [24:50] Robert Jackson: “Montclair has its reputation… highly educated, politically active, lefty wacko place… but in so many ways, it’s like Mayberry.”

• On Social Capital

  • [28:47] Robert Jackson: “She did not fit his typical… profile… which was somebody who he could just… discard and the world would forget.”

• On Catfishing the Killer

  • [33:41] Daisy: “The tables had turned. Khalil Wheeler Weaver… was the one being hunted now. He’d been catfished.”
  • [33:56] Daisy: “It was young women, not police, who did the dirty work.”

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------| | 01:10 | Tiffany’s escape, first police response | | 03:01 | Bodycam & police skepticism | | 05:36 | Tiffany’s reluctance to trust police | | 06:10 | Tiffany’s hospital visit and injuries | | 08:10 | Detective Carvalho interrogates Tiffany | | 09:51 | Najayla Ree on sex workers and police | | 14:10 | Sgt. Jacalone’s comments on “locking up” victims | | 15:35 | Sarah Butler’s first interactions w/ Khalil | | 19:27 | “You’re not a serial killer, right?” | | 24:50 | Montclair community context (Robert Jackson) | | 28:47 | “Social capital” and why Sarah’s case stood out | | 33:41 | The catfishing sting | | 41:02 | Sarah’s body found; funeral and community mourning |

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Episode Takeaways

• Systemic Dismissal: The episode lays bare how law enforcement bias, especially against Black women and sex workers, enabled a serial killer to keep hunting while survivors and victims’ families were ignored.
• Contrast in Justice: Community standing and social capital drastically influence victim treatment and investigative urgency.
• Empowered Action: It was not only police, but the dedication and bravery of victims’ families and friends who ultimately “catfished” the killer and brought him to justice.
• Lasting Impact: The trauma of these murders affects not just families, but entire communities—made especially stark when the community is one with social resources, as in Montclair.

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For further information, visit: someoneshuntingus.com

Next episode: The press conference, interrogation, and Khalil Wheeler-Weaver’s hunt for new victims following his exposure.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

A quick warning. This podcast deals with violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Someone's hunting us.

[Robert Jackson]

Where does Shit. I used to chop off these heads.

[Tiffany (victim)]

I said, you almost killed me. And he said, no, I didn't. I was just putting you out. I know what I was doing. I did this before.

[Rebecca Everett]

He strikes me as a person who's been fantasizing. Fantasizing, fantasizing. And then he does it. And it's such a rush that he's got to do it again and again and again.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

A cigarette burns between Tiffany's fingers on the balcony of the seedy motel. Her lips quiver in the cold. She's trying to calm herself down as she inhales. Then a police cruiser arrives, and another

[Rebecca Everett]

she nervously takes another drag, the steel handcuff still dangling from her right wrist. She just escaped the clutches of a serial killer. She's eager to tell the police who he is. But as soon as they approach her at the Ritz Motel, one of the Elizabeth officers starts barking at her.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Here's audio from the police body cam footage that night.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Can you put that out while we're talking to you, please?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Sergeant John Mayer asks her about the handcuffs.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Why do you have a handcuff on your arm? I got kidnapped. And they handcuffed your one arm.

[Rebecca Everett]

She's saying she was kidnapped. And there he is interrogating her, the victim, as if she's a criminal, in a tone that reveals he doesn't believe and doesn't sympathize.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

In a low voice, she asks if she can speak to him or to one of the other officers in private, maybe in their cruiser.

[Rebecca Everett]

She can't bring herself to say it out loud here, where the other guests can hear that she's been brutally raped. But the cops brush off her request to speak privately, so she powers through

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

rapid recounting a shorter version of what happened to her, reliving most of the nightmare. She just fled, getting choked in the backseat of a car by a sadistic maniac.

[Rebecca Everett]

She tells them what he looks like, a thin, tall young black man, and later she even gives him his name, Khalil.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The cop's next Question.

[Detective/Police Officer]

What injuries do you have? Look at my face on the duct tape. For the what? For the duct tape.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

My face.

[Detective/Police Officer]

When did he duct tape you? In the car.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

In the car.

[Detective/Police Officer]

So you let him duct tape you or what happened?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Let him. Again, that's a law enforcement officer speaking to a victim.

[Rebecca Everett]

That same officer, Elizabeth Police officer Billy Lee even admitted it when he was

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

asked in court if he believed Tiffany's account that night. He said, um, not really.

[Rebecca Everett]

And it's that disbelief, that skepticism, and perhaps that casual racism that's at the heart of this whole story.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Because once again, Khalil is allowed to remain free. Free to snuff out yet another life

[Rebecca Everett]

just seven days later. I'm Rebecca Everett.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

And I'm Daisy Calavia Robertson. This is Someone's Hunting Us, a podcast by NJ.com and TheStar Ledger about a serial killer you've never heard of and the women who took him down.

[Rebecca Everett]

The harsh way police spoke to Tiffany that night might be shocking to some people, but Tiffany didn't seem surprised at all.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

In court, Tiffany said the officers treated her like crap. No, much worse. Like the scum of the earth. Those were her exact words.

[Rebecca Everett]

You'd expect to see some urgency from the cops, some understanding, acting like they care. Instead, they. They grilled her about why she was in a car with a guy she didn't know. They ignored her. Each time she asked them to remove the handcuff, it made her feel still tied to her attacker.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The handcuff just made Officer Lee suspicious.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Why this guy have handcuffs out of nowhere?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She answers him as though it's obvious. Because he planned this.

[Rebecca Everett]

Khalil was a planner, and he was careful. In fact, While Tiffany was calling 91 1, he ran back into the parking lot. Surveillance cameras captured him opening the doors of the Lincoln. Prosecutors said he was wiping it down, carefully removing evidence.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Tiffany did eventually find a private moment to talk to the cops. She got into their car and told them Khalil had tried to rape her. Tried? She was afraid to tell them that he had raped her.

[Rebecca Everett]

Here's an actor reading Tiffany's testimony again.

[Tiffany (victim)]

I'm not gonna tell somebody I got raped. For them to sit there and say, well, we don't believe you, or treat me like I'm lying. That's the worst thing that could happen to a woman after she was raped for someone to say she was lying.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The thing is, these cops didn't trust Tiffany. And Tiffany, well, she didn't trust them either.

[Rebecca Everett]

Right. Like she didn't admit at first why she met up with Khalil. She thought maybe they would see her in a worse light.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

That lack of trust is why she refused an ambulance and took herself to the hospital.

[Rebecca Everett]

The next morning, a nurse examined her and took photos of her injuries. Her face was scratched, her ear was bloody, and several teeth had been knocked out. She told the nurse she was pregnant and extremely worried about her baby.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Yeah, she told this nurse everything that happened to her, too. The full story, no detail spared.

[Rebecca Everett]

And police? Well, they did pick up the rape kit from the hospital and grab the surveillance video from the motel. And they collected fingerprints and swabs from the Lincoln, including what was clearly blood on the backseat, but then nothing. In court, an investigator admitted they didn't send the samples for testing.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

You'd expect detectives would at least want to talk to Khalil, get his side of the story. Tiffany testified that she gave police his full name and where he's from. But get this, Elizabeth. Police never even interviewed Khalil. He was never asked a single question about it.

[Rebecca Everett]

The next week, Kilo. They did interview Tiffany again at the police station, but sadly, that went even worse.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The detective who interviewed her, Ben Carvalho, seemed more worried about calling her out as a prostitute than with trying to build a case against the man who raped and assaulted her.

[Rebecca Everett]

The transcript of their conversation is 126 pages long and filled with his contempt.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Carvalho treated her just like the other cops had.

[Rebecca Everett]

Here's how Tiffany described their interaction in court to Assistant Prosecutor Adam Wells. He's also voiced by an actor.

[Tiffany (victim)]

I was trying to tell him about the rape. And he says, hold on for a minute. You just confirmed for me that you sell yourself. I said, yeah, but that doesn't mean I was prostituting at that specific time.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Did he drop the subject to prostitution?

[Tiffany (victim)]

No.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Did he continue accusing you?

[Tiffany (victim)]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Everett]

Throughout the interview, Tiffany desperately tried to walk the detective through the details to explain what happened, what this monster had done to her. But Carvalho wouldn't listen. He barely let her talk.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Carvalho was interrupting her, talking over her, even. At one point, she begged him to please slow down and let me talk. Let me tell you. She was trying to tell him that she had met Khalil before, back in

[Rebecca Everett]

April, but he simply cut her off again.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

At one point, Tiffany handed her phone to Carvalho so he could read her text with Khalil and verify that she was telling him the truth.

[Rebecca Everett]

Even Assistant Prosecutor Adam Wells was incredulous about what happened next. This is what he said in court.

[Detective/Police Officer]

He started mocking her about the text messages. About how they proved that she's just a prostitute.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Yeah. Even after Tiffany bluntly told them she had planned to meet up with Khalil to rob him, not to have sex with him, the detective still insisted otherwise.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Here's how Wells put so for 123 pages, the detective calls you a prostitute and tells you he doesn't believe you.

[Rebecca Everett]

Correct.

[Tiffany (victim)]

Yes.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Several social justice experts we spoke with weren't at all surprised by the cop's handling of this. They said police disbelief and mistreatment of black women and even more so of black sex workers is not uncommon.

[Rebecca Everett]

Remember Najayla Ree from last episode? She's the director of the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance, a group that advocates for the rights of sex workers.

[Najayla Ree]

When somebody shows the bravery to actually go to the police and say, yes, I'm a sex worker and this happened to me or my friend is missing, we're both sex workers and here is the last date she had. This person may have harmed her because unfortunately, as you see in this case, there are so many opportunities where this person could have been stopped and lives could have been saved.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She told us she's been hurt by cops before, verbally and sometimes even physically.

[Rebecca Everett]

And those past experiences with police are part of the reason sex workers often don't report these attacks at all.

[Najayla Ree]

Because they don't have to believe us. It's more convenient for us to just be criminals that they could arrest because we are seen as criminals first victims. Maybe it takes so much to have an interaction with law enforcement. It's such a huge risk.

[Detective/Police Officer]

And

[Najayla Ree]

it's because you know that whatever they do to you, they're going to get away with it.

[Rebecca Everett]

Since that night at the Ritz Motel, some of these officers have been promoted, like John Mayer, who was the highest ranking officer on the scene. He's now the deputy chief of the Elizabeth Police Department.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

We wanted to know, do they still think about the case? Do they wish they'd done things differently? So we made calls, we sent emails, and we even went to their homes and knocked on their front doors.

[Rebecca Everett]

Sorry, we're reporters from NJ.com, we were just hoping to speak with him.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Then we went to another officer's house.

[Rebecca Everett]

We knocked on a lot of doors.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

I guess no answer was an answer for him.

[Rebecca Everett]

We're reporters. We were just hoping to talk to him. Is there a time maybe I could leave a business card? Nobody would talk to us except for the ring doorbell robot.

[Detective/Police Officer]

We can't answer the door right now, but if you'd like to leave a Message. You can do it now.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Somebody's in there. She, like, saw us and just went up the stairs.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Yeah,

[Rebecca Everett]

we also really wanted to talk to Carvalho about this. Here's how that went.

[Detective/Police Officer]

What is this? What about this case?

[Rebecca Everett]

Of course, I'm sure you're away. One of the questions about it was whether if Tiffany's story had been believed when she reported it, if the case could have turned out differently, you know, with one less victim. Yeah, I'm not.

[Detective/Police Officer]

I'm not allowed to speak to this. My department does not allow me to speak to the press. Okay.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Okay.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The Elizabeth Police Department wouldn't respond to our calls and emails asking about Tiffany. The only person who gave us some sort of answer was retired Chief Patrick Shannon. He was the chief when Tiffany was assaulted, but he said he didn't remember the case.

[Detective/Police Officer]

I'm not there now, but we always

[Robert Jackson]

took our call seriously, you know, we didn't just blow people off, if that's

[Detective/Police Officer]

what you're implying here. Yeah, they didn't believe her that she had been attacked. They believed that she was making. I really don't recall, so. And I gotta get going. Today is my 41st anniversary with my wife, and we're on our way out today. Okay?

[Robert Jackson]

Thank you for your time.

[Detective/Police Officer]

I appreciate it.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

We wondered if others in law enforcement, you know, people not so closely tied to the case, might have a different take on the situation.

[Rebecca Everett]

Some agreed it was handled badly. Others said things like, this is what happens when cops become jaded. And one retired chief parroted the same false and tired trope that sex workers frequently make up sexual assaults.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

We called Joe Jacalone, a retired NYPT sergeant who supervised investigations. And after explaining the case how Tiffany planned to rob Khalil but was then nearly killed. Yeah, he said he would have arrested Tiffany, right?

[Detective/Police Officer]

Yeah, that. Well, I mean, to me, I would have locked them both up. Right, so how about that one? I would have locked her up for rolling the guy and locked him up for assaulting him, and then let the district attorney figure out what they want to do with it. You know, I mean, listen, you're dealing with a different category of people here. They know exactly how the system works. I mean, she's willing to admit to the police that she's been rolling this guy.

[Rebecca Everett]

I reminded him she had visible wounds. She was wearing a handcuff. But he just said, eh, her word alone is not enough to prosecute. So you think her word was just garbage to them?

[Detective/Police Officer]

Well, I didn't say that was garbage. I would just say that from the investigative standpoint and even from the district attorney standpoint, you would have a case that was pretty much not prosecutable. I mean, if the forensic did they get when they did the sexual assault kit, did they gather DNA evidence? And if they did, was it a single donor or was it multiple donors?

[Rebecca Everett]

While Detective Carvalho sat in the Elizabeth police station questioning Tiffany about sex work and accusing her of lying, Khalil Wheeler Weaver wasn't laying low. He was hunting again, looking for that rush. He was back on tagged, already messaging his next victim.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

If Khalil had been expecting a knock on his door from Elizabeth police, it never came.

[Rebecca Everett]

Sarah Butler is bored in her dorm room at New Jersey city University. The 20 year old has had trouble making friends in college and doesn't love her roommates. So on this Saturday night in November, she's scrolling and swiping away on the tagged app. Her profile. Sarah smiles.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Suddenly she gets a notification. Oh, someone's sliding in her DMs. And he's kind of cute. His screen name's a Lil Yacht Rock. He says what's up? And asks, wanna make some money?

[Rebecca Everett]

Her long nails click and clack on the screen of her iPhone. I'm not into credit card scams. Lol.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He brushes it off and asks her again, do you want to make some money?

[Rebecca Everett]

Now she's pretty sure she knows what he means.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But Sarah Butler has no idea what Lil Yatrok truly has planned for her. Sarah Butler loved to dance. Ever since she was a little girl, the dance studio was her happy. At 4 or 5, she started ballet lessons at the Premier Dance Theater in Montclair. Well into her teens, she was still gliding across the room, dancing to modern jazz and hip hop on the shiny hardwood floors.

[Rebecca Everett]

When she grew up, she started teaching classes at the studio, mentoring the smallest ballerinas.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

A while back we visited the dance studio and saw adorable photos of Sarah. She she's probably about six years old, wearing a cute little tutu and smiling from ear to ear.

[Rebecca Everett]

As a teen and young adult, she was a bright light. She was 5 foot 5 with long black and red hair and a dazzling smile. She was always wearing silver hoop earrings and her premier dance jacket.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She also worked as a lifeguard at the ymca. Just like with dancing, she helped teach swimming to the little kids there. That's how a lot of the families in town remember her.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

She just loved what she did so much that she had to teach it.

[Rebecca Everett]

That's her little sister Aliyah speaking in court.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

Sarah was kind.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

She was a really gentle Soul.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

And here's Laverne, Sarah's mom. A bit teary and emotional.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Sarah is someone very special, not only to me, but to the whole community. The things that that little girl have in her attention to do and to prove to the world.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But sometimes this really gentle soul felt lost away at college.

[Rebecca Everett]

And that's partly why she turned to Tagged. Sarah had used the app in high school, and her friend testified that she decided to download it again in college to try to meet people, make new friends.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But on this night, when he slid into her DMs, Khalil didn't offer her friendship. He offered her money for sex.

[Rebecca Everett]

At first, she seemed shocked by Khalil's bold pitch, but pretty soon, they were negotiating. Here's their messages, read by actors.

[Tiffany (victim)]

Wow.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Well, how much money?

[Rebecca Everett]

How much are you looking for?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

500.

[Rebecca Everett]

Okay, no problem.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

For 500, would you spend the night at my place? Nah.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Okay.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

How about 200 for an hour at my place?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Four.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

405, huh? To fuck me. 500. Okay, deal.

[Rebecca Everett]

Because you were thick. Can I come get you now?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She gives him her address, but then she asks a question. You're not a serial killer, right? A lmao.

[Rebecca Everett]

He flatly says no.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Us women ask this question all the time, especially when meeting a strange guy on a dating app.

[Rebecca Everett]

But I feel like it's almost shorthand for am I safe with this guy?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Right.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But what Sarah didn't know is that not only is he a serial killer, he's a killer who she's met before.

[Rebecca Everett]

Yeah, they'd met briefly once and hung out at her dorm room with a mutual friend. We know Khalil recognized Sara on the app and that's why he DMed her. But we don't know if he targeted Sarah like he had with Tiffany.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But she had no idea about any of this. She didn't recognize him or put it together. Because the profile picture on this account isn't even of Khalil. It's actually a picture of his stepbrother.

[Rebecca Everett]

There's still a lot we don't know about that night. We don't know how close Sarah got to actually getting in Khalil's car.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Khalil called her later to explain that the photo wasn't him and that they'd met before. But maybe it freaked her out, because in the end, she ghosts him.

[Rebecca Everett]

It could have ended there, but it didn't. Because he wants Sarah. He wasn't going to let her get away, not like Tiffany.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

A few days later, Khalil messages Sarah again.

[Rebecca Everett]

She tells him she's sorry she got really nervous. She feels like an ass for bailing. He says she should feel bad cause, quote, I'm a really great guy once you get to know me.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He asks her to call him. That call only lasts 20 seconds, but he must have said something to change her mind about meeting him, because the very next day she does.

[Rebecca Everett]

That was the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. She was back in her childhood bedroom in Montclair. Her mom had picked her up so she could spend Thanksgiving at home.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Right before meeting Khalil, Sarah grabs the keys to her mom's van, tells her she's borrowing it to go meet up with a friend, and says she'll be right back.

[Rebecca Everett]

Sarah picks him up at the corner of Highland and Berkeley in Orange, just a few blocks from his home.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Only he knows. The abandoned white house on the corner, with tall, stately columns and broken windows, is where he brutally killed Joanne Brown and left her lifeless body to rot.

[Rebecca Everett]

Just like. Only he knows what he did to Robin west in the house he burned down a few months earlier.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

And only he and Tiffany, who just escaped from his clutches, know how close he'd come to killing yet another woman. Now he's not about to let another

[Rebecca Everett]

one get away when he slides into the passenger seat of Sarah's van. Kahlil's wearing a black jacket, a hoodie, a skull cap, and dark gloves. It's a cold night, though, in the 30s, so maybe she thought nothing of the gloves, right?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He climbs in and they're off to a local recording studio where Sarah said she had to pick something up.

[Rebecca Everett]

There. She sees a friend in the parking lot of the brick building and says, hi. Khalil stays in the van and keeps his face out of sight.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Next they hit up the 711 in West Orange. This time Sarah stays in the van talking to a friend on her phone while Khalil strolls inside to buy condoms.

[Rebecca Everett]

She watches him walk away. His head kind of hunches forward from his shoulders as he walks.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Within minutes, they're snaking through Eagle Rock reservation, an isolated 2008, her nature preserve with endless trails.

[Rebecca Everett]

Sarah navigates the dimly lit, winding roads to a secluded parking lot surrounded by woods. It's deserted.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The Dodge Caravan comes to a stop. She doesn't know it, but this is the place she'll take her last breath, where Khalil will finally show himself for who he really is.

[Rebecca Everett]

The next morning, Sarah's mom goes to her room to check on her, and she finds the bed empty. She immediately panics.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She's Frantically calling Sarah's friends. She even goes to visit her bestie, Lamia Brown, the friend Sarah was talking to while Khalil was in the 7 11. She's calling hospitals.

[Rebecca Everett]

And around 8pm, 24 hours after she'd last seen Sarah, they go to the police.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But this is not Newark, where so many girls are throwaways. In Montclair, things work much differently.

[Rebecca Everett]

When I drove up here, I didn't drive on Bloomfield Ave. It, like, took me around here on Elm street, and I drove by, like, some really nice houses. And that's the part of Montclair that I've like that I first saw.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

I mean, a Starbucks is maybe the best indication like that. It's gentrified.

[Rebecca Everett]

But Montclair is probably one of the best known towns in New Jersey. It's just outside Newark, but feels like a world away. It has a vibe like every wealthy Manhattanite has moved here in the last 15 years. Wow, it just looks really nice. Like, I always thought it was really posh and, you know, no one could afford to live here except for Stephen Colbert

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

and Patrick Wilson, the guy from the conjuring. Here's how Robert Jackson put it. He's a lifelong resident and was the mayor when Sarah went missing.

[Robert Jackson]

And, you know, Montclair, you know, has its reputation of being, you know, this highly educated, politically active, kind of, you know, lefty wacko place. And much, much of that is, you know, like, can't run from his kind of pretty much true, but in so many ways, it's like Mayberry. It's just like this simple place, and people know each other and their communities.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

This isn't a huge busy city. The cops here treat missing girls as emergencies, not throwaways.

[Rebecca Everett]

So the police actually listen to Sarah's mom and her friend Lamia and take it all down. How she never came home, what the van looked like, how she's never dropped off the grid like this.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

By the time they finally go home, it's early Thanksgiving morning. It's a difficult day to start an investigation.

[Rebecca Everett]

Yeah, especially with a skeleton staff. Still, the captain starts working the phones, calling around to see which of his detectives can help. Most of them are, of course, celebrating with their families.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But finally, he's in luck. Detective Pierre Falaise Jr. Answers the phone.

[Rebecca Everett]

Falaise, who'd been at the department for about 15 years, agrees to come in and spearhead things.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

At that point, officers are looking for Sarah's cell phone records, spreading the word about the missing blue Dodge Caravan and alerting other cops to be on the lookout. They're also checking to see whether Sarah might have returned to her dorm.

[Rebecca Everett]

Jackson told us he was notified as the mayor, he thought maybe Sarah had just gone to New York or was out somewhere with friends.

[Robert Jackson]

Nothing nefarious or anything on that came into my head immediately. And then after maybe like 12 hours, you know, something like that, I started to getting these thoughts of perhaps something less harmless, if you will, was afoot.

[Rebecca Everett]

In the days that followed, he and a few police officers regularly visited Sarah's parents to keep them updated and show support.

[Robert Jackson]

This doesn't, you know how many times you hear this? This doesn't happen in our community. You know what I mean? It just. Here's a wonderful young lady who just runs into the wrong guy.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The urgency Montclair police showed in looking for Sarah was a night and day difference to what we've talked about earlier when other black girls and women went missing in other cities. People like Robin West, Joanne Brown, or Mawa Jumbia.

[Rebecca Everett]

But remember, this is Montclair. A missing girl puts the whole town's reputation on the line.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Yeah, the former mayor said it best. This just isn't the place where this happens.

[Rebecca Everett]

We spoke to Mawa's friend Janesha about the differences in the cases. Why was the police response to Mawa so different? Here's her take like this.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

I feel like they did not take her case seriously. I feel like north police failed her. And I also feel like her parents failed her as well. Yes, I do. I do. I feel that way.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Janisha and Mawa's other friends kept pushing police and even found leads for them to investigate. Did detectives get surveillance video outside Mawa's home? Did they ping her phone? They could not get any answers and not just for months, for years.

[Rebecca Everett]

I get that a missing girl just makes more waves in a place like Montclair compared to a big city. But Janesha also touched on a good point. Family. The kind of family you come from matters.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Sarah's was tight knit, always in touch with each other. They were connected to their community.

[Rebecca Everett]

And maybe more importantly, no one ever dismissed Sarah as just a sex worker.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Yeah. In court, the assistant prosecutor said that what set Sarah apart from the other victims was, quote, social capital. Here's Robert Jackson again.

[Robert Jackson]

This is a person who comes from a strong family, strong community support. She did not fit his typical, what he thought was his typical profile, which was somebody who he could just, you know, do every day with discard and the world would forget.

[Rebecca Everett]

Of course, Montclair officials at this point had no idea they were dealing with a serial killer. They were just trying to find anyone who knew where Sarah was. Within just two days, they had her cell phone records and came up with a list of people they wanted to speak to.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

It included two guys she'd been talking to.

[Rebecca Everett]

One of them told police he'd chatted with Sarah, but she stopped replying. He kept trying to reach her, though, which police took as a sign he was telling the truth. I mean, you wouldn't keep texting someone if you knew they were dead.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

And the other was Khalil Wheeler. Weaver Police show up at his front door and talk to his stepdad, a cop in the East Orange Police Department. He greets them and says he'll make sure Khalil gives them a call as soon as he gets home.

[Rebecca Everett]

But of course, Khalil doesn't.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Then, the very next day, there's a bleak discovery in the case.

[Robert Jackson]

Well, you know, you still had this sort of glimmer of hope on it. Boy, did that really extinguish the flame, you know? And then I thought, oh, my God.

[Rebecca Everett]

Someone sees the van in the parking lot of the recording studio. The same one Sarah stopped at with Kahlil before they went to Eagle Rock Reservation.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

This person tells Sarah's sister Bassania about the van.

[Rebecca Everett]

It's an old brick building on Nassau street in Orange. Bassania, Lamia, and a few others rush there and find the abandoned van empty with a door ajar.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

They call police and start to look around the parking lot, hoping to find a clue, hoping to find some trace of Sarah.

[Rebecca Everett]

And then Lamia sees it.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Sarah's bright burgundy wig.

[Rebecca Everett]

It's the gut wrenching scream erupting from Lamia that makes the officers look up from whatever they're doing.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

She screams, that's her hair. That's her hair.

[Rebecca Everett]

The wig is hung on the brick wall as though someone had left it there for them to find.

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[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, four days after his last kill, and Khalil Wheeler Weber is back on Tagged.

[Rebecca Everett]

But when he opens the app, he sees he won't need to make the first move this time. A Girl, a new profile he hadn't seen before, has sent him a friend request.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He has work tonight, but there's still time if he moves fast. He's chasing that rush again. He slides into her DMs and starts the conversation.

[Rebecca Everett]

And it seems like it's going to happen. The girl is up for meeting. They share numbers and start texting.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But she waffles about when they could meet. Something about waiting for her sister to pick up the baby.

[Rebecca Everett]

She's a fish on the line and he needs to reel her in soon. So he texts her, how long? I kind of only have two and a half hours to spare until I have to get ready for work.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

A little after five, she calls him. This is a recording of that call.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Hello?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Hey, what's up? Nothing. Still doing my hair.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Did you want me to start coming back?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Huh?

[Robert Jackson]

You want me to start coming back?

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

I'm not done my hair, and I'm just waiting for my sister. She went to the store, so once she get the baby, then I' ma just let you know, give you the address so you could come.

[Detective/Police Officer]

All right. Wait around.

[Robert Jackson]

What street are you at? Like, what Main street by.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

I'm by Cleveland.

[Robert Jackson]

Oh, okay. That's right there.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Okay.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Finally, she's ready. But she doesn't want to meet at her house. What about the Panera in Downtown Montclair?

[Rebecca Everett]

At 6:20, he turns his BMW into the brightly lit parking lot and finds a spot.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He's ready with his kill kit stashed within reach.

[Rebecca Everett]

But right away, someone is walking toward his car, and it's not the pretty girl from Tagged. Two men, in fact, are walking toward him. Two police officers in plain clothes.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The tables had turned. Khalil Wheeler Weaver, the hunter who had lured women to their deaths, was the one being hunted now. He'd been catfished.

[Rebecca Everett]

Oh, I can imagine his stomach dropping in that moment of realization.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

It was young women, not police, who did the dirty work. Sarah Butler's older sister and two friends catfished him. They delivered the guy right to the police.

[Rebecca Everett]

And remember, this is not the first time in this podcast we've talked about girls trying to catfish a predator to find a missing loved one. Janisha and Mawa's other friends had been ready to catfish a guy, too, until the police talked them out of it.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

Right?

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Sarah's family and friends wasted no time. After they found her wig in that empty parking lot, Bassania and Sara's best friend, Lamia, started hatching a plan to find her or to find out what happened to her.

[Rebecca Everett]

They met at the butler's house and opened up Sarah's laptop. Lamia and Sarah were so close. She knew some of Sarah's passwords. They were able to get into Sarah's tagged account.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

They knew Sarah had met up with a guy that night and wanted to know who. The answer was in Sara's chat history with Lil Yatrok.

[Rebecca Everett]

And they weren't going to wait for the police to track him down. They were going to do it themselves.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

It was Basania's best friend, Samantha Rivera, who made the fake profile. They sent friend requests to Lil Yachtrock and anyone else Sarah had chatted with. And Lil Yacht Rock started messaging that day. He said his name was Taj.

[Rebecca Everett]

Samantha is the voice that you hear on that recorded call. Bassania was the one recording it.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

And then they went to the police and told them about the meetup at Panera.

[Rebecca Everett]

Here's a court recording of Pierre Fellaise, the detective who had come in on Thanksgiving to work the case. He was one of two detectives who went to surprise Lil Yat Rock.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

She told us that the person would be coming in a silver BMW. And then when the vehicle pulled up, it was Khalil Wheeler Weaver.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

When they got his name, they realized he was the guy they'd discovered in Sarah's call logs. The guy whose house they'd visited in Orange the night before.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

We advised him that we needed to go to headquarters to speak with him regarding a missing person.

[Detective/Police Officer]

Okay.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

And he agreed to meet us there.

[Rebecca Everett]

But Khalil Wheeler Weaver wasn't arrested on this day, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, because Sarah Butler is just missing at this point. They have no evidence of a crime yet, even though it's suspicious as hell.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

They weren't even treating him like a suspect at this point. He drove his own car. They didn't record the interview. They just sat down in the detective bureau. Filet said Khalil seemed very relaxed, even when they told him they wanted to ask him about Sarah Butler.

[Rebecca Everett]

They ask him how come the photo on your tagged profile doesn't look anything like you.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

He is little Yacht Rock. But the profile picture is a photo of his stepbrother.

[Rebecca Everett]

Khalil told the cops he used his stepbrother's photo because it wouldn't let him

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

upload his own photo, which doesn't make any sense.

[Rebecca Everett]

But Khalil apparently didn't lie about how he propositioned Sarah on tagged. Here's Filet's experience reading from his report in court.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

He stated that many women on tagged app solicit money for sex. He stated that he wanted to see if she was one of those people. So he sent her a message. She sent him a message on tagged up $500. He stated he had no intention of paying $500 for sex, but kept entertaining her with the conversation.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Now, of course, he wasn't gonna pay her. He was gonna kill her.

[Rebecca Everett]

He started to tell the story of their meetup, but lies right away, saying Sarah picked him up in downtown Orange. He describes this route. They drove around various towns and stopping to buy weed.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

We know he was lying a lot to these detectives, but again, just like when union police questioned him about Robin west, he's either drawing from the truth or making up little details to make it seem credible. And they have no reason to doubt this.

[Rebecca Everett]

Khalil seemed very relaxed, relaxed even as he completely made up a new character in the story. He said Sarah picked up another guy, a light skinned black man with a gray sweatshirt and a tattoo on his hand. And once that guy got in the backseat, he said Sarah stopped talking to him. So he asked her to bring him back to downtown Orange.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

He told the cops she dropped him off to work on cars with his friend Rich Isaacs.

[Rebecca Everett]

You remember Rich, who we heard from before. Rich had also been Kahlil's alibi when he was questioned about Robin west months earlier.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

So he tries it again, telling the detectives she left him where Rich was fixing his Honda Civic a little before 8:30. He said the mystery man climbed from the backseat to the passenger seat and that Sarah drove off.

[Rebecca Everett]

Now, none of that really happened, but the police don't know that they see a nice cooperative witness.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Still, they were curious enough that they asked if they could check his arms to see if he was in any kind of struggle recently.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

He just took his shirt off. He said okay. And where we saw like a scratch on his tricep and on his right arm and it was scabbing a little bit.

[Rebecca Everett]

He told them the scratch happened at work, but said he didn't remember how. But otherwise he was acting really helpful. Like when they walked him to his car, he noticed them looking in the windows and so he popped the trunk so they could take a look in there too.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Khalil had told the cops he had to get to work, but he could give a recorded statement another day. He came back to the station a few days later, but the detective didn't want to take the recorded statement yet, so they did something else.

[Robert Jackson]

He.

[Detective Pierre Falaise Jr.]

Well, we were talking about the route that he and Sarah traveled that night. And you know, he said he would take us the route that they drove. Okay, so we did drive around. I mean, the whole time he was like. Appeared to be being very helpful and helping us try and figure out what happened to him.

[Rebecca Everett]

It sounds a lot like when cops were looking for Robin west and Kahlil volunteered to take them to the warehouse in Orange.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But while he was riding around the county with filets, investigators were digging into the story he'd told them. This time, they hadn't just taken him at his word.

[Rebecca Everett]

It's been a week since Sarah's disappearance. Detectives talked to Rich Isaacs, who backed up Khalil's alibi. They checked license plate cameras for Khalil's vehicle on the night in question. They'd found surveillance video of where the van was discovered. They were just waiting to get a copy, hoping it would show how Sarah's van ended up there.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

But they had also obtained something even more crucial to their investigation. Sarah Butler's cell phone location data. It showed one of the last places her phone pinged. Eagle Rock reservation.

[Rebecca Everett]

It was December 1st, the second day of searching Eagle Rock. When they finally found Sarah Butler. She was half clothed, hidden under leaves and other debris in the woods near a rarely used parking lot. Like Joanne Brown, she'd been strangled to death with a piece of her own clothing.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The news sent a shudder through the whole town.

[Robert Jackson]

It said, she was one of our dancers. She was one of our lifeguards. She was an alumna. You know, that just touches everything.

[Rebecca Everett]

Robert Jackson was clearly moved, going over these memories. And there's one moment in particular that will stay with him. A moment with Sarah's fellow dancers at her funeral.

[Robert Jackson]

Her casket was right by. It was in front of the church, and they were doing a dance in tribute to her. And as they went through it, they were so distraught that they couldn't complete it. They just started hugging each other. And, you know, in some cases, they look like they're made, like, fainting or something. It was just too emotional for them to continue the dance. And I don't think I've. I again that feared in my mind, in my spirit. I. I mean, you could feel the heartbreak.

[Rebecca Everett]

It was below freezing the night of the vigil, but nearly 100 people huddled around the front steps of the Butler family's home. Some clutched white balloons, others held flickering candles. They sang hymn and they prayed, and they released the balloons simultaneously into the night sky.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Next time on Someone's Hunting Us, they

[Rebecca Everett]

were just asking, like, why are you lying for them?

[Detective/Police Officer]

Okay, you guys are either insinuating or you guys are saying that I murdered people. I have not.

[Robert Jackson]

Now we're saying you murdered her.

[Sarah Butler's family/friends]

I just dreamt of her. I don't remember what it was, but I do know that I dreamt of her and I felt her presence.

[Rebecca Everett]

Right now we want to take you

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

out to Essex county to the press conference there regarding Sarah Butler.

[Rebecca Everett]

Let's see what's happening there. Someone's Hunting Us is a production of NJ Advanced Media.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

The podcast is reported and produced by me, Daisy Calavia Robertson, and Rebecca Everett. Our executive producers are Christopher Kelly, Jessica Beem, Jeff Roberts, and Jess Mazzola.

[Rebecca Everett]

This podcast is recorded and mixed by Alex Graves at Sound on Sound Studios in Montclair, New Jersey. Our composer is Blake Maples. James Shapiro is our Associate Audio Engineer. Our website is designed by A lot of Saleem. Our voice actors for this episode are Jerome Williams, Brent Johnson, Melissa Hanson, and Devin Nikki Thomas.

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

Special thanks to each and every person who shared their story with us.

[Rebecca Everett]

If you want to see photos, videos, timelines and other extras from this story, check out our website someoneshuntingus.com youm can contact us at inboxomeoneshuntingus.com Follow someone's husband

[Daisy Calavia Robertson]

hunting Us and if you're enjoying it, please rate and review it. Word of mouth is huge, so please help spread the word.