(AbsoluteNews.com) – Dating apps have become incredibly popular over the last decade or so. Many times, people have good experiences with the apps. Some even find partners for life. Unfortunately, there’s a darker side to dating apps: predators.
Every once in a while, a predator will use a dating app to find victims. That was the case with Khalil Wheeler-Weaver. Now he’s going to prison for a long time thanks to the friends of his victims.
The Crimes
Philadelphia native Robin West, 19, traveled to New Jersey to celebrate her September 5 birthday early. She met up with a man on August 31, 2016, and he strangled her to death. After he murdered her, he set fire to her body and then lit a vacant home on fire. Two weeks later, authorities notified her family to tell them they identified her body using dental records.
On November 23, 2016, the family of Sarah Butler, 20, reported her missing after they were unable to reach her by phone. The young woman was very close to her family, and it was out of character for her to not communicate with them. About a week later, on December 1, Montclair, New Jersey police found her body in Eagle Rock Reservation. She’d been choked to death.
On December 5, 2016, authorities found the body of Joanne Brown, 33, in a vacant home in Orange, New Jersey. She was murdered on October 22.
A fourth woman survived the attacks.
Catching a Killer
In the days after Sarah Butler was killed, her friends decided to take action. They gained access to her social media accounts and set up a fake one to lure her suspected killer. The friends set up a meeting with Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 20 (now 25), and alerted the police.
Authorities arrested Wheeler-Weaver and charged him with Butler’s murder. They soon connected him to the deaths of West and Brown, as well. In 2019, he was found guilty of the murders. Last week, he finally received a sentence.
On October 6, the victims’ loved ones spoke out at the murderer’s sentencing hearing, as did his surviving victim, Tiffany Taylor. She talked about how her whole life is different because of the attack. She urged the judge to give her attacker the maximum sentence. “I hope you don’t show him any remorse, because he’s not showing any remorse,” Taylor said.
Before the sentencing, Wheeler-Weaver told Superior Court Judge Mark S. Ali that he didn’t commit the killings. He claimed someone framed him. The judge didn’t buy it and sentenced him to 160 years in prison for the heinous murders.
You Deserve the Absolute Truth!
Copyright 2021, AbsoluteNews.com