Essex County Serial Killer Charged With 4th Murder: Prosecutor – Newark, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Khalil Wheeler Weaver killed three women in Essex County in 2016. Now, he’s officially been charged with another murder, prosecutors say.

On Thursday, authorities announced that Wheeler Weaver has been accused of slaying Mawa Doumbia, 15, of Newark, during his killing spree more than five years ago. Read More: Serial Killer Who Murdered Essex County College Student Sentenced To Jail

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Orange Police Department released a joint statement about the latest charge:

“The victim’s father and sister last saw her on the evening of Oct. 7, 2016, as she was leaving the family home in Newark. She was reported missing but efforts to locate her were unsuccessful. On May 9, 2019, decomposed human remains were discovered face down on the second floor of an old carriage house on Main Street in Orange. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be homicide by ligature strangulation. The remains were positively identified on Nov. 5, 2021 as those of Doumbia.”

Authorities continued:

“Following an investigation involving extensive digital evidence, it was determined that on October 7, 2016, Wheeler Weaver met the young girl online and solicited her to meet him in person for sex. It is alleged that he traveled to the area of her residence then to the murder scene, where he strangled her to death and left her remains concealed within the vacant building.”

Wheeler Weaver was formally charged with murder in connection with Doumbia’s death on Thursday, prosecutors said.

3 DEAD IN ESSEX COUNTY

After a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wheeler Weaver was sentenced to 160 years in prison last year. He has been incarcerated since his arrest in December 2016.

Wheeler-Weaver’s victims included Sarah Butler of Montclair, a 20-year-old college student at Jersey City University, Joanne Brown, a 33-year-old Newark resident, and Robin West, 19, a Philadelphia native who was living in Union Township. Read More: Jury Convicts Essex County Man Who Killed 3 Women

Prosecutors said that Wheeler-Weaver used dating apps to lure the women into sexual encounters, then attacked and strangled them. A fourth woman who survived an attack and testified at the trial said it changed her life, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities found Butler’s body in Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange in December 2016 after the Jersey City University student was reported missing a week earlier. Her friends later used social media to help police find Wheeler-Weaver, gaining access to her accounts, setting up a fake profile and luring him to a meeting in Montclair.

Authorities said Wheeler-Weaver killed Brown in October 2016. Her body was discovered in a vacant home in Orange that December.

Prosecutors said that Wheeler-Weaver killed West in Orange, then set fire to the vacant home. At the time of her murder, the 19-year-old was living in Union Township; she was reported missing in September, authorities said.

Wheeler-Weaver pleaded not guilty to the killings in 2017.

In 2019, an Essex County jury convicted him on three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Butler, West and Brown. The jury also convicted him of three counts of desecration of human remains and aggravated arson.

He was also found guilty of the kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder of his fourth victim, who survived the attack, prosecutors said.

Sign up for Patch email newsletters. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com