Serial killer will get 160 years after sufferer’s sister and buddies assist remedy case

When Sarah Butler didn’t return to her house in Montclair, New Jersey, after borrowing her mom’s minivan in November 2016, her household instantly acknowledged that she could be in hassle.
Using Butler’s laptop passwords to go browsing to her e-mail and social media accounts, one in every of her sisters and two buddies discovered one of many final males she had been speaking to on-line. Then they arrange a gathering with him at a Panera Bread cafe in Montclair, with the police ready within the car parking zone.
At the time, the police thought-about the person, Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, then a 20-year-old safety guard from Orange, New Jersey, solely an individual of curiosity in Butler’s disappearance.
But the lure that Butler’s sister and buddies laid Nov. 26, 2016, helped detectives establish Wheeler-Weaver as a suspect and, finally, a serial killer, authorities stated.
On Wednesday, practically 5 years later, Wheeler-Weaver, 25, was sentenced to 160 years in jail for murdering Butler, 20; Robin West, 19, of Union Township; and Joanne Brown, 33, of Newark; and for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and making an attempt to homicide Tiffany Taylor. All 4 have been attacked from August to November 2016.
Adam Wells of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the lead prosecutor within the case, credited Butler’s sister and buddies with orchestrating the primary in-person assembly between Montclair police and Wheeler-Weaver, giving detectives “a big early break” within the investigation.
“They really did go above and beyond what people often do,” Wells stated in an interview. “It’s a testament to their love of their friend and sister.”
Butler was a pupil at New Jersey City University when she started speaking to Wheeler-Weaver on Tagged, a social networking website, the place he glided by the title LilYachtRock.
After she borrowed her mom’s minivan to satisfy him Nov. 22, 2016, Wheeler-Weaver strangled her, authorities stated. Her physique was present in Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange on Dec. 1, 2016.
Before her physique was discovered, police had opened a missing-person investigation. At the identical time, Butler’s sister Bassania Daley and two buddies, LaMia Brown and Samantha Rivera, started their very own detective work.
Because Brown knew Butler’s laptop passwords, they have been in a position to go browsing to her social media accounts and found that Butler had been speaking to LilYachtRock on Tagged, Wells stated.
Rivera created her personal profile on Tagged. Within an hour, LilYachtRock had contacted her and began urgent her to satisfy him in individual, Wells stated.

Rivera was on the police station in Montclair, hoping to inform detectives that she had simply been contacted by the final man who had communicated with Butler, when he referred to as her on her telephone, Wells stated. Daley pulled out her telephone and recorded the dialog.
Rivera organized to satisfy him at Panera and waved to him when he pulled up in a BMW, Wells stated.
That was when the police, who have been ready within the car parking zone, stopped Wheeler-Weaver and questioned him about Butler’s disappearance.
Wheeler-Weaver was not instantly arrested as a result of Butler’s physique had not but been discovered, and he was thought-about solely an individual of curiosity, not a suspect, Wells stated.
But the way in which he had reached out so shortly to Rivera heightened detectives’ considerations about him, and he gave an alibi that later unraveled, Wells stated.
“Getting this initial contact with Wheeler-Weaver was a big early break,” Wells stated. “It gave us more reason to be suspicious of him.”
Wheeler-Weaver was arrested days later, after Butler’s physique was discovered. Daley, Brown and Rivera didn’t reply to messages left at numbers listed underneath their names. Their position in cracking the case was beforehand reported by NorthJersey.com.
Although he could possibly be outwardly charming, Wheeler-Weaver tortured and strangled ladies who have been poor, homeless, mentally in poor health or engaged in intercourse work, authorities stated.
Police discovered that he had searched on-line for anesthesia and medicines to “put someone to sleep,” in addition to for do-it-yourself poisons, authorities stated.
Investigators additionally discovered a physique fluid cleanup equipment, zip ties and lighter fluid within the trunk of the automobile the place he had assaulted Taylor in November 2016, authorities stated.
After Wheeler-Weaver murdered West on Sept. 1, 2016, he set fireplace to her physique and torched an deserted home the place he had left her, authorities stated.
Her stays have been so badly charred that she needed to be recognized with dental data.
“He thought all of the victims would not be noticed,” Judge Mark Ali stated whereas sentencing Wheeler-Weaver in Superior Court in Essex County on Wednesday. “He thought all of the victims eventually would be forgotten.”
Wheeler-Weaver, studying from a sheet of paper, maintained his innocence.
“I have clear and convincing evidence that I was set up, I was lied on, and I was framed by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office,” he stated.
During the listening to, Taylor rejected Wheeler-Weaver’s claims. Taylor, who was kidnapped and assaulted by Wheeler-Weaver seven days earlier than Butler was killed, identified she had beforehand met Wheeler-Weaver at his house and acknowledged him when he assaulted her.
During the assault, Wheeler-Weaver had handcuffed her, put duct tape round her head and had began to cowl her nostril and mouth, Ali stated. But Taylor was in a position to slip one hand from {the handcuffs} after which escape when she locked her lodge room door, leaving Wheeler-Weaver outdoors.
Taylor stated that because the assault, she doesn’t do her hair or use make-up and doesn’t have or need buddies.
“I don’t trust anyone,” she stated. “I’m always paranoid. But I’m just happy to still be here and be able to tell what happened so that he could be locked up for it.”