November 1, 2022 • 54 mins
Laying his trap on social media, this young serial killer thought he could stalk the dark cordiners of the web. Until Tiffany Taylor turned his snare against him and proved she would not go quietly into the night.
Sources
https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/2020/02/03/tiffany-taylor-victim-victor-and-star-witness-serial-killer-trial/4454134002/
https://montclairlocal.news/serial-killer-khalil-wheeler-weaver-charged-with-a-fourth-murder/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/nyregion/khalil-wheeler-weaver-new-jersey.html
https://allthatsinteresting.com/khalil-wheeler-weaver
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marcy (00:01):
"He thought all of the victims would not be noticed.
He thought all of the victimswould eventually be forgotten."
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
(00:22):
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
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(01:24):
Tiffany Taylor grew up in thepublic housing projects of
Jersey City, rubbing elbowsdaily with violence and drug
abuse.
She was with two of herboyfriends when they were
murdered during their teenageyears.
When she was 18, Tiffany made anescape attempt moving to
Orlando, Florida and enrollingin college to study psychology
and music.
After two years, she gotpregnant.
(01:47):
The father was a ghost, andTiffany was pulled back to the
familiar Jersey Street life.
She had trouble finding regularemployment, so eventually she
endured sex work as a survivaltactic.
By 2016, Tiffany was 30 yearsold.
Street heartened and angry.
She was turning tricks, hustlingand ripping off John's whenever
(02:08):
she could.
She bumped into the spider forthe first time at a friend's
house and within minutes knewwhat he was about.
They wouldn't be friends.
The spider felt differently.
He began calling and textingTiffany, begging her to meet
with him, and when she said no,he told her he would pay for
sex.
She told him he was too young tobe involved in her world and he
(02:31):
should run home to mama.
The spider was persistent,ignoring Tiffany's snub,
continuing to message her to thepoint of harassment.
Tiffany knew she had to teachthe man-boy a lesson about
respect, so she agreed to meetthe spider at his place.
When Tiffany arrived at thespider's, she almost couldn't
(02:52):
believe it.
The decor, the pictures on thewall his place was actually
mamas.
No bullshit.
She had the urge to ask him ifshe would have to escape out the
window if his mother came homewhile they were fucking.
Instead, she took the$200 he waswaving in her face.
Then she excused herself sayingshe'd forgotten something in her
(03:13):
car.
She walked out and never lookedback.
Seven months later, the spiderripoff largely forgotten,
Tiffany was working at a motel,doing the sex worker gigs
part-time.
She started receiving texts froman unknown number.
A man said he was interested inseeing her.
Tiffany was careful in hercommunications and because she
(03:37):
didn't know him, she put him offfor several days.
The man continued texting,promising to pay her what would
be considered premium prices tohave sex with him.
Tiffany agreed to pick up hernew client in her car.
On the night of the meeting, theman got into her car wearing a
neck gator, pulled up as a mask.
(03:57):
He also had on black leathergloves and a hoodie.
Tiffany wasn't alarmed by themask or concealing clothing
because she thought itappropriate for the weather.
He also might not wanna be seenin the company of a call girl.
They made small talk as Tiffanydrove to a secluded location.
When she put the car in park,the man attacked her, repeatedly
(04:19):
hitting her head so hard shelost consciousness.
When Tiffany woke up, she foundherself face down in the back
seat.
Her hands were cuffed and herhead was partially wrapped in
duct tape.
The attacker had his arm wrappedaround Tiffany's neck as he
raped her from behind.
She could barely see or breathe.
(04:41):
The choke hold controlled hermovement and caused Tiffany to
float in and out ofconsciousness.
At one point, Tiffany's mindswam back into focus.
The assailant looked herdirectly in the face and pulled
down his mask.
It was the spider.
Tiffany screamed as the manbegan an unhinged rant.
(05:02):
He yelled and beat her at thesame time.
He was furious that she stolefrom him.
The fact that she had rebuffedhis overtures enraged him.
He complained bitterly that nowoman would have him unless they
got paid.
For her part,Tiffany wasterrified.
She knew the spider was veryclose to killing her, so she
(05:23):
started pleading.
She told him she was pregnant.
She told him the cuffs werecutting off her circulation.
When the spider respondedsympathetically, Tiffany
realized there was room tonegotiate.
Tiffany sensed that she wasbargaining for her life.
She warned the spider that hecouldn't kill her because their
(05:43):
messages were on a cell phonethat she had left at the motel
where she worked.
If he did anything to her, thatphone would lead the cops
directly to him.
Tiffany promised him that if hetook her to the motel, he could
take the phone.
The spider was convinced andsoon they were headed that way.
(06:04):
While en route, Tiffany, who wasdouble jointed, slipped one of
the handcuffs.
She pretended to still berestrained when the spider
pulled her from the car andripped the duct tape off her
head.
The two, kidnapper and captive,walked arm in arm following
Tiffany's direction.
Up the exterior stairwell, pastthe bank of security cameras,
(06:27):
and along a balcony walkway.
The spider was unaware thatTiffany was leading them to her
friend's room.
When they arrived at thethreshold, Tiffany knocked on
the door with her foot.
The friend answered, and Tiffanylunged forward through the crack
slamming and dead bolting thedoor behind her.
The spider who was unpreparedfor the woman's sudden moves,
(06:48):
began pounding on the door.
Tiffany responded by pullingback the curtains from the
window next to the door.
She held up the wrist with onehandcuff dangling free, and
yelled through the glass thatthe cops were coming.
The spider fled into the night.
Tiffany did call the police.
While she waited, she realizedthe spider had her car keys.
(07:13):
She texted him saying that shewould not make a police report
if he returned those keys.
What she really wanted was forhim to return to the motel so
the cops could intercept him.
The spider returned, leaving thekeys on a stairway near
Tiffany's room.
He had come and gone before thepolice arrived.
(07:34):
When patrol officers from theElizabeth City Police Department
finally got there, Tiffany toldthem the whole story.
The problem was they didn'tbelieve her.
One of the officers warned herthat prostitution is a crime and
if she persisted with herreport, she would be arrested.
Exasperated Tiffany asked ifthey could help by removing the
(07:56):
handcuff.
They refused.
Samantha Rivera was terrifiedthat they would find her sister
dead in a ditch somewhere.
That old saw, brought out byparents of young girls
everywhere was always scoffed atwith an accompanying eye roll.
(08:17):
But this was serious.
Sarah Butler, Samantha Rivera's,20 year old sister, had come
home from Jersey City Universityon Thanksgiving break in 2016.
On the day before the holiday,Sarah borrowed her mom's minivan
to go see a friend.
No word from her since then.
(08:38):
Samantha knew Sarah wouldn'tmiss the family dinner.
So when the turkey was broughtout, the empty chair cast a
pall.
The usually boisterous familywas left quietly wondering,
hoping.
Their mother Laverne had alreadycalled around before the dinner.
Sarah wasn't with any friends.
She wasn't at the hospital andshe wasn't in jail.
(09:00):
All they could do was whatseemed reasonable.
They reported Sarah and theminivan missing.
After Thanksgiving and stillknow Sarah, the family began to
organize a search.
Friends and family membersspread out around town looking
in Sarah's favorite places andposting pictures of her wherever
they could.
As time passed, feelings grewmore frantic.
(09:22):
They were desperate.
On day four, there was awatershed moment.
The minivan was found abandonedin Orange, an adjacent township.
There was no sign of Sarah.
The police were aware thatsomething had happened.
They took the minivan forprocessing, but there was no
sign of the kind of activeinvestigation the family wanted.
(09:44):
Samantha and two friends decidedthey needed a catalyst for
action.
Day four was also the day thatthey got into Sarah's social
media accounts and begansearching the history for clues.
They found that on a site calledTagged Sarah had been
communicating with a person whowent by the name Lil Yacht Rock.
After a back and forthintroductory conversation, Lil
(10:07):
Yacht Rock offered Sarah$500 forsex.
Sarah responded,"You're not aserial killer.
Right?" Then agreed to anin-person meeting.
The Tagged conversation was themost promising lead that the
searchers found on Sarah'saccounts.
They decided that Lil Yacht Rockneeded to be unmasked.
(10:29):
So they created a fake profilethey thought would appeal to
him.
Within an hour of profileposting Lil Yacht Rock was
sending messages and looking tomeet in person.
Samantha scheduled the rendezvuat Panera Bread in nearby Glen
Ridge, giving them adequate timeto make preparations.
In the hours after his response,Samantha Rivera found herself
(10:51):
waiting in the lobby of thepolice department, frustrated.
She wanted to scream.
Sarah was out there somewhere.
But to the people around her, itwas a normal day.
The police clerks who took herinformation didn't act with any
sense of urgency.
It was just a'please have a seatand wait' kind of thing.
Not like her sister was indanger, RIGHT FUCKING NOW! While
(11:14):
Samantha was waiting, lil yachtrock called her cell.
She didn't answer on his firsttry.
By the second, she had time tothink about it.
When he called back, Samanthawas prepared to record the
conversation.
He didn't say much that Samanthacared about.
Lil yacht rock sounded like akid trying to be a player, but
just came off as an awkward,sleazy little fuck.
(11:36):
It took all the restraintSamantha had not to yell into
the phone and demand where Sarahwas.
Instead, she listened to hisbullshit, gritted her teeth, and
tried to sound sweet andenthusiastic.
In the end, they confirmed themeet up at Panera and hung up,
leaving Samantha's trap inplace.
When the detective finallyappeared and pulled Samantha
(11:57):
back into a private office, shevomited the story, beginning to
end.
She stressed that the man thatshe'd just gotten off the phone
with, Lil Yacht Rock, wasprobably the last person to talk
to Sarah.
The detective for his part wassympathetic impressed by the
family search efforts.
He expressed surprise at howquickly the suspect responded to
(12:18):
the Tagged profile.
At the prearranged date andtime, Samantha was eagerly,
almost frantically, waiting onthe sidewalk outside Panera.
A young man pulled into theparking lot in a BMW.
Samantha waved at him, and whenhe waved back, the detectives
moved in.
She was excited, feeling therush of the chase and capture.
(12:39):
The detectives told Samanthathat she would have to leave
after they grabbed Lil yachtrock, but she was too invested.
The guy turned out to be anaverage looking black kid.
She had built him in her mind tolook like a monster, but he
turned out just to look like hesounded on the phone.
Samantha watched as detectivesfirst talked to him in the
parking lot, then moved theconversation into one of their
(13:01):
cars.
After what seemed like a veryshort time lil yacht rock got
out of the cop car, went back tothe BMW and drove away.
(13:23):
In 2016, a serial killer wasworking in Essex County, New
Jersey.
He was quietly monitoringinternet sites, searching for
vulnerable women.
He was unique only in thatinstead of looking for his
victims walking the street, heprowled social media sites.
When he found a woman who fithis criteria, he tagged them.
(13:47):
On August 31st, 2016, Robin Westtraveled from her home in
Philadelphia to New Jersey.
She planned to stay with familyand celebrate her 20th birthday,
but immediately after arriving,Robin disappeared.
The family, unsure if Robin hadchanged her mind about the visit
and gone home, tried to contacther, but she never called back.
(14:09):
Because of Robin's past, it wasassumed that she had been caught
up in street life and wouldeventually surface.
The next day, September 1st,2016, firefighters in the city
of Orange, New Jersey respondedto a burning abandoned home on
Lakeside Avenue.
Fire was hot and causedextensive damage to the
(14:29):
structure.
When fire investigators clearedthe burned out building, they
found charred human remains.
It took two weeks to identifyRobin West's body using dental
records.
Investigators were suspiciousthat the case was a homicide,
but the exact cause of deathcould not be determined due to
the intensity of the fire.
The only additional evidencefrom the initial investigation
(14:53):
was a witness had seen Robin getinto a car with an unknown man.
On October 22nd, 2016, JoanneBrown, a 33 year old resident of
Newark, New Jersey, disappeared.
A witness later came forward whosaw Joanne get into a car with
an unknown man.
(15:13):
On December 5th, 2016, Joanne'sbody was found by contractors
working in an unoccupied houseon Highland Avenue in Orange,
New Jersey.
Her head and face had beenwrapped in tape.
A jacket was tied tightly aroundher neck and had been used as a
ligature to kill her.
Sarah Butler was a 20 year oldstudent going to Jersey City
(15:35):
University, 45 minutes away fromher parents' home in Montclair.
Sarah had returned home for theThanksgiving break.
The day before the holiday, onNovember 22nd, she borrowed her
mother's minivan to go see afriend and disappeared.
The Butler's minivan was foundon day four in Orange, a town
adjacent to Montclair.
(15:56):
Sarah's sister, working with twofriends, hacked into Sarah's
social media, and foundsuspicious communications with a
person calling himself lil yachtrock.
They set up a meeting with a manat a local restaurant and
contacted police.
Investigators coordinated withthe missing woman's sister.
When lil yacht rock arrived forthe meeting, detectives
(16:18):
intercepted him.
He turned out to be 20 year oldKhalil Wheeler Weaver, who
worked as a security guard at agrocery store.
In a brief initial interview,Weaver admitted to having
communication with Sarah Butler,but said he didn't know where
she was and denied anywrongdoing.
Weaver gave investigators alibiinformation and left the
(16:39):
meeting.
Within days of that meeting atPanera, on December 1st, 2016,
Sarah Butler's body was foundhidden under brush at the Eagle
Rock Reservation, a naturepreserve in West Orange, New
Jersey.
She had been strangled with aleg of her sweatpants.
In April, 2016, 30 year oldTiffany Taylor set up a meeting
(17:00):
for sex with Weaver at his homein Orange, New Jersey.
She only agreed to meet with himbecause he was harassing her,
blowing up her phone, anddemanding sex.
After arriving at Weaver's home,Tiffany took Weaver's money and
left without providing anyservice.
After that incident, she blockedhis communication and avoided
him.
In November, 2016, Weavertricked Tiffany Taylor into
(17:23):
meeting with him.
During this contact, heassaulted Tiffany, rendering her
unconscious, restraining herwith handcuffs and duct tape,
and sexually assaulted her.
After the rape, Tiffany was ableto escape and summon local
police.
When patrol officers from theElizabeth City Police Department
arrived, they didn't believeTiffany's story and threatened
(17:45):
to arrest her for prostitution.
Tiffany was stunned by how she'dbeen treated by the police after
a man had just raped and triedto murder her.
She decided survival wasn'tenough.
She needed justice.
She took her story to the EssexCounty prosecutor.
As it happened, Weaver's namewas catching fire at that
(18:06):
office, and they welcomedTiffany with open arms.
The prosecutor coordinated withpolice detectives to properly
investigate her assault.
It turned out there was anenormous amount of corroborating
evidence.
In addition to the phonecommunications, Tiffany had
bruising, marks and otherphysical evidence that
corresponded to her account.
(18:28):
The Ritz Motel was able toprovide very good surveillance
footage that matched Tiffany'saccount, including the escape at
the motel room door, and laterthe return of Tiffany's car
keys.
At first glance, Weaver did notgive investigators the serial
killer vibe.
He was very young, clean, cut,and neatly dressed.
(18:50):
During interviews, they foundWeaver to be calm, cooperative,
and even charming.
When they looked into Weaver'sbackground, they found that he'd
grown up in a nice upper middleclass neighborhood in Orange.
Several of his relatives wereemployed in law enforcement and
government.
The young man himself worked asa security guard and people who
knew him thought he aspired tobe a police officer.
(19:13):
Weaver admitted to knowing, evenmeeting with the women that he
was suspected of attacking.
He told detectives that he'deaten with Robin West and then
dropped her off at a house.
The specific house he referencedturned out to be only a couple
of blocks from the fire scenewhere her body was.
At the time of the interview,West was still considered
missing.
(19:33):
Her remains recovered from theburned house were still pending
identification.
In the Joanne Brown case, thewitness who saw her getting into
a car, was able to identifyWeaver as the man Joanne left
with.
It turned out Brown's body wasfound in a building half a mile
from where Weaver lived with hismother.
As the scope of Weaver's crimesstarted to come into focus in
(19:56):
the Essex County prosecutor'soffice, the investigators
decided to arrest him for themurder of Sarah Butler with the
intent to charge additionalcrimes as their investigations
were completed.
The big day was December 6th,2016.
It began with a final interview,followed by the execution of
(20:16):
search warrants.
Among other items, detectiveseized three cell phones from
their suspect's bedroom.
Although there was evidence thatWeaver attempted to erase his
digital footprint, he was notsuccessful.
Analysis of his online activityrevealed he had conducted
searches for how to drug peoplein unconsciousness and how to
(20:37):
poison people.
The cell phone activitycontradicted Weaver's alibi
claims, with tracking dataclearly placing him in and
around the crime scenes atcritical times.
An example of this is thatWeaver was in the abandoned
house on Lakeside Avenue for theplacement of Robin West's body
and the subsequent fire.
(20:58):
The cell phone trace showed thathe left the area for a short
time and then returned to thehouse to watch it burn.
In Joanne Brown's case, the cellactivity showed Weaver was the
last person to talk to her onthe phone.
He picked her up and transportedher to the house where she was
found, spending a total of anhour there.
For Sarah Butler's case, inaddition to the damning digital
(21:20):
evidence, Weaver's DNA was foundin Sarah's fingernail scrapings
taken at autopsy.
Other circumstantial evidencewas also seized.
This included items found inWeaver's car, a bottle of
lighter fluid, a body fluidcleanup kit, and zip ties.
In February, 2017, Weaver wasindicted on three counts of
(21:42):
murder, one count of attemptedmurder, aggravated sexual
assault, kidnapping, arson, anddesecration of human remains.
He was in custody for almostthree years, awaiting trial.
When the trial started, theprosecutor brought on a series
of police detectives, forensicexperts, eyewitnesses, and a
(22:02):
victim.
The detectives laid out theiranalysis that Weaver repeatedly
targeted black women who werepoor, involved in sex work and
had unstable housing situations.
An Essex County assistantprosecutor, Adam Wells,
described that Weaver targetedwomen he felt were somehow less
human, less valuable, and maybewouldn't be missed.
(22:24):
Weaver found and communicatedwith the victims on social media
dating apps.
After meeting the women, hewould attack them, immobilize
them, wrap their heads in ducttape, rape them, and strangle
them with a piece of their ownclothing.
These assertions were supportedby compelling circumstantial,
direct, and testimonialevidence.
The most important testimonycame from the surviving victim,
(22:47):
Tiffany Taylor.
The prosecutor presented thatthrough Tiffany's account, which
was corroborated by otherevidence, the jury could see
what the other victims had gonethrough, but hadn't been
fortunate enough to survive.
The defense tactic was twofold,exploit gaps in the evidence and
claim a rush to judgment andframe up of the defendant.
(23:07):
An example of the first was thatRobin West's body had been so
badly damaged by the fire that acause of death could not be
pinpointed.
The idea was if you don't knowexactly how she died, how can
you say the defendant killedher?
The second tactic was anassertion that the police and
prosecutors had to pin themurders on someone, and the
(23:28):
defendant was the scapegoat.
The defense went further sayingTiffany Taylor was a convenient
witness for the prosecutionbecause she had a personal beef
with the defendant, was of lowmoral character, and was willing
to say anything the prosecutionwanted.
In the end, the Essex Countyjury took less than three hours
(23:48):
to convict Weaver on 11 charges.
All three counts of murder,attempted murder, sexual
assault, kidnapping, arson, anddesecration of human remains.
The sentencing was scheduled anddelayed numerous times because
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When it finally proceeded onOctober 6th, 2021, several
(24:10):
victim's family members spoke.
A representative of the Butlerfamily gave a statement on their
behalf.
"We have lost a beloved memberof our family, and there are no
words for the pain and sorrowthat we feel.
Sarah was a happy, caring, andkind young lady, who was adored
by her family and friends.
(24:32):
A freshman in college, Sarahloved to dance and was a
lifeguard for the Y M C A.
Sarah shined a light on thisworld that we will never again
be able to replicate orreplace." Sarah Butler's father,
said to the judge,"I hope youfind it in your heart, that you
can give him the longest,maximum sentence.
(24:54):
And I hope that he lives for avery long time and they make him
suffer every night in there likehe made our girl suffer."
Turning to Weaver, he said,"Ihope you suffer, boy.
Every night".
(25:14):
Robin West's mother wanted toemphasize that her daughter was
different than what wasportrayed in the trial,
particularly by the defense.
She said,"She will forever beand is my middle child.
She loved music, loved to dance,loved to sing.
Loved her family.
(25:35):
Loved little children, lovedelderly people.
She loved dogs and all livingthings.
Robin Daphne Michelle West didnot, and I repeat, did not
deserve to be strangled to deathand set on fire to be left in a
house.
(25:57):
The world focuses on the lastmonth of her life.
She had a whole entire lifebefore her demise.
Hundreds of people were affectedby her life and were saddened by
her death." No one could bepresent at the sentencing to
speak for Joanne Brown.
So the prosecutor spoke on theirbehalf.
He said,"she was equally lovedby her family and friends.
(26:21):
She struggled throughout herlife with homelessness, mental
illness, and poverty.
And nonetheless, and as I thinkwe all see by observing this
entire case, each life in thiscase mattered.
Each of these victims mattered."Tiffany Taylor gave a victim
impact statement, saying thatthe attack had changed her
(26:44):
entire life.
She suffers from bouts of fearand paranoia and avoids social
situations, but she is glad tobe alive.
Tiffany asked the judge to giveWeaver a lengthy sentence.
She noted that she is 100%certain that he is her attacker
despite his repeated denials.
She told the judge,"I hope youdon't show him any remorse,
(27:08):
because he's not showing anyremorse." Weaver also gave a
statement.
He continued to deny committingany of these crimes.
Weaver's, public defender askedthe judge for leniency based on
his age, and pointed out he hadno prior convictions.
Judge Mark S.
Ali was not moved by Weaver'sprotestations of innocence,
(27:29):
pointing out that theconvictions were based on the
evidence provided during thetrial from 42 witnesses and a
thousand exhibits.
The judge called Weaver asociopath, and that,"this
defendant absolutely lacksremorse.
He thought all of the victimswould not be noticed.
He thought all of the victimswould eventually be forgotten."
(27:53):
The judge went on to say thatnothing could compensate the
victims and their families, butthat the sentence was a start.
He said,"The purpose of thissentence is that the defendant
never walks free in societyagain." The sentence was 160
years in prison.
Under the No Early Release Act,Weaver must serve 145 years
(28:17):
before he's eligible for parole.
Let's talk about this case.
Mark, I understand that there isa recent update to this case?
Mark (28:36):
Yes.
Weaver was charged in the murderof a 15 year old girl, Mawah
Doumbia.
He was arraigned and pled notguilty, just recently, October
26th, 2022.
Obviously he's still in prison,but he has that trial to look
forward to and likely some yearstacked onto his current
sentence.
Marcy (28:56):
Can you tell us a little bit about the facts of that
case?
Mark (28:58):
It's just like the others.
The victim, Mawah, left home onOctober 7th, 2016, and she never
returned but her body wasn'tfound, and this is why it's
separate from the others, untilMay, 2019 in an unoccupied house
on Main Street in Orange, NewJersey.
From what the prosecutor'sreleasing, they have the same
kind of damning digital evidenceas in all the others.
(29:21):
He wrote her offers of cash forsex, that were documented in the
phone exchanges.
So he's pretty screwed.
Some of the prior acts arelikely to make it into the new
trial, so I don't think it'smuch of a possibility of beating
this.
Marcy (29:35):
Where does Mawah's murder fit with the other girls that
where he was already tried intheir murders?
Mark (29:41):
In the events that we talked about, it would be the
second.
So Robin West, killed, 8/31 of2016.
Mawah would've been 10/7 of2016, followed by Joanne Brown.
10/22/ 2016.
Tiffany Taylor, the onlysurvivor, that occurred
mid-November of, 2016, followedby, 20 year old, Sarah Butler,
(30:05):
killed on the 22nd of November,2016.
Marcy (30:11):
But during his trial, the prosecutor did at least hint at
Mawah's murder.
Do you think that there could bemore victims in addition to this
new charge?
Mark (30:20):
The Essex County prosecutor said after sensing
when being asked about it, I'mgonna quote,"there certainly
could be possibly others.
In fact, there's one other case,at least one that we're looking
at as a possible tie-in" end ofquote.
I think that statement's clearlyMawah Doumbia.
I kind of doubt they expect morebecause, when they charge, they
(30:40):
start a clock on a trial.
So I think if they wereexpecting more, they would've
waited.
With Weaver in prison, there'sno urgency.
They must have by now fullycombed through all the digital
evidence, and know who he was incontact with.
I think if there were additionalvictims and they were waiting
for a body to be discovered,they would've put off starting
the clock on a new trial.
(31:00):
Talking about that makes methink of other women who, Weaver
was probably in contact with.
How would you like to be one ofthose to find out the guy you're
talking to, or the guy who'sphone stalking you is a serial
killer?
Some of these technologyassisted crimes have to give you
pause.
I'm never gonna meet a womanonline, but I have thought about
the danger of selling things,like getting robbed after a
(31:22):
Craigslist deal.
After a career in lawenforcement,I don't wanna get
shot in the Walmart parking lottrying to unload my
grandfather's rocking chair.
Marcy (31:32):
You worked on Anchorage's homeless problem.
You mentioned that these womenare referred to as homeless.
They don't live maybe like mostpeople think.
Mark (31:43):
Yeah.
So while problems associatedwith homeless are often a
policing concern, it's not aproblem that police are well
equipped to handle.
As an aside note, it falls topolice personnel regularly to
handle problems that they'reill-equipped or just unable to
adequately address.
Police departments are often acatchall for services that seem
important to somebody, but can'tbe addressed either because of
(32:04):
lack of funding or because, youknow, a particular problem
happens after normal businesshours.
Here's an egregious example ofwhat I'm talking about.
There was a judge that we weredealing with that was fond of
issuing orders that the copswill do this or that.
Once that judge had a defendantwho had psychiatric problems,
and he was refusing to take hismedication at night.
(32:26):
The judge ordered the policewill respond and force that man
to take his medication.
Now, we refused outright.
Because it was way outside ofour role and expertise.
What really got us out of thatis the liability of having cops
come and force somebody to takemedication.
But there are a ton of thingslike that that are passed on to
law enforcement simply becausewe're there and nobody else is
(32:49):
available.
For that reason, policedepartments have to push back on
some of those additional tasks.
And so the homeless problem isone of those problems that cops
can't fix, but people oftendemand, we do something about.
So I was a supervisor of a crimesuppression unit, but one of my
tasks was to address issues ofhomelessness.
(33:11):
When my team was called on to dosomething in that area, I
referred to it as eating ourvegetables.
You know, it was a job we had todo before we could get back to
our core mission as crimefighters.
But the foray into homelessnessissues gave me a good
understanding of the problem andan appreciation of how
complicated these things couldbe to fix.
But What people wanted from me,from the police department, was
(33:34):
to make people and theirproblems disapear.
Marcy (33:38):
You have something you said to people about that?
Mark (33:40):
Yeah, and I've said it repeatedly.
There were some really pissedoff people about the homeless
problem.
They literally wanted me to takepeople and make'em disappear.
Some of those problems were, Imean, they were justifiably
angry, but, but some of thesepeople are really over the top.
What I said to those peoplerepeatedly, was I have nowhere
to put these people.
We have nowhere to put them.
I can't make them disappear.
(34:01):
And you don't want a governmentwho can make people disappear.
Marcy (34:06):
So in discussing homelessness, there is often
conflict in the definition.
There are several officialdefinitions, and some of them
are very narrow and some of themare broader.
Talk a little bit about thenuances between, literally
homeless and unstable housing.
Mark (34:23):
When most people think of homeless or unhoused people,
they generally think of whatthey see in many cities.
People sleeping in cardboardboxes and sidewalks, maybe a
cluster of tents under anoverpass.
And that's certainly one aspect.
But there are people who live inhousing insecure situations,
couch surfing temporarilystaying with friends or
relatives.
Lots of people cycle from havinga place to stay and not having a
(34:46):
place to stay or having to livein a car.
And that makes life tough,holding down a steady job,
particularly one that paysenough to afford an apartment
can be almost insurmountable.
And you throw on top of thatmental illness, addiction and
you can see why situations likesome of these women were in, in
the story, how those happen.
Particularly people that areinvolved in the sex trade, some
(35:08):
of these women have beenexploited by other people,
mostly men, since they werelittle girls.
In that situation with thatbackground feeling like you have
only one thing to sell and thathas been taken from you for free
since you were a child.
It's easy to see why some womenmight turn to that.
When I'm thinking about homelesspeople, I've heard people say
(35:32):
with disgust, these people havecell phones.
How homeless could they reallybe?
They have a cell phone.
You know, I like to point out inthese women's cases, these
phones are lifeline.
In this case, keeping the phonesworking is how they made a
little money.
How they reached out to friendswhen they needed help.
Marcy (35:50):
In thinking about sex work and the kind of sex work
that was happening with thewomen victims in this case,
let's talk a little bit about,the difference between sort of
the traditional televisionportrayal of prostitution versus
some of the sort of subsistencesex work that you referenced.
Mark (36:06):
Just like in homeless situations, there are, different
variations.
When I was a vice detective andlater, had a team in crime
suppression.
I became aware of the situationthat young girls and very poor
women sometimes get by throughsex work or sex exchange.
My team worked a project in thedowntown area of Anchorage,
where we did a lot ofsurveillance when the project
started.
(36:27):
We saw men basically prowlingthe area around the bus center
because young girls, somerunaways would hang out there.
They're just down the streetfrom the Covenant House shelter.
Talking to people down there,some of them sell themselves for
cash or just a place to stay.
This kind of thing isn'torganized prostitution, you
know, that people might see onthe online or street, but it
(36:49):
exists.
This is the situation that someof the women in this case face.
Some of the media reportsreferred to them all as
prostitutes, some all ashomeless.
None of these women fit intothose two groups fully.
What they all needed was money,and some were more in the
homeless world than others.
With Sarah Butler, the 20 yearold college student, she wasn't
(37:10):
homeless or engaged in regularsex work.
She needed money.
What I do know from my time invice is responding to men like
Weaver is dangerous in terms ofthem being pulled fully into
prostitution, and falling underthe control of a pimp.
Marcy (37:25):
Do you think this is a new thing that's happening
because of social media?
Mark (37:29):
No, I don't think there's anything new about subsistence
sex work.
What I think social media doesis allow these connections to be
made much more easily.
Marcy (37:40):
Let's talk a little bit about Weaver, because he's not
what I think of when I picture acold-blooded serial killer.
He's clean cut, very neat, andhe's only 20 years old.
Mark (37:51):
Admit it, you don't like him because his name is Wheeler
Weaver and his screen name wasLil Yacht Rock.
I tried to write that as manytimes as I could to, just to get
you to say Lil Yacht Rock atWheeler Weaver.
But that's why we trimmed itdown to Weaver to make it easier
on Marcy to read.
But, there was no saving herfrom Lil Yacht Rock.
Back to Weaver, he reportedlygrew up in an upper middle class
(38:12):
neighborhood among workingprofessionals.
Violent crime is present in allsocial strata.
Who knows what this guy'spersonal life was like?
It probably wasn't great and wehave more than hints that it was
screwed up.
I've known personally two peoplewho have been convicted of
predatory type rapes.
(38:32):
One unfortunately was a policeofficer and one was a guy who
was a community activist, acommunity patrol guy that
happened to be in the area Iworked most.
Neither one of those guys wasthe kind of monster you can see
from the next block over.
Quite the contrary.
Both had convincing facades, thecop who turned out to be a
(38:52):
serial rapist.
His facade was that he was asuper straight arrow.
Uber, religious.
The other was a guy.
who cared enough about hiscommunity to drive around
looking for problems and heseemed like a model citizen from
the outside.
Marcy (39:06):
Let me guess.
They violated the rule of toos.
Mark (39:09):
Exactly.
Obviously I've talked about therule of toos before.
A detective I work with told mewhen he contacts people, he
looks for when they seemed toosomething.
I mean, not the number too as int o o.
It can be that they're toohelpful or too forthcoming with
information or too hostile rightoff the bat.
(39:32):
His belief, and I found this tobe true, is that the too is a
tell, like in poker.
My job as an investigator was totry and find out what the
motivation for the too was.
Back to the rapists.
I knew the officer.
I might do an episode about himlater so I don't give too much
information.
He wanted everybody to believehe was so very pious.
(39:52):
I later talked to one of hispolice recruits who said that
that persona broke down a littlewhen you got close and when you
sit in a cop car with a guy fora month, you get close.
There were indications that hewasn't the person he was trying
to portray.
So in this case, too religious,too pious was a tell that he was
concealing an alternate mindset.
(40:14):
With the community patrollerguy.
He was out all night cruisingthe area for a reason.
Me, I was paid to do it nightafter night.
I got the calls.
I handled them.
This guy's just driving around,hanging out in the neighborhood.
After a while, I got theimpression the guy just like the
seemy side of the city at night.
He wasn't really accomplishinganything.
(40:37):
I think he was hiding what hereally wanted to do, which was
what he was convicted of.
He was prowling, trying to findand pick up an intoxicated woman
and raping her.
His super dedication to being onthe community patrol was just
too much.
Marcy (40:54):
And for the listener, community patrol in Anchorage is
like a souped up neighborhoodwatch.
Mark (41:02):
Yeah, basically a, group of people who are kind of
loosely affiliated, neighborhoodwatch type, a little bit more
aggress.
And the guy I'm talking aboutwas well known as a community
activist and kind of a communityguardian, but he was way more
engaged than any of the otherpeople.
Way later, he'd turn up allhours of the night.
(41:23):
And it was just like I said, toomuch.
Marcy (41:26):
It also appeared that Weaver thought about applying to
become a police officer becausesome of his Google searches were
police entrance exam practicetest.
Do you think he could have madeit to be a police officer?
Mark (41:39):
Well, with several of his family members employed in law
enforcement.
He was working as a securityguard at a hotel and grocery
store.
I'd say he might have made agood candidate at first glance.
I'd like to think that arigorous hiring process would
screen him out.
The judge quite correctly calledhim a sociopath.
So he might have been able toget past the polygraph examiner.
(41:59):
I think the psych would'vetripped him up, but maybe not.
I mentioned the police officerrapist.
I'm glad Weaver wasn't already apolice officer when he was
nabbed.
First, he would probably havelearned something about digital
forensics, could have coveredhis tracks better.
And second, police officers whodo crimes like that really
destroy public trust, whichmakes it so much more difficult
for the others of us who aretrying to effectively do their
(42:22):
jobs.
Marcy (42:25):
Weaver was an idiot when he came to covering his tracks.
Mark (42:31):
Yeah, and I'm glad he was.
People, and I think he did, havethis sense of anonymity when it
comes to a digital footprint.
And you are kind of anonymousbecause there's a ton of data
out there.
So I think it's true that, youcan get away with all kinds of
crimes without being detected.
And I think that's why criminalswho graduate to murder are
surprised when they immediatelyget caught.
(42:51):
Some people get away with lowerend crimes for years without
serious consequences.
Homicide's a different animal.
Homicides get attention.
As a detective, I was neverpulled for my unit to work on a
string of property crimes, butthe reverse is true.
My last assignment as a sergeantwas working street operations on
a multiple murder drug taskforce.
(43:12):
I was given my unit, the viceunit and SWAT officers to
supervise.
That kind of thing only happensfor homicides.
With that kind of scrutiny onhomicides, once a suspect's name
is known, you're pretty muchgoing down.
I think if Weaver had been apolice officer or more mature
(43:33):
when he started his murderspree, he would've been more
difficult to catch.
He learned from his first crime,the one with the fire.
The burning building immediatelydrew scrutiny.
The fire department responded.
Later the news reported that abody had been found.
He was smart to change his moand not to punctuate each murder
with a fire.
(43:54):
But Weaver's big early mistakewas the digital trail.
This would've been a muchtougher case to make if he had
been killing street walkersbecause the crimes wouldn't have
been documented on the phonesand social media accounts.
He was convicted under amountain of evidence that
started with his text record andended with the movements mapped
out in cell data.
(44:14):
The witnesses, DNA and interviewwere just icing on the
prosecution's cake.
Marcy (44:20):
Well, don't shortchange the role of the ladies in
catching him.
Mark (44:25):
No, of course not.
But before I talk about that,I'd like to mention that
Samantha, Sarah Butler's sisterdid it just the way you
would've, The meeting would'veeither been at Panera or better
at Starbucks.
I think we should own majorstock in those companies by now.
Marcy (44:39):
But you digress.
Mark (44:40):
Yeah.
The prosecutor credited both theButler group and Tiffany Taylor
for going above and beyond tohelp close these cases.
Marcy (44:48):
Talk about what you said about the police letting Weaver
go from Panera.
That must have been torture forSamantha Rivera to watch.
Mark (44:58):
I wanna talk about the broader involvement of citizens
in police investigations, but Iwill say that from the media
writeup, the Panera meeting wasdramatized to the fact, they let
Weaver go after the contact.
And I guess I allowed that to inmy, writeup also.
The contact was coordinated withthe police, so I'm sure the
investigator prepped, Samantha,that they were going to do a
soft contact, see what they got,and work on the case before they
(45:22):
took any harder action.
Some of these are, you wannamake contact, find out the guy's
name, and then do your researchso that when you do pull'em in
for a, longer interview, you'reprepared to act and you have
some facts on your side.
Who knows?
I can imagine, based on whatI've been involved in, that if
they already knew enough abouthim or knew that the kind of
things he'd been involved in, itdepends on what they know.
They may have had him undersurveillance since Panera and
(45:45):
let him go to see what he wasgonna do next.
But it just depends.
In any case, it probably wasn'ta surprise to Samantha that they
allowed him to leave.
I'm sure they prepped her ofthis eventuality.
She didn't have to wait verylong for his arrest.
Marcy (46:00):
What do you think about that citizen involvement in this
case?
Mark (46:06):
There are times when people should absolutely not go
around, and do their owndetective work, but in this
case, can you really blame theButlers?
There was no police action forfour days.
I'd like to say that thediscovery of the missing minivan
would've started an activeinvestigation, but I don't know
if that's clear.
I mean, that had the potential.
They had a missing minivan andno girl.
(46:29):
I've talked about missing peoplebefore.
Sarah Butler's case was in aperiod of limbo where it's not
clear to anyone but her lovedones that she was definitely in
danger.
In a case of missing person likethat, if somebody in my family
or I knew somebody that weremissing where the police weren't
actively investigating yet, Iwould encourage them to gather
(46:51):
what information they could andinvestigate as far as it took to
reach that tipping point to say,this is definitely gonna be foul
play.
I think the van at this point,based on what they had, the
facts they had, was definitelyfoul play.
But, they went further.
Samantha, went further and,caught the detective's
attention.
They may have detectiveswould've gotten there
eventually, but it certainlywouldn't have been within a
(47:13):
week.
I think this, the way thesecases came together, it was
about to catch fire in the next,at least, few days to a week.
Marcy (47:24):
What do you think about families hiring private
investigators?
Mark (47:28):
I think in criminal cases, I don't think very much of that
when there's an active policeinvestigation.
I'm biased, but I've beeninvolved in two cases that I can
remember where privateinvestigators were hired.
What I remember from that is,their reports were coming back
and the families gave them, orthe victims gave me the reports.
They were written like they weredone by Captain Obvious.
(47:50):
What this case needs is aconfession from the suspect.
Okay, well, if we only had thatright?
I didn't need anybody to tell methat.
If the police would just do thisand this and this, like, a list
of how the police shouldinvestigate.
What I can remember from one ofthose cases is I'd already done
everything on the private eyeslist.
The major pieces were a deadend.
(48:10):
With an active investigation,I'd be afraid, with a homicide,
a PI might cause problems whenthey contact witnesses or
speaking with witnesses orinfluencing witnesses.
In cases like that, Idefinitely, discourage a family
from doing its own investigationthat, at least where there's an
active investigation ongoing.
In short, unless the police havegiven up and you, think a
(48:30):
private investigator can come upwith something more than a
blueprint for the cops, Iwouldn't bother.
Marcy (48:37):
What do you have to say about the police officers who
went to the motel in response toTiffany Taylor's call?
Mark (48:43):
Having worked in vice and worked as a street officer, I
can tell you that I would neverhave treated her like that.
I learned early on that, thebest thing you can do with, even
with a case, you think, thevictim or witnesses lying, is
document it, right?
Because who knows what reallyhappened.
If you have somebody lying toyou that went through the
trouble of calling the policeare lying to you, who knows what
really happened?
The best thing you can do isdocument what you got.
(49:05):
Maybe take photos of anyevidence.
At least you can pin that personin her story, whatever their
motivation is, because, sayshe's lying.
She certainly would've calledthe police there for a
motivation.
Who knows what that is?
But at least we know where she'sat and we took photos of her and
so forth.
This was in my estimation,complete incompetence and why?
I don't know.
Training, failure inimagination, laziness, Maybe all
(49:28):
three.
I always said that the bestpolice recruits are part
tourist.
They're inquisitive.
They want to know what happened.
Even on things that they weren'tinvolved in, like we'd go to
lunch, which was early in themorning on the night shift I
worked on, and we'd sit aroundthe table and then we'd talk
about the calls.
Any interesting calls would comeup, and I watch my recruits to
(49:49):
see are they interested in theother calls that maybe they
haven't happened yet, but theseare the calls that they may have
to go to.
Are they, thinking about, howthose were handled?
The best recruits were alwaysinterested in how something was
handled that they didn't have tohandle.
This imagination andinquisitiveness can pay off in
all kinds of ways.
Officer safety, you're thinkingabout, Hey, I heard that this
guy, my fellow officer wasattacked, in a completely
(50:12):
unusual situation, and this ishow he dealt with it.
Or remembering an MO.
Hey, I heard that somebody wasgoing in through second floor
windows and doing burglariesthis way.
You can make connections oncrimes that way.
In this case, Tiffany washandcuffed and she was strangled
nearly to death.
As you would expect, leavingmarks on both her neck, her
wrists, and those markssupported the truth of her
(50:34):
account.
She's black, so it might not beimmediately obvious, but when
you're strangled to unconscious,It's often, very often
accompanied by petichialhemorrhaging.
meaning you're straining so hardthat you burst the small
capillaries in your eyes,sometimes your eyelids.
You can document this.
When I was a sexual assault, weoften did.
(50:56):
Sometimes we'd, go out, take anassault report, document the
injuries, and we'd go back acouple days later or maybe an
advocate contacting the victimwould call us and say, Hey, her
injuries are really visible now.
I'd send detectives out, or I'dgo out and take photographs
myself sometimes, days after theevent so we get the full scope
of the injuries.
(51:17):
After those incompetent officersignored Tiffany's report.
Called her a liar.
It turned out there's a ton ofevidence.
Competent officers were sent outand they cleaned up the mess.
It's almost painful for me tothink about what happened
because if you lose evidence,you're denying it to both the
prosecution and defense.
(51:39):
Every bit of evidence has apotential to benefit either
side.
So the prosecution can lose acase if it looks like the police
are suppressing or hidingevidence, But in this case, the
county prosecutor did call for acollection of physical evidence.
It turns out Tiffany was injuredand they documented it, and
there was lots of otherevidence.
And the other good thing I likedabout this is that, so that it
(52:00):
appeared the prosecution wasn'thiding anything, they called
that incompetent officer to thestand.
And Elizabeth City policeofficer Billy Lie, said,"it
didn't seem like it was thatemergent." That was his excuse
for not doing anything.
It didn't seem like it was thatbig a deal.
And he refused to remove her thehandcuff that the serial murder
(52:25):
rapist had put on her, wrist.
Now, I'm gonna tell you, fromtime to time, police are sent
for this service- to removehandcuffs.
I mean, you can imagine thesituation, it's often at night,
it's often embarrassing for thecitizen.
But we do it right?
Sometimes, the people that callus are relaxed and laugh about
it.
We laughed about it.
Like, hmmm okay, but we do it.
(52:45):
We go out there and take thehandcuff off because, what are
you gonna do otherwise?
Are you gonna tell him?
No, we're not taking thehandcuff off?
No.
He had so much disdain for thisvictim.
True victim.
That he, they said, nope.
And walked away, refusing eventhat basic service.
Keep in mind that handcuff theyrefused to remove was evidence
in a serial murder.
I hope he got spanked.
(53:06):
I hope he felt every bit ofembarrassment he should have on
the stand.
You know, my question is, if ourmotto is to protect and serve,
when you fail to collectevidence in a kidnapped rape,
attempted murder, who exactlyare you protecting and serving?
As a police officer, you don'thave to make a determination if
someone is lying.
But in a case like this, notdocumenting the crime, not
(53:26):
looking for corroboratingevidence is dereliction.
Thank God for the bravery ofTiffany Taylor and Samantha
Rivera and the competent policeofficers and prosecutors that
stepped forward to put thisanimal in prison for the rest of
his life.
As Marcy's friend Sonya wouldsay, forever and ever.
Amen.
Please rate and review CrimeRaven wherever you listen.
(53:49):
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Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
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Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
(54:12):
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Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
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hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
(54:35):
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a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
"He thought all of the victims would not be noticed.
He thought all of the victimswould eventually be forgotten."
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
(00:22):
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
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Bookmark that Amazon link so youdon't lose it and use it every
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(01:24):
Tiffany Taylor grew up in thepublic housing projects of
Jersey City, rubbing elbowsdaily with violence and drug
abuse.
She was with two of herboyfriends when they were
murdered during their teenageyears.
When she was 18, Tiffany made anescape attempt moving to
Orlando, Florida and enrollingin college to study psychology
and music.
After two years, she gotpregnant.
(01:47):
The father was a ghost, andTiffany was pulled back to the
familiar Jersey Street life.
She had trouble finding regularemployment, so eventually she
endured sex work as a survivaltactic.
By 2016, Tiffany was 30 yearsold.
Street heartened and angry.
She was turning tricks, hustlingand ripping off John's whenever
(02:08):
she could.
She bumped into the spider forthe first time at a friend's
house and within minutes knewwhat he was about.
They wouldn't be friends.
The spider felt differently.
He began calling and textingTiffany, begging her to meet
with him, and when she said no,he told her he would pay for
sex.
She told him he was too young tobe involved in her world and he
(02:31):
should run home to mama.
The spider was persistent,ignoring Tiffany's snub,
continuing to message her to thepoint of harassment.
Tiffany knew she had to teachthe man-boy a lesson about
respect, so she agreed to meetthe spider at his place.
When Tiffany arrived at thespider's, she almost couldn't
(02:52):
believe it.
The decor, the pictures on thewall his place was actually
mamas.
No bullshit.
She had the urge to ask him ifshe would have to escape out the
window if his mother came homewhile they were fucking.
Instead, she took the$200 he waswaving in her face.
Then she excused herself sayingshe'd forgotten something in her
(03:13):
car.
She walked out and never lookedback.
Seven months later, the spiderripoff largely forgotten,
Tiffany was working at a motel,doing the sex worker gigs
part-time.
She started receiving texts froman unknown number.
A man said he was interested inseeing her.
Tiffany was careful in hercommunications and because she
(03:37):
didn't know him, she put him offfor several days.
The man continued texting,promising to pay her what would
be considered premium prices tohave sex with him.
Tiffany agreed to pick up hernew client in her car.
On the night of the meeting, theman got into her car wearing a
neck gator, pulled up as a mask.
(03:57):
He also had on black leathergloves and a hoodie.
Tiffany wasn't alarmed by themask or concealing clothing
because she thought itappropriate for the weather.
He also might not wanna be seenin the company of a call girl.
They made small talk as Tiffanydrove to a secluded location.
When she put the car in park,the man attacked her, repeatedly
(04:19):
hitting her head so hard shelost consciousness.
When Tiffany woke up, she foundherself face down in the back
seat.
Her hands were cuffed and herhead was partially wrapped in
duct tape.
The attacker had his arm wrappedaround Tiffany's neck as he
raped her from behind.
She could barely see or breathe.
(04:41):
The choke hold controlled hermovement and caused Tiffany to
float in and out ofconsciousness.
At one point, Tiffany's mindswam back into focus.
The assailant looked herdirectly in the face and pulled
down his mask.
It was the spider.
Tiffany screamed as the manbegan an unhinged rant.
(05:02):
He yelled and beat her at thesame time.
He was furious that she stolefrom him.
The fact that she had rebuffedhis overtures enraged him.
He complained bitterly that nowoman would have him unless they
got paid.
For her part,Tiffany wasterrified.
She knew the spider was veryclose to killing her, so she
(05:23):
started pleading.
She told him she was pregnant.
She told him the cuffs werecutting off her circulation.
When the spider respondedsympathetically, Tiffany
realized there was room tonegotiate.
Tiffany sensed that she wasbargaining for her life.
She warned the spider that hecouldn't kill her because their
(05:43):
messages were on a cell phonethat she had left at the motel
where she worked.
If he did anything to her, thatphone would lead the cops
directly to him.
Tiffany promised him that if hetook her to the motel, he could
take the phone.
The spider was convinced andsoon they were headed that way.
(06:04):
While en route, Tiffany, who wasdouble jointed, slipped one of
the handcuffs.
She pretended to still berestrained when the spider
pulled her from the car andripped the duct tape off her
head.
The two, kidnapper and captive,walked arm in arm following
Tiffany's direction.
Up the exterior stairwell, pastthe bank of security cameras,
(06:27):
and along a balcony walkway.
The spider was unaware thatTiffany was leading them to her
friend's room.
When they arrived at thethreshold, Tiffany knocked on
the door with her foot.
The friend answered, and Tiffanylunged forward through the crack
slamming and dead bolting thedoor behind her.
The spider who was unpreparedfor the woman's sudden moves,
(06:48):
began pounding on the door.
Tiffany responded by pullingback the curtains from the
window next to the door.
She held up the wrist with onehandcuff dangling free, and
yelled through the glass thatthe cops were coming.
The spider fled into the night.
Tiffany did call the police.
While she waited, she realizedthe spider had her car keys.
(07:13):
She texted him saying that shewould not make a police report
if he returned those keys.
What she really wanted was forhim to return to the motel so
the cops could intercept him.
The spider returned, leaving thekeys on a stairway near
Tiffany's room.
He had come and gone before thepolice arrived.
(07:34):
When patrol officers from theElizabeth City Police Department
finally got there, Tiffany toldthem the whole story.
The problem was they didn'tbelieve her.
One of the officers warned herthat prostitution is a crime and
if she persisted with herreport, she would be arrested.
Exasperated Tiffany asked ifthey could help by removing the
(07:56):
handcuff.
They refused.
Samantha Rivera was terrifiedthat they would find her sister
dead in a ditch somewhere.
That old saw, brought out byparents of young girls
everywhere was always scoffed atwith an accompanying eye roll.
(08:17):
But this was serious.
Sarah Butler, Samantha Rivera's,20 year old sister, had come
home from Jersey City Universityon Thanksgiving break in 2016.
On the day before the holiday,Sarah borrowed her mom's minivan
to go see a friend.
No word from her since then.
(08:38):
Samantha knew Sarah wouldn'tmiss the family dinner.
So when the turkey was broughtout, the empty chair cast a
pall.
The usually boisterous familywas left quietly wondering,
hoping.
Their mother Laverne had alreadycalled around before the dinner.
Sarah wasn't with any friends.
She wasn't at the hospital andshe wasn't in jail.
(09:00):
All they could do was whatseemed reasonable.
They reported Sarah and theminivan missing.
After Thanksgiving and stillknow Sarah, the family began to
organize a search.
Friends and family membersspread out around town looking
in Sarah's favorite places andposting pictures of her wherever
they could.
As time passed, feelings grewmore frantic.
(09:22):
They were desperate.
On day four, there was awatershed moment.
The minivan was found abandonedin Orange, an adjacent township.
There was no sign of Sarah.
The police were aware thatsomething had happened.
They took the minivan forprocessing, but there was no
sign of the kind of activeinvestigation the family wanted.
(09:44):
Samantha and two friends decidedthey needed a catalyst for
action.
Day four was also the day thatthey got into Sarah's social
media accounts and begansearching the history for clues.
They found that on a site calledTagged Sarah had been
communicating with a person whowent by the name Lil Yacht Rock.
After a back and forthintroductory conversation, Lil
(10:07):
Yacht Rock offered Sarah$500 forsex.
Sarah responded,"You're not aserial killer.
Right?" Then agreed to anin-person meeting.
The Tagged conversation was themost promising lead that the
searchers found on Sarah'saccounts.
They decided that Lil Yacht Rockneeded to be unmasked.
(10:29):
So they created a fake profilethey thought would appeal to
him.
Within an hour of profileposting Lil Yacht Rock was
sending messages and looking tomeet in person.
Samantha scheduled the rendezvuat Panera Bread in nearby Glen
Ridge, giving them adequate timeto make preparations.
In the hours after his response,Samantha Rivera found herself
(10:51):
waiting in the lobby of thepolice department, frustrated.
She wanted to scream.
Sarah was out there somewhere.
But to the people around her, itwas a normal day.
The police clerks who took herinformation didn't act with any
sense of urgency.
It was just a'please have a seatand wait' kind of thing.
Not like her sister was indanger, RIGHT FUCKING NOW! While
(11:14):
Samantha was waiting, lil yachtrock called her cell.
She didn't answer on his firsttry.
By the second, she had time tothink about it.
When he called back, Samanthawas prepared to record the
conversation.
He didn't say much that Samanthacared about.
Lil yacht rock sounded like akid trying to be a player, but
just came off as an awkward,sleazy little fuck.
(11:36):
It took all the restraintSamantha had not to yell into
the phone and demand where Sarahwas.
Instead, she listened to hisbullshit, gritted her teeth, and
tried to sound sweet andenthusiastic.
In the end, they confirmed themeet up at Panera and hung up,
leaving Samantha's trap inplace.
When the detective finallyappeared and pulled Samantha
(11:57):
back into a private office, shevomited the story, beginning to
end.
She stressed that the man thatshe'd just gotten off the phone
with, Lil Yacht Rock, wasprobably the last person to talk
to Sarah.
The detective for his part wassympathetic impressed by the
family search efforts.
He expressed surprise at howquickly the suspect responded to
(12:18):
the Tagged profile.
At the prearranged date andtime, Samantha was eagerly,
almost frantically, waiting onthe sidewalk outside Panera.
A young man pulled into theparking lot in a BMW.
Samantha waved at him, and whenhe waved back, the detectives
moved in.
She was excited, feeling therush of the chase and capture.
(12:39):
The detectives told Samanthathat she would have to leave
after they grabbed Lil yachtrock, but she was too invested.
The guy turned out to be anaverage looking black kid.
She had built him in her mind tolook like a monster, but he
turned out just to look like hesounded on the phone.
Samantha watched as detectivesfirst talked to him in the
parking lot, then moved theconversation into one of their
(13:01):
cars.
After what seemed like a veryshort time lil yacht rock got
out of the cop car, went back tothe BMW and drove away.
(13:23):
In 2016, a serial killer wasworking in Essex County, New
Jersey.
He was quietly monitoringinternet sites, searching for
vulnerable women.
He was unique only in thatinstead of looking for his
victims walking the street, heprowled social media sites.
When he found a woman who fithis criteria, he tagged them.
(13:47):
On August 31st, 2016, Robin Westtraveled from her home in
Philadelphia to New Jersey.
She planned to stay with familyand celebrate her 20th birthday,
but immediately after arriving,Robin disappeared.
The family, unsure if Robin hadchanged her mind about the visit
and gone home, tried to contacther, but she never called back.
(14:09):
Because of Robin's past, it wasassumed that she had been caught
up in street life and wouldeventually surface.
The next day, September 1st,2016, firefighters in the city
of Orange, New Jersey respondedto a burning abandoned home on
Lakeside Avenue.
Fire was hot and causedextensive damage to the
(14:29):
structure.
When fire investigators clearedthe burned out building, they
found charred human remains.
It took two weeks to identifyRobin West's body using dental
records.
Investigators were suspiciousthat the case was a homicide,
but the exact cause of deathcould not be determined due to
the intensity of the fire.
The only additional evidencefrom the initial investigation
(14:53):
was a witness had seen Robin getinto a car with an unknown man.
On October 22nd, 2016, JoanneBrown, a 33 year old resident of
Newark, New Jersey, disappeared.
A witness later came forward whosaw Joanne get into a car with
an unknown man.
(15:13):
On December 5th, 2016, Joanne'sbody was found by contractors
working in an unoccupied houseon Highland Avenue in Orange,
New Jersey.
Her head and face had beenwrapped in tape.
A jacket was tied tightly aroundher neck and had been used as a
ligature to kill her.
Sarah Butler was a 20 year oldstudent going to Jersey City
(15:35):
University, 45 minutes away fromher parents' home in Montclair.
Sarah had returned home for theThanksgiving break.
The day before the holiday, onNovember 22nd, she borrowed her
mother's minivan to go see afriend and disappeared.
The Butler's minivan was foundon day four in Orange, a town
adjacent to Montclair.
(15:56):
Sarah's sister, working with twofriends, hacked into Sarah's
social media, and foundsuspicious communications with a
person calling himself lil yachtrock.
They set up a meeting with a manat a local restaurant and
contacted police.
Investigators coordinated withthe missing woman's sister.
When lil yacht rock arrived forthe meeting, detectives
(16:18):
intercepted him.
He turned out to be 20 year oldKhalil Wheeler Weaver, who
worked as a security guard at agrocery store.
In a brief initial interview,Weaver admitted to having
communication with Sarah Butler,but said he didn't know where
she was and denied anywrongdoing.
Weaver gave investigators alibiinformation and left the
(16:39):
meeting.
Within days of that meeting atPanera, on December 1st, 2016,
Sarah Butler's body was foundhidden under brush at the Eagle
Rock Reservation, a naturepreserve in West Orange, New
Jersey.
She had been strangled with aleg of her sweatpants.
In April, 2016, 30 year oldTiffany Taylor set up a meeting
(17:00):
for sex with Weaver at his homein Orange, New Jersey.
She only agreed to meet with himbecause he was harassing her,
blowing up her phone, anddemanding sex.
After arriving at Weaver's home,Tiffany took Weaver's money and
left without providing anyservice.
After that incident, she blockedhis communication and avoided
him.
In November, 2016, Weavertricked Tiffany Taylor into
(17:23):
meeting with him.
During this contact, heassaulted Tiffany, rendering her
unconscious, restraining herwith handcuffs and duct tape,
and sexually assaulted her.
After the rape, Tiffany was ableto escape and summon local
police.
When patrol officers from theElizabeth City Police Department
arrived, they didn't believeTiffany's story and threatened
(17:45):
to arrest her for prostitution.
Tiffany was stunned by how she'dbeen treated by the police after
a man had just raped and triedto murder her.
She decided survival wasn'tenough.
She needed justice.
She took her story to the EssexCounty prosecutor.
As it happened, Weaver's namewas catching fire at that
(18:06):
office, and they welcomedTiffany with open arms.
The prosecutor coordinated withpolice detectives to properly
investigate her assault.
It turned out there was anenormous amount of corroborating
evidence.
In addition to the phonecommunications, Tiffany had
bruising, marks and otherphysical evidence that
corresponded to her account.
(18:28):
The Ritz Motel was able toprovide very good surveillance
footage that matched Tiffany'saccount, including the escape at
the motel room door, and laterthe return of Tiffany's car
keys.
At first glance, Weaver did notgive investigators the serial
killer vibe.
He was very young, clean, cut,and neatly dressed.
(18:50):
During interviews, they foundWeaver to be calm, cooperative,
and even charming.
When they looked into Weaver'sbackground, they found that he'd
grown up in a nice upper middleclass neighborhood in Orange.
Several of his relatives wereemployed in law enforcement and
government.
The young man himself worked asa security guard and people who
knew him thought he aspired tobe a police officer.
(19:13):
Weaver admitted to knowing, evenmeeting with the women that he
was suspected of attacking.
He told detectives that he'deaten with Robin West and then
dropped her off at a house.
The specific house he referencedturned out to be only a couple
of blocks from the fire scenewhere her body was.
At the time of the interview,West was still considered
missing.
(19:33):
Her remains recovered from theburned house were still pending
identification.
In the Joanne Brown case, thewitness who saw her getting into
a car, was able to identifyWeaver as the man Joanne left
with.
It turned out Brown's body wasfound in a building half a mile
from where Weaver lived with hismother.
As the scope of Weaver's crimesstarted to come into focus in
(19:56):
the Essex County prosecutor'soffice, the investigators
decided to arrest him for themurder of Sarah Butler with the
intent to charge additionalcrimes as their investigations
were completed.
The big day was December 6th,2016.
It began with a final interview,followed by the execution of
(20:16):
search warrants.
Among other items, detectiveseized three cell phones from
their suspect's bedroom.
Although there was evidence thatWeaver attempted to erase his
digital footprint, he was notsuccessful.
Analysis of his online activityrevealed he had conducted
searches for how to drug peoplein unconsciousness and how to
(20:37):
poison people.
The cell phone activitycontradicted Weaver's alibi
claims, with tracking dataclearly placing him in and
around the crime scenes atcritical times.
An example of this is thatWeaver was in the abandoned
house on Lakeside Avenue for theplacement of Robin West's body
and the subsequent fire.
(20:58):
The cell phone trace showed thathe left the area for a short
time and then returned to thehouse to watch it burn.
In Joanne Brown's case, the cellactivity showed Weaver was the
last person to talk to her onthe phone.
He picked her up and transportedher to the house where she was
found, spending a total of anhour there.
For Sarah Butler's case, inaddition to the damning digital
(21:20):
evidence, Weaver's DNA was foundin Sarah's fingernail scrapings
taken at autopsy.
Other circumstantial evidencewas also seized.
This included items found inWeaver's car, a bottle of
lighter fluid, a body fluidcleanup kit, and zip ties.
In February, 2017, Weaver wasindicted on three counts of
(21:42):
murder, one count of attemptedmurder, aggravated sexual
assault, kidnapping, arson, anddesecration of human remains.
He was in custody for almostthree years, awaiting trial.
When the trial started, theprosecutor brought on a series
of police detectives, forensicexperts, eyewitnesses, and a
(22:02):
victim.
The detectives laid out theiranalysis that Weaver repeatedly
targeted black women who werepoor, involved in sex work and
had unstable housing situations.
An Essex County assistantprosecutor, Adam Wells,
described that Weaver targetedwomen he felt were somehow less
human, less valuable, and maybewouldn't be missed.
(22:24):
Weaver found and communicatedwith the victims on social media
dating apps.
After meeting the women, hewould attack them, immobilize
them, wrap their heads in ducttape, rape them, and strangle
them with a piece of their ownclothing.
These assertions were supportedby compelling circumstantial,
direct, and testimonialevidence.
The most important testimonycame from the surviving victim,
(22:47):
Tiffany Taylor.
The prosecutor presented thatthrough Tiffany's account, which
was corroborated by otherevidence, the jury could see
what the other victims had gonethrough, but hadn't been
fortunate enough to survive.
The defense tactic was twofold,exploit gaps in the evidence and
claim a rush to judgment andframe up of the defendant.
(23:07):
An example of the first was thatRobin West's body had been so
badly damaged by the fire that acause of death could not be
pinpointed.
The idea was if you don't knowexactly how she died, how can
you say the defendant killedher?
The second tactic was anassertion that the police and
prosecutors had to pin themurders on someone, and the
(23:28):
defendant was the scapegoat.
The defense went further sayingTiffany Taylor was a convenient
witness for the prosecutionbecause she had a personal beef
with the defendant, was of lowmoral character, and was willing
to say anything the prosecutionwanted.
In the end, the Essex Countyjury took less than three hours
(23:48):
to convict Weaver on 11 charges.
All three counts of murder,attempted murder, sexual
assault, kidnapping, arson, anddesecration of human remains.
The sentencing was scheduled anddelayed numerous times because
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When it finally proceeded onOctober 6th, 2021, several
(24:10):
victim's family members spoke.
A representative of the Butlerfamily gave a statement on their
behalf.
"We have lost a beloved memberof our family, and there are no
words for the pain and sorrowthat we feel.
Sarah was a happy, caring, andkind young lady, who was adored
by her family and friends.
(24:32):
A freshman in college, Sarahloved to dance and was a
lifeguard for the Y M C A.
Sarah shined a light on thisworld that we will never again
be able to replicate orreplace." Sarah Butler's father,
said to the judge,"I hope youfind it in your heart, that you
can give him the longest,maximum sentence.
(24:54):
And I hope that he lives for avery long time and they make him
suffer every night in there likehe made our girl suffer."
Turning to Weaver, he said,"Ihope you suffer, boy.
Every night".
(25:14):
Robin West's mother wanted toemphasize that her daughter was
different than what wasportrayed in the trial,
particularly by the defense.
She said,"She will forever beand is my middle child.
She loved music, loved to dance,loved to sing.
Loved her family.
(25:35):
Loved little children, lovedelderly people.
She loved dogs and all livingthings.
Robin Daphne Michelle West didnot, and I repeat, did not
deserve to be strangled to deathand set on fire to be left in a
house.
(25:57):
The world focuses on the lastmonth of her life.
She had a whole entire lifebefore her demise.
Hundreds of people were affectedby her life and were saddened by
her death." No one could bepresent at the sentencing to
speak for Joanne Brown.
So the prosecutor spoke on theirbehalf.
He said,"she was equally lovedby her family and friends.
(26:21):
She struggled throughout herlife with homelessness, mental
illness, and poverty.
And nonetheless, and as I thinkwe all see by observing this
entire case, each life in thiscase mattered.
Each of these victims mattered."Tiffany Taylor gave a victim
impact statement, saying thatthe attack had changed her
(26:44):
entire life.
She suffers from bouts of fearand paranoia and avoids social
situations, but she is glad tobe alive.
Tiffany asked the judge to giveWeaver a lengthy sentence.
She noted that she is 100%certain that he is her attacker
despite his repeated denials.
She told the judge,"I hope youdon't show him any remorse,
(27:08):
because he's not showing anyremorse." Weaver also gave a
statement.
He continued to deny committingany of these crimes.
Weaver's, public defender askedthe judge for leniency based on
his age, and pointed out he hadno prior convictions.
Judge Mark S.
Ali was not moved by Weaver'sprotestations of innocence,
(27:29):
pointing out that theconvictions were based on the
evidence provided during thetrial from 42 witnesses and a
thousand exhibits.
The judge called Weaver asociopath, and that,"this
defendant absolutely lacksremorse.
He thought all of the victimswould not be noticed.
He thought all of the victimswould eventually be forgotten."
(27:53):
The judge went on to say thatnothing could compensate the
victims and their families, butthat the sentence was a start.
He said,"The purpose of thissentence is that the defendant
never walks free in societyagain." The sentence was 160
years in prison.
Under the No Early Release Act,Weaver must serve 145 years
(28:17):
before he's eligible for parole.
Let's talk about this case.
Mark, I understand that there isa recent update to this case?
Mark (28:36):
Yes.
Weaver was charged in the murderof a 15 year old girl, Mawah
Doumbia.
He was arraigned and pled notguilty, just recently, October
26th, 2022.
Obviously he's still in prison,but he has that trial to look
forward to and likely some yearstacked onto his current
sentence.
Marcy (28:56):
Can you tell us a little bit about the facts of that
case?
Mark (28:58):
It's just like the others.
The victim, Mawah, left home onOctober 7th, 2016, and she never
returned but her body wasn'tfound, and this is why it's
separate from the others, untilMay, 2019 in an unoccupied house
on Main Street in Orange, NewJersey.
From what the prosecutor'sreleasing, they have the same
kind of damning digital evidenceas in all the others.
(29:21):
He wrote her offers of cash forsex, that were documented in the
phone exchanges.
So he's pretty screwed.
Some of the prior acts arelikely to make it into the new
trial, so I don't think it'smuch of a possibility of beating
this.
Marcy (29:35):
Where does Mawah's murder fit with the other girls that
where he was already tried intheir murders?
Mark (29:41):
In the events that we talked about, it would be the
second.
So Robin West, killed, 8/31 of2016.
Mawah would've been 10/7 of2016, followed by Joanne Brown.
10/22/ 2016.
Tiffany Taylor, the onlysurvivor, that occurred
mid-November of, 2016, followedby, 20 year old, Sarah Butler,
(30:05):
killed on the 22nd of November,2016.
Marcy (30:11):
But during his trial, the prosecutor did at least hint at
Mawah's murder.
Do you think that there could bemore victims in addition to this
new charge?
Mark (30:20):
The Essex County prosecutor said after sensing
when being asked about it, I'mgonna quote,"there certainly
could be possibly others.
In fact, there's one other case,at least one that we're looking
at as a possible tie-in" end ofquote.
I think that statement's clearlyMawah Doumbia.
I kind of doubt they expect morebecause, when they charge, they
(30:40):
start a clock on a trial.
So I think if they wereexpecting more, they would've
waited.
With Weaver in prison, there'sno urgency.
They must have by now fullycombed through all the digital
evidence, and know who he was incontact with.
I think if there were additionalvictims and they were waiting
for a body to be discovered,they would've put off starting
the clock on a new trial.
(31:00):
Talking about that makes methink of other women who, Weaver
was probably in contact with.
How would you like to be one ofthose to find out the guy you're
talking to, or the guy who'sphone stalking you is a serial
killer?
Some of these technologyassisted crimes have to give you
pause.
I'm never gonna meet a womanonline, but I have thought about
the danger of selling things,like getting robbed after a
(31:22):
Craigslist deal.
After a career in lawenforcement,I don't wanna get
shot in the Walmart parking lottrying to unload my
grandfather's rocking chair.
Marcy (31:32):
You worked on Anchorage's homeless problem.
You mentioned that these womenare referred to as homeless.
They don't live maybe like mostpeople think.
Mark (31:43):
Yeah.
So while problems associatedwith homeless are often a
policing concern, it's not aproblem that police are well
equipped to handle.
As an aside note, it falls topolice personnel regularly to
handle problems that they'reill-equipped or just unable to
adequately address.
Police departments are often acatchall for services that seem
important to somebody, but can'tbe addressed either because of
(32:04):
lack of funding or because, youknow, a particular problem
happens after normal businesshours.
Here's an egregious example ofwhat I'm talking about.
There was a judge that we weredealing with that was fond of
issuing orders that the copswill do this or that.
Once that judge had a defendantwho had psychiatric problems,
and he was refusing to take hismedication at night.
(32:26):
The judge ordered the policewill respond and force that man
to take his medication.
Now, we refused outright.
Because it was way outside ofour role and expertise.
What really got us out of thatis the liability of having cops
come and force somebody to takemedication.
But there are a ton of thingslike that that are passed on to
law enforcement simply becausewe're there and nobody else is
(32:49):
available.
For that reason, policedepartments have to push back on
some of those additional tasks.
And so the homeless problem isone of those problems that cops
can't fix, but people oftendemand, we do something about.
So I was a supervisor of a crimesuppression unit, but one of my
tasks was to address issues ofhomelessness.
(33:11):
When my team was called on to dosomething in that area, I
referred to it as eating ourvegetables.
You know, it was a job we had todo before we could get back to
our core mission as crimefighters.
But the foray into homelessnessissues gave me a good
understanding of the problem andan appreciation of how
complicated these things couldbe to fix.
But What people wanted from me,from the police department, was
(33:34):
to make people and theirproblems disapear.
Marcy (33:38):
You have something you said to people about that?
Mark (33:40):
Yeah, and I've said it repeatedly.
There were some really pissedoff people about the homeless
problem.
They literally wanted me to takepeople and make'em disappear.
Some of those problems were, Imean, they were justifiably
angry, but, but some of thesepeople are really over the top.
What I said to those peoplerepeatedly, was I have nowhere
to put these people.
We have nowhere to put them.
I can't make them disappear.
(34:01):
And you don't want a governmentwho can make people disappear.
Marcy (34:06):
So in discussing homelessness, there is often
conflict in the definition.
There are several officialdefinitions, and some of them
are very narrow and some of themare broader.
Talk a little bit about thenuances between, literally
homeless and unstable housing.
Mark (34:23):
When most people think of homeless or unhoused people,
they generally think of whatthey see in many cities.
People sleeping in cardboardboxes and sidewalks, maybe a
cluster of tents under anoverpass.
And that's certainly one aspect.
But there are people who live inhousing insecure situations,
couch surfing temporarilystaying with friends or
relatives.
Lots of people cycle from havinga place to stay and not having a
(34:46):
place to stay or having to livein a car.
And that makes life tough,holding down a steady job,
particularly one that paysenough to afford an apartment
can be almost insurmountable.
And you throw on top of thatmental illness, addiction and
you can see why situations likesome of these women were in, in
the story, how those happen.
Particularly people that areinvolved in the sex trade, some
(35:08):
of these women have beenexploited by other people,
mostly men, since they werelittle girls.
In that situation with thatbackground feeling like you have
only one thing to sell and thathas been taken from you for free
since you were a child.
It's easy to see why some womenmight turn to that.
When I'm thinking about homelesspeople, I've heard people say
(35:32):
with disgust, these people havecell phones.
How homeless could they reallybe?
They have a cell phone.
You know, I like to point out inthese women's cases, these
phones are lifeline.
In this case, keeping the phonesworking is how they made a
little money.
How they reached out to friendswhen they needed help.
Marcy (35:50):
In thinking about sex work and the kind of sex work
that was happening with thewomen victims in this case,
let's talk a little bit about,the difference between sort of
the traditional televisionportrayal of prostitution versus
some of the sort of subsistencesex work that you referenced.
Mark (36:06):
Just like in homeless situations, there are, different
variations.
When I was a vice detective andlater, had a team in crime
suppression.
I became aware of the situationthat young girls and very poor
women sometimes get by throughsex work or sex exchange.
My team worked a project in thedowntown area of Anchorage,
where we did a lot ofsurveillance when the project
started.
(36:27):
We saw men basically prowlingthe area around the bus center
because young girls, somerunaways would hang out there.
They're just down the streetfrom the Covenant House shelter.
Talking to people down there,some of them sell themselves for
cash or just a place to stay.
This kind of thing isn'torganized prostitution, you
know, that people might see onthe online or street, but it
(36:49):
exists.
This is the situation that someof the women in this case face.
Some of the media reportsreferred to them all as
prostitutes, some all ashomeless.
None of these women fit intothose two groups fully.
What they all needed was money,and some were more in the
homeless world than others.
With Sarah Butler, the 20 yearold college student, she wasn't
(37:10):
homeless or engaged in regularsex work.
She needed money.
What I do know from my time invice is responding to men like
Weaver is dangerous in terms ofthem being pulled fully into
prostitution, and falling underthe control of a pimp.
Marcy (37:25):
Do you think this is a new thing that's happening
because of social media?
Mark (37:29):
No, I don't think there's anything new about subsistence
sex work.
What I think social media doesis allow these connections to be
made much more easily.
Marcy (37:40):
Let's talk a little bit about Weaver, because he's not
what I think of when I picture acold-blooded serial killer.
He's clean cut, very neat, andhe's only 20 years old.
Mark (37:51):
Admit it, you don't like him because his name is Wheeler
Weaver and his screen name wasLil Yacht Rock.
I tried to write that as manytimes as I could to, just to get
you to say Lil Yacht Rock atWheeler Weaver.
But that's why we trimmed itdown to Weaver to make it easier
on Marcy to read.
But, there was no saving herfrom Lil Yacht Rock.
Back to Weaver, he reportedlygrew up in an upper middle class
(38:12):
neighborhood among workingprofessionals.
Violent crime is present in allsocial strata.
Who knows what this guy'spersonal life was like?
It probably wasn't great and wehave more than hints that it was
screwed up.
I've known personally two peoplewho have been convicted of
predatory type rapes.
(38:32):
One unfortunately was a policeofficer and one was a guy who
was a community activist, acommunity patrol guy that
happened to be in the area Iworked most.
Neither one of those guys wasthe kind of monster you can see
from the next block over.
Quite the contrary.
Both had convincing facades, thecop who turned out to be a
(38:52):
serial rapist.
His facade was that he was asuper straight arrow.
Uber, religious.
The other was a guy.
who cared enough about hiscommunity to drive around
looking for problems and heseemed like a model citizen from
the outside.
Marcy (39:06):
Let me guess.
They violated the rule of toos.
Mark (39:09):
Exactly.
Obviously I've talked about therule of toos before.
A detective I work with told mewhen he contacts people, he
looks for when they seemed toosomething.
I mean, not the number too as int o o.
It can be that they're toohelpful or too forthcoming with
information or too hostile rightoff the bat.
(39:32):
His belief, and I found this tobe true, is that the too is a
tell, like in poker.
My job as an investigator was totry and find out what the
motivation for the too was.
Back to the rapists.
I knew the officer.
I might do an episode about himlater so I don't give too much
information.
He wanted everybody to believehe was so very pious.
(39:52):
I later talked to one of hispolice recruits who said that
that persona broke down a littlewhen you got close and when you
sit in a cop car with a guy fora month, you get close.
There were indications that hewasn't the person he was trying
to portray.
So in this case, too religious,too pious was a tell that he was
concealing an alternate mindset.
(40:14):
With the community patrollerguy.
He was out all night cruisingthe area for a reason.
Me, I was paid to do it nightafter night.
I got the calls.
I handled them.
This guy's just driving around,hanging out in the neighborhood.
After a while, I got theimpression the guy just like the
seemy side of the city at night.
He wasn't really accomplishinganything.
(40:37):
I think he was hiding what hereally wanted to do, which was
what he was convicted of.
He was prowling, trying to findand pick up an intoxicated woman
and raping her.
His super dedication to being onthe community patrol was just
too much.
Marcy (40:54):
And for the listener, community patrol in Anchorage is
like a souped up neighborhoodwatch.
Mark (41:02):
Yeah, basically a, group of people who are kind of
loosely affiliated, neighborhoodwatch type, a little bit more
aggress.
And the guy I'm talking aboutwas well known as a community
activist and kind of a communityguardian, but he was way more
engaged than any of the otherpeople.
Way later, he'd turn up allhours of the night.
(41:23):
And it was just like I said, toomuch.
Marcy (41:26):
It also appeared that Weaver thought about applying to
become a police officer becausesome of his Google searches were
police entrance exam practicetest.
Do you think he could have madeit to be a police officer?
Mark (41:39):
Well, with several of his family members employed in law
enforcement.
He was working as a securityguard at a hotel and grocery
store.
I'd say he might have made agood candidate at first glance.
I'd like to think that arigorous hiring process would
screen him out.
The judge quite correctly calledhim a sociopath.
So he might have been able toget past the polygraph examiner.
(41:59):
I think the psych would'vetripped him up, but maybe not.
I mentioned the police officerrapist.
I'm glad Weaver wasn't already apolice officer when he was
nabbed.
First, he would probably havelearned something about digital
forensics, could have coveredhis tracks better.
And second, police officers whodo crimes like that really
destroy public trust, whichmakes it so much more difficult
for the others of us who aretrying to effectively do their
(42:22):
jobs.
Marcy (42:25):
Weaver was an idiot when he came to covering his tracks.
Mark (42:31):
Yeah, and I'm glad he was.
People, and I think he did, havethis sense of anonymity when it
comes to a digital footprint.
And you are kind of anonymousbecause there's a ton of data
out there.
So I think it's true that, youcan get away with all kinds of
crimes without being detected.
And I think that's why criminalswho graduate to murder are
surprised when they immediatelyget caught.
(42:51):
Some people get away with lowerend crimes for years without
serious consequences.
Homicide's a different animal.
Homicides get attention.
As a detective, I was neverpulled for my unit to work on a
string of property crimes, butthe reverse is true.
My last assignment as a sergeantwas working street operations on
a multiple murder drug taskforce.
(43:12):
I was given my unit, the viceunit and SWAT officers to
supervise.
That kind of thing only happensfor homicides.
With that kind of scrutiny onhomicides, once a suspect's name
is known, you're pretty muchgoing down.
I think if Weaver had been apolice officer or more mature
(43:33):
when he started his murderspree, he would've been more
difficult to catch.
He learned from his first crime,the one with the fire.
The burning building immediatelydrew scrutiny.
The fire department responded.
Later the news reported that abody had been found.
He was smart to change his moand not to punctuate each murder
with a fire.
(43:54):
But Weaver's big early mistakewas the digital trail.
This would've been a muchtougher case to make if he had
been killing street walkersbecause the crimes wouldn't have
been documented on the phonesand social media accounts.
He was convicted under amountain of evidence that
started with his text record andended with the movements mapped
out in cell data.
(44:14):
The witnesses, DNA and interviewwere just icing on the
prosecution's cake.
Marcy (44:20):
Well, don't shortchange the role of the ladies in
catching him.
Mark (44:25):
No, of course not.
But before I talk about that,I'd like to mention that
Samantha, Sarah Butler's sisterdid it just the way you
would've, The meeting would'veeither been at Panera or better
at Starbucks.
I think we should own majorstock in those companies by now.
Marcy (44:39):
But you digress.
Mark (44:40):
Yeah.
The prosecutor credited both theButler group and Tiffany Taylor
for going above and beyond tohelp close these cases.
Marcy (44:48):
Talk about what you said about the police letting Weaver
go from Panera.
That must have been torture forSamantha Rivera to watch.
Mark (44:58):
I wanna talk about the broader involvement of citizens
in police investigations, but Iwill say that from the media
writeup, the Panera meeting wasdramatized to the fact, they let
Weaver go after the contact.
And I guess I allowed that to inmy, writeup also.
The contact was coordinated withthe police, so I'm sure the
investigator prepped, Samantha,that they were going to do a
soft contact, see what they got,and work on the case before they
(45:22):
took any harder action.
Some of these are, you wannamake contact, find out the guy's
name, and then do your researchso that when you do pull'em in
for a, longer interview, you'reprepared to act and you have
some facts on your side.
Who knows?
I can imagine, based on whatI've been involved in, that if
they already knew enough abouthim or knew that the kind of
things he'd been involved in, itdepends on what they know.
They may have had him undersurveillance since Panera and
(45:45):
let him go to see what he wasgonna do next.
But it just depends.
In any case, it probably wasn'ta surprise to Samantha that they
allowed him to leave.
I'm sure they prepped her ofthis eventuality.
She didn't have to wait verylong for his arrest.
Marcy (46:00):
What do you think about that citizen involvement in this
case?
Mark (46:06):
There are times when people should absolutely not go
around, and do their owndetective work, but in this
case, can you really blame theButlers?
There was no police action forfour days.
I'd like to say that thediscovery of the missing minivan
would've started an activeinvestigation, but I don't know
if that's clear.
I mean, that had the potential.
They had a missing minivan andno girl.
(46:29):
I've talked about missing peoplebefore.
Sarah Butler's case was in aperiod of limbo where it's not
clear to anyone but her lovedones that she was definitely in
danger.
In a case of missing person likethat, if somebody in my family
or I knew somebody that weremissing where the police weren't
actively investigating yet, Iwould encourage them to gather
(46:51):
what information they could andinvestigate as far as it took to
reach that tipping point to say,this is definitely gonna be foul
play.
I think the van at this point,based on what they had, the
facts they had, was definitelyfoul play.
But, they went further.
Samantha, went further and,caught the detective's
attention.
They may have detectiveswould've gotten there
eventually, but it certainlywouldn't have been within a
(47:13):
week.
I think this, the way thesecases came together, it was
about to catch fire in the next,at least, few days to a week.
Marcy (47:24):
What do you think about families hiring private
investigators?
Mark (47:28):
I think in criminal cases, I don't think very much of that
when there's an active policeinvestigation.
I'm biased, but I've beeninvolved in two cases that I can
remember where privateinvestigators were hired.
What I remember from that is,their reports were coming back
and the families gave them, orthe victims gave me the reports.
They were written like they weredone by Captain Obvious.
(47:50):
What this case needs is aconfession from the suspect.
Okay, well, if we only had thatright?
I didn't need anybody to tell methat.
If the police would just do thisand this and this, like, a list
of how the police shouldinvestigate.
What I can remember from one ofthose cases is I'd already done
everything on the private eyeslist.
The major pieces were a deadend.
(48:10):
With an active investigation,I'd be afraid, with a homicide,
a PI might cause problems whenthey contact witnesses or
speaking with witnesses orinfluencing witnesses.
In cases like that, Idefinitely, discourage a family
from doing its own investigationthat, at least where there's an
active investigation ongoing.
In short, unless the police havegiven up and you, think a
(48:30):
private investigator can come upwith something more than a
blueprint for the cops, Iwouldn't bother.
Marcy (48:37):
What do you have to say about the police officers who
went to the motel in response toTiffany Taylor's call?
Mark (48:43):
Having worked in vice and worked as a street officer, I
can tell you that I would neverhave treated her like that.
I learned early on that, thebest thing you can do with, even
with a case, you think, thevictim or witnesses lying, is
document it, right?
Because who knows what reallyhappened.
If you have somebody lying toyou that went through the
trouble of calling the policeare lying to you, who knows what
really happened?
The best thing you can do isdocument what you got.
(49:05):
Maybe take photos of anyevidence.
At least you can pin that personin her story, whatever their
motivation is, because, sayshe's lying.
She certainly would've calledthe police there for a
motivation.
Who knows what that is?
But at least we know where she'sat and we took photos of her and
so forth.
This was in my estimation,complete incompetence and why?
I don't know.
Training, failure inimagination, laziness, Maybe all
(49:28):
three.
I always said that the bestpolice recruits are part
tourist.
They're inquisitive.
They want to know what happened.
Even on things that they weren'tinvolved in, like we'd go to
lunch, which was early in themorning on the night shift I
worked on, and we'd sit aroundthe table and then we'd talk
about the calls.
Any interesting calls would comeup, and I watch my recruits to
(49:49):
see are they interested in theother calls that maybe they
haven't happened yet, but theseare the calls that they may have
to go to.
Are they, thinking about, howthose were handled?
The best recruits were alwaysinterested in how something was
handled that they didn't have tohandle.
This imagination andinquisitiveness can pay off in
all kinds of ways.
Officer safety, you're thinkingabout, Hey, I heard that this
guy, my fellow officer wasattacked, in a completely
(50:12):
unusual situation, and this ishow he dealt with it.
Or remembering an MO.
Hey, I heard that somebody wasgoing in through second floor
windows and doing burglariesthis way.
You can make connections oncrimes that way.
In this case, Tiffany washandcuffed and she was strangled
nearly to death.
As you would expect, leavingmarks on both her neck, her
wrists, and those markssupported the truth of her
(50:34):
account.
She's black, so it might not beimmediately obvious, but when
you're strangled to unconscious,It's often, very often
accompanied by petichialhemorrhaging.
meaning you're straining so hardthat you burst the small
capillaries in your eyes,sometimes your eyelids.
You can document this.
When I was a sexual assault, weoften did.
(50:56):
Sometimes we'd, go out, take anassault report, document the
injuries, and we'd go back acouple days later or maybe an
advocate contacting the victimwould call us and say, Hey, her
injuries are really visible now.
I'd send detectives out, or I'dgo out and take photographs
myself sometimes, days after theevent so we get the full scope
of the injuries.
(51:17):
After those incompetent officersignored Tiffany's report.
Called her a liar.
It turned out there's a ton ofevidence.
Competent officers were sent outand they cleaned up the mess.
It's almost painful for me tothink about what happened
because if you lose evidence,you're denying it to both the
prosecution and defense.
(51:39):
Every bit of evidence has apotential to benefit either
side.
So the prosecution can lose acase if it looks like the police
are suppressing or hidingevidence, But in this case, the
county prosecutor did call for acollection of physical evidence.
It turns out Tiffany was injuredand they documented it, and
there was lots of otherevidence.
And the other good thing I likedabout this is that, so that it
(52:00):
appeared the prosecution wasn'thiding anything, they called
that incompetent officer to thestand.
And Elizabeth City policeofficer Billy Lie, said,"it
didn't seem like it was thatemergent." That was his excuse
for not doing anything.
It didn't seem like it was thatbig a deal.
And he refused to remove her thehandcuff that the serial murder
(52:25):
rapist had put on her, wrist.
Now, I'm gonna tell you, fromtime to time, police are sent
for this service- to removehandcuffs.
I mean, you can imagine thesituation, it's often at night,
it's often embarrassing for thecitizen.
But we do it right?
Sometimes, the people that callus are relaxed and laugh about
it.
We laughed about it.
Like, hmmm okay, but we do it.
(52:45):
We go out there and take thehandcuff off because, what are
you gonna do otherwise?
Are you gonna tell him?
No, we're not taking thehandcuff off?
No.
He had so much disdain for thisvictim.
True victim.
That he, they said, nope.
And walked away, refusing eventhat basic service.
Keep in mind that handcuff theyrefused to remove was evidence
in a serial murder.
I hope he got spanked.
(53:06):
I hope he felt every bit ofembarrassment he should have on
the stand.
You know, my question is, if ourmotto is to protect and serve,
when you fail to collectevidence in a kidnapped rape,
attempted murder, who exactlyare you protecting and serving?
As a police officer, you don'thave to make a determination if
someone is lying.
But in a case like this, notdocumenting the crime, not
(53:26):
looking for corroboratingevidence is dereliction.
Thank God for the bravery ofTiffany Taylor and Samantha
Rivera and the competent policeofficers and prosecutors that
stepped forward to put thisanimal in prison for the rest of
his life.
As Marcy's friend Sonya wouldsay, forever and ever.
Amen.
Please rate and review CrimeRaven wherever you listen.
(53:49):
It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
$10 off our very coolmerchandise.
Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
(54:12):
send you a free Crime Ravent-shirt.
Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
don't miss an episode Pleaserecommend us to your friends
too.
Check our website atcrimeraven.com crime Raven
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
(54:35):
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
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