A New Jersey serial killer who used dating apps and social media to lure his victims was sentenced Wednesday to 160 years in prison for the 2016 murders of three women.
During the trial, it was revealed that the suspect was caught after friends of one of his victims did their own detective work on social media and found him.
25-year-old Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, remained stoic as the judge handed down his sentence in state court in Newark.
Prosecutors described Wheeler-Weaver, then only 20 years old, as a young man who used the dating apps to lure the women in for sex and then killed them by strangulation.
The victims were found between September and December 2016 in northern New Jersey. At trial, investigators also presented evidence from Wheeler-Weaver’s cellphone that placed him near the areas where victims disappeared and where their bodies were found.
The Essex County prosecutor’s office credited friends of one of his victims, Sarah Butler, with using social media to help police find Wheeler-Weaver. The amateur detectives gained access to Butler’s social media accounts, set up a fake account, and lured Wheeler-Weaver into meeting with them, and then notified police, prosecutors said.
The sentencing was preceded by emotional statements by family members of Butler and another victim Robin West.
