A man already serving 160 years in prison for killing three women in Essex County and raping another, is facing more counts related to an alleged fourth slaying he was charged earlier this year the death of a 15-year-old girl her he met online, authorities announced Thursday.
Khalil A. Wheeler-Weaver was charged in March with the murder of Mawa Doumbia of Newark and indicted this week by a grand jury on several new charges including attempted sexual assault of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and desecration of human remains, according to a statement from the Essex County Prosecutors Office.
Doumbias remains were found on the second floor of an old carriage house on Main Street in Orange on April 9, 2019 and an autopsy revealed that she had been strangled to death, the office said. Once her remains were identified, detectives alleged they were able to eventually link Wheeler-Weaver to her death.
Wheeler-Weaver allegedly contacted her online on Oct. 7, 2016, and asked her to meet him for sex, officials have said.
Wheeler-Weaver, who lived in Orange at the time, used the social media app Tagged' to contact Doumbia about 10:40 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2016, and offered her $70 for sex, detectives wrote in the affidavit of probable cause. Their last communication was at 12:23 a.m. the next day when they arranged to meet.
Her father and sister last saw her that night when she left her home.
Wheeler-Weaver was scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges before an Essex County judge on Oct. 21.
Last October, Wheeler-Weaver was sentenced in the murders of Sarah Butler, 20, Robin West, 19, and Joanne Brown, 33. Their bodies were found in abandoned homes in Orange and Essex Countys 400-acre Eagle Rock Reservation park between August 2016 and November 2016. He was also convicted of raping, binding and strangling another woman, who escaped and testified at his two-month trial.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II mentioned last year that detectives were looking to see if there were any other victims of Wheeler-Weaver but has not provided any details on the search.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at [email protected].
