OCALA, Fla. (Court TV) — The family of a woman whose body was found buried in the woods in Florida is asking for help traveling to her trial from the United Kingdom.
Dwain Hall appears in court for a hearing on April 22, 2026. (Court TV)
Dwain Hall, 54, is scheduled to stand trial next month after pleading not guilty to charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of Sonia Exelby, 32, a woman who had traveled to the United States from the U.K.
Exelby was reported missing in October 2025 from her home in Portsmouth, England, and was traced to the United States after investigators found she had purchased a plane ticket to Florida. Investigators said that Exelby “left evidence on her computer indicating that she was again suicidal and traveling to the United States to be possibly sexually abused, tortured and murdered by unknown individuals.”
Prosecutors have said that Hall and Exelby met via a fetish website. In interviews with police, Hall initially denied knowing the victim but later admitted to having sex with her — though he claimed he didn’t want to. Hall also allegedly told police that he used to have “violent tendencies,” but claimed they had gone away after his wife got sick the previous summer. Police used data from Hall’s phone records to search for Exelby, who was found buried in the woods in Marion County.
Sonia Exelby (Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary)
Exelby’s family lives in England and has started an online fundraiser to help pay for their travel to the trial. “None of us want to be going to a trial,” Exelby’s sister wrote. “We know that being there will be extremely distressing and emotionally difficult. But Sonia is our sister, our aunt and someone we love deeply. We feel that we need to be there for her. We need to stand together as a family, support one another and face this incredibly painful experience together.”
The fundraiser has a goal of £10,000, or approximately $13,300, to cover travel and help offset the income lost by those who travel and will have to miss work. “The financial impact of losing Sonia has also reached far beyond the cost of traveling,” the fundraiser said. “The shock and devastation of what has happened has affected every part of our lives.”
Exelby was the youngest of six siblings and shared her life with a partner of 15 years, her family said in a statement released by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary. “Sonia was one of those rare people who made you feel completely safe to be yourself. She never judged, never criticized — she simply accepted people as they were and loved them for it,” the statement read, in part.
Hall’s next pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.
