OCALA, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida man is facing serious charges after police say he kidnapped a woman from the United Kingdom, murdered her and buried her body in the woods.
Dwain Hall is charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of Sonia Exelby. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
Dwain Hall, 53, is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Sonia Exelby, who was first reported missing from her home in Portsmouth, England, on Oct. 13.
Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement say Hall and Exelby met online via a fetish website and had communicated for approximately two years before Exelby bought a plane ticket and came to the United States.
Exelby had a history of mental health problems and had previously attempted suicide, investigators said in court records reviewed by Court TV. When she disappeared in October, she had “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 living in the United States.”
Detectives searching for Exelby found that there had been several attempted charges on her debit card from Solver Wolf’s Roadside Assistance, where Hall is the only employee. When detectives confronted Hall, he initially denied knowing Exelby before eventually admitting that he picked her up from the airport and brought her to the Airbnb she had booked, where they had sex.
Hall described the sex as “vanilla” and consensual, though he initially told the police that he didn’t want to have sex with the victim because he is married. Hall also told officers that while he used to have “violent tendencies,” they had gone away when his wife became ill over the summer.
Investigators say digital evidence contradicts Hall’s claims that his behavior was consensual. A deleted video found on Hall’s phone that’s more than four minutes long allegedly shows the victim, disheveled and covered in bruises and abrasions. “This is how you wanted to die, right?” Hall can be heard asking in the video. “You wanted to be beaten and made to suffer because you’re such a piece of s***.”
While Hall told police that Exelby had left with an unknown man in a tan Cadillac El Dorado, detectives found evidence telling a different story. Her remains were found buried in a wooded area of Marion County, and blood on a newly purchased shovel in Hall’s possession matched Exelby.
Police say they found the murder weapon thanks to a phone call between Hall and his wife after his arrest, where he said to look out for a package from a friend in Ohio. Investigators say Hall mailed a package to his friend containing a 7-inch tanto knife “designed for piercing and stabbing.” An analysis of the weapon tested positive for Exelby’s DNA.
Hall has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Dec. 23, according to jail records.
