Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 28, 2015 0:25:03 GMT -5
West Virginia Woman Shoots Suspected Serial Killer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Detectives across the country are re-examining cold cases after a possible serial killer was shot to death while attacking a West Virginia woman. That woman, who prefers she be referred to only as “Heather” (above), managed to kill 45-year-old Neal Falls, who investigators believe is connected to a string of murders in Ohio, Illinois and Nevada. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Falls had responded to an ad for an escort on Backpage.com. When he arrived at Heather’s home, Saturday, July 18, she said things quickly went from bad to worse.
Minutes after she opened the door, Falls began beating and strangling her. She said he held a gun in one hand and held her by the throat with the other. She managed to grab a rake in an attempt to fight off her attacker. “He put the gun down to get the rake out of my hand and I just grabbed the gun and shot over behind me,” Heather said as she gestured over her shoulder. The single one shot hit Falls in the head and he was killed. “He was going to shoot me. He was going to kill me,” Heather exclaimed.
She ran out of the house and flagged down a neighbor, who called 911. “She had to defend herself and she shot him and he’s in the kitchen,” the neighbor told dispatchers. Heather could be heard in the background saying, “He pulled a gun on me.” The neighbor relayed to the dispatcher: “He pulled a gun on her. She’s got cuts and stuff all over her.”
When investigators arrived, they found a cache of weapons (above) inside Falls’ SUV including knives, a machete, axes, a sledgehammer, shovel, plastic trash bags, bleach and a bulletproof vest. They also found four sets of handcuffs in his pockets. “What comes to mind when you look at those items is a serial killer kit,” said Lt. Steve Cooper, who was the Charleston police detective who responded to the scene. Police also found a list of 10 West Virginia women, including their ages and phone numbers, all of whom were escorts. These women are all alive and have not had any contact with Falls, Cooper added.
“I believe that Heather saved lives and hopefully we’ll be able to bring some closure to some other families, too,” Cooper said. “If she didn’t fight back, she most certainly would be dead.” The woman suffered a broken vertebra and separated shoulder in her struggle with Falls. Because the offender died during the crime, “our case is closed,” Cooper said.
While the West Virginia case is closed, he is a suspect in cases of murdered and missing women in at least three other states: Illinois, Nevada and Oregon. In 2005, Falls lived in Las Vegas and worked at Hoover Dam and during that year, four women disappeared. Three of those women’s bodies were later found dismembered and authorities said all of them advertised their services online.
Representatives from Henderson, Nevada, and Illinois State Police have confirmed they are working with the Charleston authorities to further their investigations. Falls’ car had an Oregon license plate and he is believed to have lived in the state for a time, though police couldn't say for sure when he was last a resident. CNN spoke to a woman in Eugene, Oregon, who said she is Falls’ sister. She said she wants nothing to do with her brother and the family will have no further comment.
Falls’ former landlord told CNN affiliate KVAL that Falls (above) lived at her house in 2010. The woman, who asked to be identified only as Pauline, said she evicted Falls after a year because his strange behavior made her uncomfortable. “The first thing that he did that was a little odd was that he immediately changed the deadbolt to his own room so that only he had a key,” Pauline told KVAL. “He said he had guns and weapons and that he was a security guard. ... Little creepy, very tightly lipped and not a chummy guy, definitely not a chummy guy,” she related. “Somebody who doesn’t like to be exposed.”
Police Sgt. Rich Charboneau in Springfield, Oregon, said his department had some contact with Falls during the last few years for minor offenses such as traffic tickets and a dog at large. Falls also filed a complaint against someone else for trespassing on his property. Though there are no open murder investigations in Springfield, police have assigned a homicide detective to work as a liaison with officials in West Virginia, Charboneau added.
Of note, authorities have ruled out a connection between Falls and unsolved cases in Ohio, where six women have gone missing or turned up dead in a little more than a year. “There is nothing whatsoever that can tie him to the missing women in Chillicothe,” said Lt. Michael E. Preston, spokesman for Ross County Sheriff’s Office.
Sources: Shellie Nelson, WQAD News, and Stephanie Gallman, CNN.
