Jul 28, 9:09 AM (ET)
By JONATHAN MATTISE and DAN SEWELL
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A man killed by an escort he met online is being investigated for possible links to the unsolved disappearances or slayings of women nationwide, authorities said.
Neal Falls, of Springfield, Oregon, was carrying axes, a shovel and bleach when he was killed July 18, and authorities said Monday he had been stopped, interviewed or investigated by police in at least 20 states.
Police say Falls was fatally shot as he attacked and choked the escort in Charleston, West Virginia, and she grabbed his handgun off the ground and fired it.
Police found axes, knives, handcuffs, a shovel, bleach and other items in Falls' car, raising suspicions this wasn't the first time he had attacked a woman.
"The fact that he was 45 years old and carrying tools like he was and committing a crime that was so organized and so violent, it's unlikely that this was his first violent crime," Charleston police Lt. Steve Cooper said.
Cooper said Falls had a list of 10 other women in his pocket. Nine were in West Virginia; one was in San Diego. Similar to the Charleston woman, whom police are calling Heather, all were escorts active online, he said. They are all alive, he said.
Heather had a separated shoulder, broken vertebrae, strangulation marks around her throat and other injuries, Cooper said.
No history of major crimes in Falls' record has surfaced. However, police said records show that authorities in states including Arizona, Kentucky and Virginia had interactions with Falls such as stopping him, running his license plate or checking his Social Security number.
"We are sharing this information with law enforcement across the country in hopes that we may be able to help solve cold cases or bring closure to some families if Mr. Falls has been involved in anything like this before," Cooper said.
Charleston police have notified southern Nevada authorities, who said they are investigating Falls' possible involvement in a series of killings long believed to be connected. Police have said Falls rented a room in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson when four prostitutes went missing in the area. In three cases, young women working as prostitutes went missing and were found dismembered on the side of a road.
•••••
Cooper said Falls had "many contacts with law enforcement" across the country.
"He has been stopped and investigated by the police in upwards of 20 states," Cooper said.
He said Charleston police also have been communicating with authorities in the small southern Ohio city of Chillicothe, where four women died in suspicious circumstances and two others are missing. He said there has been no evidence placing Falls there, but it's been considered because of the proximity to Charleston, less than a two-hour drive away.
•••••
"He had no cash, no credit cards," Cooper said. "It's a mystery how he had traveled across the country to us right now. There's something that we haven't discovered yet."
No comments:
Post a Comment