The female escort, who chose to remain unidentified. (WCHS)
A Charleston, West Virginia, escort put an end to what was potentially a nationwide killing spree after she fatally shot a client who tried to kill her.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, answered suspect Neal Fall’s BackPage ad – a classified site that connects escorts to their clients. The situation quickly escalated and Falls, armed with a handgun, tried to strangle the escort, but she fought back and managed to grab the suspect’s gun.
“When he strangled me, he just wouldn’t let me get any air and I grabbed my rake and when he laid the gun down to get the rake out of my hands I shot him,” she said. “I just grabbed the gun and shot behind me.”
When police arrived on scene, they found Fall’s body on the woman’s kitchen floor, and an array of cutlery and other tools stashed in his car.
Lt. Steve Cooper believes Fall had practiced this routine many times before, and that this escort was to be just one in a long list of previous murders.
“Based again on the nature of the attack and based on the items that this man had on his possession, it’s hard to imagine this was only going to be a one-time event for him” said Cooper.
The woman also felt as if Fall had killed before, noting his practiced tone of speech and demeanor.
“You could tell he was saying the exact same thing, he had it down pat,” said the woman . “He was saying, ‘You’re going to be quiet, I’m gonna call the orders.’ He was saying everything, you could tell he was comfortable with what he was saying.”
Police are working to connect Falls to unsolved murders from across the country.
Falls had with him not just his tools, but also a list of other women from BackPage.
“Do you fell like you possibly saved other women’s lives?” a reporter asked.
Without hesitation, the woman replied, “I know I did.”
(The following was a submission from freelance writer Brent Rogers)
The array of knives and other cutlery in the decedent’s car ought to be examined for human DNA. It’s impossible to say the man was a serial rapist or killer just from what we have here, but any evidence there is pointing to the fact ought to be carefully examined – the cutlery, the attacker’s car, everything. The investigators shouldn’t have tunnel vision on the idea of a serial killer, either. They ought to be looking at all possibilities. Any single one of Ailleen Wuornos’s victims could have been characterized in the same way as this man – just saying, look at everything.