A woman with mental health issues few across the Atlantic to meet with a man she allegedly hired to kill her.
What began as a missing persons alert soon escalated into a grim homicide inquiry stretching from the United Kingdom to rural Marion County.
Authorities with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced that they took 53‑year‑old Dwain Hall into custody on Monday, charging him with first‑degree murder and kidnapping.
The arrest came after forensic testing confirmed that human remains found in a wooded area were those of 32‑year‑old Sonia Exelby, a U.K. resident whose disappearance had prompted international concern.
Investigators noted that Hall had already been behind bars on fraud‑related counts linked to Exelby’s credit card.
The new accusations, officials said, were added as evidence mounted. Hall is being held without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Dec. 23.
The case first drew official attention on October 13, when police in the U.K. alerted Florida authorities that Exelby had never boarded her scheduled flight home.
Her failure to return led to heightened fears due to her past attempts to travel to the United States in order to seek out strangers who, according to authorities, she believed would “kill her violently.”
That earlier attempt in 2024 had been stopped before the reportedly mentally ill woman could follow through.
While combing through her belongings, investigators found evidence on her computer indicating that she sought encounters in which she would be “sexually abused, tortured and murdered by unknown individuals living in the United States.”
Newly disclosed investigative documents described how agents reconstructed Exelby’s last movements, tracing financial activity that pointed them toward the remote site where her body was later recovered.
Detectives followed a trail of failed charges on her bank card, which appeared linked to a roadside assistance business called Solvers Wolf’s Roadside Assistance. Records show the company was operated solely by Hall.
When questioned, Hall initially claimed that Exelby had reached out for roadside help but that her payment attempts continually declined, preventing him from responding.
Authorities said Hall’s story fell apart and the suspect acknowledged that he had maintained an online relationship with Exelby for nearly two years, where the two discussed her repeated claims that she wanted someone to kill her.
Hall told investigators that he met her through a fetish website. At first, he insisted he had only acted as a “mentor,” but agents said the evidence did not match his account.
Findings indicated that Exelby had been held against her will, subjected to physical abuse and ultimately stabbed.
A search of Exelby’s Airbnb revealed Walmart receipts dated October 10 in a trash bin.
The listed a rope, a shovel and gun cleaner. The purchases were made on a card tied to Hall.
Surveillance video from a Walmart store taken roughly an hour before Exelby’s plane landed showed Hall purchasing a shovel, fifty feet of rope, a paracord and gun cleaner.
Police say the items were bought shortly before Hall traveled to Gainesville Regional Airport to pick her up.
During interviews, Hall said Exelby agreed to pay him $4,000 in cash but had shown up with only $1,200.
Financial records reflect that on October 11, Hall attempted to charge Exelby’s debit card seven times through his roadside business.
When the charges failed, a transfer of $1,200 was eventually completed.
Footage obtained by detectives then captured Hall picking her up at the airport and accompanying her to an Airbnb in Reddick that she had booked.
He admitted that the pair had sex, which he referred to as “vanilla,” and that Exelby had consented to it.
After it was over, he told investigators that she left with a man he didn’t know in a tan Cadillac El Dorado.
Authorities said they also found messages believed to have been sent by Exelby to a friend thought Discourse.
In the correspondence, she indicated she felt she was being controlled. She told the friend Hall was “so bad” and repeatedly took her phone.
She added, “He made it clear there was no way out unless I shoot him…I can’t kill anyone.”
She went on to describe being shown how to use a gun and where to aim it.
She also wrote, “I’m locked in and there is no signal in the middle of nowhere,” adding that she had believed the act she sought “would be quick” and would not give her time to reconsider her final moments.
In another line, she said she had been forced to record “three disclaimer videos” and write a letter to her family “because he thought it was funny.”
Her final note to the friend read, “I’m so so scared I’m so broken and in so much pain all I can do is lay here and doing what [he] wants makes him respect me enough not to do the things I really hate. I’m sorry I don’t even know what I’m saying and I’m trying to be quick and My times up.”
FDLE investigators later uncovered video on Hall’s phone showing Exelby crying with visible injuries on her face and neck.
In the recording, Hall asked her how she wanted to die. After pausing, she responded, “to be stabbed.”
Authorities also found a deleted recording from October 11 depicting Exelby disheveled, with bruises across her face, neck and breasts.
In that footage, Hall asked whether she was “being forced or coerced.” When she shook her head no, Hall replied, “You wanted to be beaten and made to suffer because you’re such a piece of s—.”
Investigators said GPS data from Hall’s phone ultimately led them to the forested patch of land where her remains were located.
Detectives later learned that Hall had mailed a package to a man in Ohio, instructing him to “hold onto it and not tell anyone.”
After searching that man’s home, police recovered a knife they said tested positive for blood. According to the affidavit, “The blood belonged to Exelby.”
“I have been in this business 30-plus years,” former detective Jamie Copenhaven told FOX 35 Orlando. “I have never heard anything close to [this].”
