A sex worker in Charleston, West Virginia shot and killed a man in self-defense who had a list of prostitutes in his pocket and a “kill kit” in his Subaru. Police are now beginning to link the 45-year-old man, Neal Falls, to the unsolved murders of sex workers in the Las Vegas area and in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Falls entered the home of the unnamed woman after answering her escort ad on backpage.com. He began to strangle her, but after a struggle she managed to grab his gun and shoot him. “I knew he was there to kill me,” she said in an interview with KPTV after being treated for broken vertebrae and lacerations. “I could tell that he had already done something, cause he said that he was going to prison for a long time.” Authorities declared the killing justifiable homicide.
In the back of his car, police found a shovel, knives, a bulletproof vest, bleach, trash bags, sledgehammers, and axes—and no money, leading police to believe he never planned to pay the escort for her services. Along with four pairs of handcuffs he was carrying in his pocket, he had a list of 10 women from backpage.com.