Man shot by escort ‘may be a serial killer’

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Published Jul 29, 2015

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United States - A female escort who shot dead a prospective client with his own gun as he tried to strangle her probably took down a serial killer, police in the US have revealed.

The woman, known as “Heather”, was contacted by 45-year-old Neal Falls through an advertisement she posted online, and the two arranged to meet. When he came to her door in West Virginia on July 18, however, he was holding a gun and asked if she wanted to “live or die” before he began choking her.

“When he strangled me, I grabbed my rake, and when he laid the gun down to get the rake out of my hands, I shot him,” Heather told CBS News. “I grabbed the gun and shot behind me.”

Heather sustained multiple injuries in the attack, including broken vertebrae. But when police searched Falls's Subaru they realised she probably had a lucky escape. The dead man's car contained knives, axes, several pairs of handcuffs, a sledgehammer, a machete, a shovel, bleach, plastic rubbish sacks, a bullet-proof vest and a list of the names, ages and telephone numbers of 10 other women.

Police said the women on the “kill list” had advertised as sex workers online, and were all still alive.

But one unnamed item recovered from the vehicle was similar to evidence taken from dismembered bodies previously dumped more than 3200km away in the area around Las Vegas, where Falls used to live.

Police are now looking into whether Falls could be linked to the murders and disappearances of female sex workers in Nevada, Illinois and Ohio, stretching back at least a decade.

In May 2005, the remains of 22-year-old Lindsay Marie Harris, who had disappeared while working as an escort in Henderson, Nevada, were found in a field near Springfield, Illinois, more than 2 500km away. The remains were not identified for a further three years, as the authorities sought a DNA match. Between 2001 and 2005, Falls reportedly held a firearms permit in Butler, Indiana, about 560km east of where the remains were found.

Police said Heather acted in self-defence and would not be charged. Falls, who worked as a security guard in Oregon, had only minor traffic offences on his record, but Steve Cooper, the chief of detectives in Charleston, West Virginia, said it was likely that Falls was a cross-country serial killer.

“I believe she saved lives by shooting Mr Falls,” he added.

The Independent

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