New Jersey

Suspect in New Jersey College Student's Death Accused of Killing 2nd Missing Woman

The body of 20-year-old Sarah Butler was found Dec. 1 in Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange

What to Know

  • Sarah Butler was reported missing Nov. 23; her body was discovered more than a week later in the woods in New Jersey
  • Khalil Wheeler-Weaver was charged in her death; he is also accused of killing another woman, Joanne Brown
  • Brown's body was found Dec. 5 in a vacant home in Orange, New Jersey

A man accused of killing a New Jersey college student is now suspected of killing another woman, prosecutors say.

Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 20, pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the death of 33-year-old Joanne Brown, who was last seen Oct. 22 in Orange and whose body was found in a vacant house in Newark on Dec. 5.

"The murder occurred in that location and her body was left in that location, which is a concealed location within an abandoned residence," Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said Tuesday. 

Wheeler-Weaver remains jailed on $5 million bail. 

Prosecutors remained tight-lipped about why they believe Wheeler-Weaver is responsible for both Brown's murder and the murder of 20-year-old college student Sarah Butler of Montclair. Butler's body was found on the Eagle Rock Reservation days earlier. 

Her sister told NBC 4 New York Tuesday she's not surprised Wheeler-Weaver is accused of more deadly violence -- but she is stunned.

"Usually I just hear about this in movies," said Aliyah Butler. "I didn't think that things like this and people actually happened in the real world." 

Investigators said the victims don't appear to know each other, but both were killed in the same manner: strangulation and asphyxiation. 

"Now I'm wondering how many girls he's hurt like this," said Aliyah Butler. "I'm just hoping the number isn't large because what he did to my sister was terrible."

Asked whether they believe the deaths are the work of a serial killer, Murray said Tuesday, "I'm not gonna comment on that."

Wheeler-Weaver's attorney, Shevelle McPherson, insists her client is innocent and that prosecutors don't have enough evidence to connect him to both crimes. She says the evidence she has seen is "very circumstantial."

"They're trying to accuse him of this [second] crime, because manner of deaths are similar," she said. "If they're gonna try to secure a conviction based on manner of death, they're gonna have to come up with more than that." 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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