Share and Follow
A British woman, battling suicidal thoughts, traveled to the United States with the grim intention of being killed by a man she encountered in an online fetish chatroom. Before her tragic end, she recorded a disturbing video detailing her wish for this man to take her life.
Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old involved in digital content creation, made her way to Florida last month, driven by a desire for a violent demise. Tragically, just days after her arrival, authorities discovered her body in a shallow grave within a secluded woodland area.
Charged with her murder and kidnapping, 53-year-old Dwain Hall, a father of two, allegedly subjected Sonia to sexual abuse and torture before ending her life at a remote Airbnb where they were staying.
Police have disclosed that Sonia, appearing visibly distressed, recorded a video in which she graphically described her death wish.
In the footage, she is seen sitting in a chair, appearing disheveled with multiple bruises on her face, neck, and chest. These injuries were inflicted by Hall, who admitted to using the pseudonym ‘alphasadist’ on fetish sites, according to police reports.
Hall, who claimed Sonia had also asked for rough sex, can be heard asking her why she is in the United States and Sonia replied in tears: ‘Because I am an awful person,’ adding: ‘I’ve crushed everyone who ever loves me.’
She goes on to detail why she is an awful person before Hall asks her ‘how’ she wants to die and to ‘describe it’.
Initially Sonia refused to answer but eventually said she wants ‘to be stabbed’.
Sonia Exelby (pictured, right, with her boyfriend Steve Hunt) flew to Florida last month ‘seeking a violent death’
Dwain Hall, 53, (pictured) has been charged with Sonia’s murder and kidnap
Hall is accused of abusing and murdering Exelby inside this Airbnb cabin (pictured) before dumping her body in a shallow grave
Hall then said: ‘This is how you wanted to die, right?’
When asked if she is being forced to do anything against her will, she shook her head before Hall asked if she is ‘happy’ and getting what she wants – and she nodded.
Sonia’s last moments were recorded in a 13-page indictment filed with the Florida Police Department investigating her murder.
Sonia, who had well-documented mental health issues, flew out to Florida on October 10 and had a return flight booked three days later for October 13.
Her family, including her boyfriend Steve Hunt back home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, reported Sonia missing when she wasn’t on board her return flight.
Mr Hunt posted an emotional plea for help in trying to find her – describing how she had flown to Tallahassee.
Posting several pictures of Sonia on Instagram he said, alarmingly: ‘We believe she has arranged to meet someone there and has got herself into an extremely vulnerable situation. That’s all I can really say on that.’
Tragically it has emerged from the police report that Sonia had suffered her family’s worst fears.
Sonia (pictured with Dwain Hall) flew out to Florida on October 10 and had a return flight booked three days later for October 13
Hall, who claimed she had also asked for rough sex, can be heard asking her ‘why’ she is in the United States and Sonia replied in tears: ‘Because I am an awful person’
Sonia’s family and Steve reported her missing when she wasn’t on board her return flight
Detectives in the US say she had ‘travelled to the United States with the intention of meeting with online individuals who would be willing to kill her violently’.
They say evidence found on her computer had indicated she was ‘suicidal and travelling to the US to be possibly sexually abused, tortured and murdered by unknown individuals’.
She had also used the messenger platform Discord to contact friends back in the UK to tell them what was happening, in what police say was a ‘long and disjointed’ series of texts.
In them she wrote: ‘I’m sorry, he keeps taking my phone. He doesn’t trust me with it.’
She then added: ‘He made it clear, there was no way out unless I shoot him. I was questioning it last night. I can’t kill anyone.’
Sonia then added: ‘I thought he’d do it quick and not give my mind time to stew and realise this is the last thing I’ll ever do to anyone if I don’t take this offer of shooting him.
‘He showed me how to use it and where to aim it. I’m 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,’ she wrote.
Mr Hunt posted an emotional plea for help in trying to find her – describing how she had flown to Tallahassee
Hall, who is married, said Sonia initiated the interaction, and he had not wanted to have sex because he did not want to ‘feel bad about his wife’
Police used mobile phone records and bank card transactions to establish that Hall at the airport when Sonia landed and took her to an Airbnb in Marion County – which she had paid for using her bank cards as she waited to take off at London’s Heathrow airport just hours earlier.
He told detectives he had met Sonia on a fetish website two years ago and she had told him how she was suicidal and wanted to be killed but he insisted he had tried to talk her out of it.
He told investigators he and Sonia had sexual intercourse inside the Airbnb before her killing.
Hall, who is married, said Sonia initiated the interaction, and he had not wanted to have sex because he did not want to ‘feel bad about his wife.’
Police eventually found her body in a woodland at Marion Oaks, while Hall was being questioned and she was identified via her fingerprints – a shovel found at his home had soil in it which matched the burial site.
Blood was also found on the handle, and it was later confirmed to be a positive match for Sonia and an autopsy on her preformed a week later showed she had been stabbed four times.
Police have also recovered a knife thought to have been used in the murder after it was sent by post to a friend of Hall’s and DNA found on bloodstains on the blade, matched with the victim.
Social media posts indicate Hall has been with partner Ginger Stein (pictured, left) since at least 2014
Officers say he made the video to protect himself from the consequences of ‘kidnapping and murdering’ his victim
Detectives say the video ‘clearly shows a visibly distressed’ Ms Exelby being ‘questioned by an authoritative Hall about her describing to be beaten and ultimately die violently.’
Officers say he made the video to protect himself from the consequences of ‘kidnapping and murdering’ his victim.
Her distraught family in the UK have been too upset to speak to the Mail.