On 17 October 2025, Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old British woman from Portsmouth, was found dead in a shallow grave in Marion County, Florida, after travelling to the United States to meet Dwain Chadwick Hall, a man she had communicated with online. An autopsy found that she had died from stab wounds.
Hall was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin in November 2026.
Background Sonia Exelby was the youngest of six children and was known in her family as "Lamby". Her mother struggled with the demands of caring for a large family, and much of her early care was taken on by an older eight‑year‑old, Gemma. When Exelby was one, she and her four‑year‑old sister, Sara, were placed in foster care and later adopted by a civil servant and his wife in Portchester, Hampshire. She grew up in a stable home and developed an interest in music through her paternal grandparents, learning guitar, piano and flute. At around 18, Exelby began to take an interest in her biological family. She and her younger sister later reconnected with Gemma, their three older brothers, and their birth mother.
Exelby attended South Downs College in Waterlooville for sixth form. Her family later said she experienced depression and difficulties with body image, briefly attended university, and had a history of eating disorders, including using unregulated diet pills purchased online. During her 20s, Exelby's mental health declined and her eating disorders worsened. She became reclusive and relied on video games and online communication for company. Her family said that invitations to spend time together were often met with silence. Sara, who lived in Australia, returned regularly and later described a marked change in Exelby's behaviour, noting her reluctance to leave her home and her increasing isolation.
By 2023, Exelby was detached from friends and family. Her relatives said she had expressed suicidal thoughts and had visited online suicide forums. She also created an account on Motherless.com, a hardcore fetish pornography website, using the username "Already Yours". In November 2023, Exelby told her sisters she had found online messages suggesting that men in the United States were harming vulnerable women and said she intended to travel there. Her family contacted Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary out of concern for her safety. A later examination of Exelby's phone and laptop showed that her actual intention had been to travel to the United States to be voluntarily tortured and killed by individuals she had been communicating with online. She had exchanged violent and suicidal messages on Motherless and had been in contact with a user known as "alphasadist", later identified as Dwain Chadwick Hall.
Killing Contact with Hall and travel to Florida Exelby came into contact with Hall, who was 53, and married with a stepson, through a hardcore fetish pornography website. He had previous arrests in Florida for escape from custody and trespass. He later told investigators that their communication began through comments on his posts and developed into regular contact. Over the following two years, he described himself as acting as a "mentor" to Exelby, saying he offered guidance and daily routines and alleged she told him this had improved her life.
Exelby's siblings said this period coincided with a marked decline in her wellbeing and increasing isolation. Police records state that by 5 August 2024 she had used the encrypted messaging service Telegram to arrange travel to the United States to meet men she believed would help her act on fantasies of being "violently killed". A friend alerted authorities, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary intervened. Officers examined her devices, shared relevant information with US authorities and took safeguarding measures, including removing her phone and laptop. Police said no criminal offences had been identified and no arrests were made.
In early 2025, Exelby and Hall discussed plans for her to visit him near Ocala, Florida, but he later cancelled. Around this time, they spoke by phone for the first time. Hall later told investigators he owed money to the Internal Revenue Service, and Exelby offered to contribute $4,000 towards the debt if he helped her, in his words, remove the "trappings of humanity".
Arrival in Florida Exelby and Hall arranged to spend a weekend together in an isolated two‑bedroom Airbnb near Reddick, Florida. Using a laptop she had obtained without her family's knowledge, she paid for the accommodation and booked a flight from London Heathrow to Gainesville Regional Airport for the evening of 10 October 2025, with a return flight scheduled for the 13 October. Exelby told her boyfriend that she would be staying with her sisters that weekend, using a planned visit by one of them as an explanation for her absence. She had previously reassured her family that she did not intend to act on her fantasies and had ended contact with those she had been speaking to online. On the morning of the 10 October, she packed a small bag and left her home in Southsea.
Shortly before collecting her from the airport, Hall purchased items including a shovel, rope and gun‑cleaning supplies. He picked her up outside the terminal and drove her to the Airbnb.
Events inside the Airbnb On 11 October, Hall recorded a video in which he asked Exelby why she was there. She replied, "Because I'm an awful person". Detectives said he directed her to demean herself during the recording, and noted that she appeared dishevelled with visible bruising and was reluctant to respond. Hall deleted the video shortly after filming it, but investigators later recovered it from his phone. Later that afternoon, he attempted several times to transfer money from Exelby's bank card into his business account, and after repeated failed attempts he withdrew $1,200 from her debit card.
According to messages later recovered by police, Exelby contacted an online acquaintance to say that Hall had taken her phone, that she felt unable to leave, and that he had told her she would have to shoot him if she wanted to escape. She said she was frightened, in pain and unable to get a signal, and described the first evening in the Airbnb as "so bad". She also wrote that Hall had shown her how to use a firearm and where to aim it. She ended the message by saying "My time's up".
Final movements On 12 October, Hall left the Airbnb and drove south towards Ocala, where he bought a plastic tarpaulin from a store. CCTV footage appeared to show him speaking to someone in the passenger seat before he went inside. Around the same time, the owner of the rented property received a notification indicating that the guests had checked out. Investigators later established that Hall then drove to a location beside woodland, and GPS data from his phone showed that he remained at the site for about an hour.
Investigation Exelby's family reported her missing on 12 October, and Hampshire Constabulary began an inquiry. On 13 October, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) received a request from UK authorities to assist in locating her. Investigators linked Hall to Exelby through transactions made on her bank cards to his roadside assistance business. When contacted by FDLE, Hall said that she had telephoned him about a tyre change but that her payment had been declined. The next day, he sent a package containing a knife, its sheath and a bracelet to a friend in Ohio.
On 15 October, officers searched the Airbnb and found receipts for items Hall had bought. Based on this information, Hall was stopped while driving and taken for questioning to Marion County Sheriff's Office. During the interview, he gave a series of false accounts, including allegations that he had been hired by a man known as "Harold". After several hours, Hall retracted and said he had accepted financial help from Exelby in exchange for assisting her to die. He also told detectives that the pair had "rough sex".
On 17 October, police search teams found Exelby's body in a shallow grave at the same location where Hall's GPS data placed him in Marion County. An autopsy recorded four stab wounds, and her blood was found on a customised steel knife belonging to Hall. Exelby's belongings were later recovered from a public clothing bin 46 miles away in Gainesville. A search of his home recovered the shovel he had bought earlier in the weekend, with both his and Exelby's DNA on it. Hall was charged with first‑degree murder and kidnapping, having already been charged with fraudulent use of a credit card and unlawful use of a two‑way communication device. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in November 2026.
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