UK investigators say 39-year-old Sonia Exelby boarded a flight to Florida in October for what should have been just another overseas trip.
According to FOX 35 reporter Marie Edinger, detectives now believe she flew there to be tortured and killed on purpose – a plan she allegedly arranged herself with a stranger from a fetish website.
Marion County deputies say that stranger was Dwain Hall, an Ocala-area roadside assistance operator who is now charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. Edinger reports that Hall has been denied bond as the case moves toward trial, with a judge calling out the “large amount of evidence” stacked against him.
It’s the kind of case that sounds like fiction.
Prosecutors say it’s all very real.
A “Murder-For-Hire” Where The Victim Hired The Killer
LiveNOW from FOX host Carel Lajara opened her segment by calling it what most people are thinking: bizarre.
She told viewers that in Marion County, Florida, investigators are dealing with a case where the alleged murder victim “met the man on a website where she was looking for someone to apparently torture and ultimately kill her.”
Authorities identified the woman as Sonia Exelby, a UK citizen in her 30s.
Lajara explained that Exelby was reported missing in Britain after she failed to return home from her Florida trip. About a week after she landed, her body was found buried in a shallow grave at a home in the Marion Oaks area.
Edinger’s FOX 35 reporting fills in the backstory.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigators say Exelby posted on a fetish website seeking someone to abuse and kill her. They say Hall answered that post, and over time the two built up a twisted online relationship centered on that fantasy.
Former detective Jamie Copenhaver, interviewed by Edinger, said that in more than 30 years in law enforcement he had “never heard anything close” to this kind of case.
Frankly, most people haven’t either.
From Online Messages To A Deadly Trip
According to Edinger’s detailed timeline, license-plate readers and bank records show Hall drove to the Gainesville airport on October 10 and picked Exelby up when she arrived from the UK.
Investigators say just before that, Hall was caught on surveillance cameras buying rope, paracord, gun cleaner, and a shovel at a Walmart in Gainesville.
Edinger reports that Exelby had reserved an Airbnb in Reddick, a rural area in Marion County.
FDLE says Hall drove her there, and neighbors later told deputies they noticed a vehicle marked with “emergency roadside” – matching Hall’s business, Solverwolf Roadside Assistance – parked outside the property.
What happened next is laid out in the arrest affidavit summarized by Edinger.
Investigators say they found video on Hall’s phone recorded the next day, showing Exelby covered in cuts and bruises, with Hall demanding that she verbally consent to being stabbed.
Messages from Exelby’s phone to a friend on Discord that same day tell a different emotional story.
Edinger says Exelby wrote that she was “so, so scared,” “broken and in so much pain,” and that she had thought Hall would “do it quick and not give my mind time to stew.”
That contrast is important.
Even if she initially sought this out online, by the time she was in Florida she appeared terrified and full of regret.
Evidence Trail: Shovel, Rope, Video, Knife
Carel Lajara asked criminal defense attorney John Day what kind of evidence would be needed if Hall’s defense tried to argue that he was just doing what the victim wanted.
Day didn’t sugarcoat it: “There’s a huge amount of evidence stacked up against this defendant,” he told LiveNOW from FOX.
Edinger’s FOX 35 report outlines that evidence step by step:
- Surveillance and bank records showing Hall buying rope, a shovel, a tarp, and other items tied directly to the crime scene.
- Airbnb evidence, including food and items traced back to Hall’s purchases.
- A shovel later found at Hall’s home with both his DNA and Exelby’s DNA on it, plus a matching shovel label recovered at the burial site.
- Video on Hall’s phone showing Exelby bruised and injured, while he presses her to say she consents to being stabbed.
- Charges to Exelby’s cards, including a $1,200 charge he ran through his roadside business after multiple failed attempts on a different card.
- A package Hall allegedly mailed to a friend in Ohio, which detectives later seized and opened, finding a knife with Exelby’s blood and a bracelet with both of their DNA.
Day pointed out to Lajara that Hall even appeared to try to cover his tracks.
According to Day, law enforcement recovered video Hall “apparently tried to delete,” and they later found a knife mailed months afterward that tested positive for Exelby’s blood.
It’s that kind of meticulous digital and physical trail that led Judge Laurie Cotton to deny bond.
In court, Cotton told Hall there was “no condition of bond” that could both ensure he would show up and “keep the community safe,” citing the large amount of evidence against him.
Why “Consent” Doesn’t Matter In Murder
The strangest part of this story is the alleged consent.
Lajara pressed John Day on the big question: can someone’s request to be killed actually be a legal defense in Florida?
Day was blunt. Florida has no assisted-suicide law, and even if it did, this situation would be “the farthest thing” from that.
He emphasized that this is being treated as a straightforward murder case with kidnapping and possible sexual-assault elements layered on top.
“You can’t consent to travel to the state of Florida to be murdered,” Day said.
He explained that in some jurisdictions, tightly controlled “assisted euthanasia” laws exist, usually involving terminally ill patients and strict medical procedures. But that’s a completely different world from what Hall is accused of doing.
Day told Lajara that even if the defense tried to argue that Exelby agreed to what happened, it doesn’t erase the crime.
At most, it could be used to argue for a different degree of homicide, but with the evidence described, Day suggested Hall is “facing the worst possible punishment in the state of Florida.”
In simple terms: the law does not recognize a person’s wish to die as a get-out-of-jail card for the killer.
Especially when that person is clearly in the middle of a mental-health crisis.
A Long History Of Mental Health Struggles
Both LiveNOW from FOX and FOX 35 stress that this wasn’t the first time Exelby had tried to arrange her own death.
Day told Lajara that authorities in the UK said she had attempted something similar in 2024, trying to hire someone to kill her before that plan was discovered and she was treated instead.
Edinger reports that British law enforcement confirmed that earlier attempt.
Friends and a boyfriend told FOX 35 that Exelby had studied music, but also struggled with serious mental-health issues and suicidal thoughts.
Day kept coming back to that point.
He described her as a “young woman with some clear mental health issues” who needed help, not someone whose wishes should be taken as a green light for violence.
From a broader perspective, this case is a brutal example of what can happen when untreated or poorly managed mental illness collides with the darkest corners of the internet.
A vulnerable person went looking for the worst possible kind of “help” – and allegedly found someone willing to profit from it.
To their credit, both Lajara and Day ended the LiveNOW segment by emphasizing mental-health resources.
Lajara reminded viewers about crisis hotlines, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, for anyone who finds themselves in a similar dark place.
What Happens Next – And What It Says About Us
Edinger notes that Hall was first arrested in October on fraud charges tied to Exelby’s credit cards, before those counts were dropped in favor of homicide and kidnapping charges once investigators pieced the rest together.
He is now being held without bond and is due back in court as the case moves toward trial.
Day told Lajara the outlook for Hall “doesn’t look good.”
With the digital trail, forensic evidence, financial records, and messages, he suggested it will be extremely difficult for the defense to win an acquittal, whether the case goes to trial or ends in a plea deal.
This case hits a lot of uncomfortable nerves.
It raises questions about online fetish communities, cross-border policing, mental-health failures, and the limits of personal autonomy when someone is clearly not in a healthy state of mind.
But the core legal question is surprisingly simple.
No matter what someone posts online, and no matter what they say they want, you cannot legally torture and kill them. Consent doesn’t magically transform murder into something else.
In the end, as Day told Lajara, this is a tragedy above all else – for Sonia Exelby, for her family back in the UK, and for everyone who tried to help her before this nightmare unfolded.
And it’s a reminder that when someone is openly talking about wanting to die, that’s not a request to be honored. It’s a cry that demands real help, not a ticket into the hands of a killer.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
