Disturbing new details have emerged about a British woman who travelled to the United States intending to be killed by a man she met online, with experts warning this was never a mutual fantasy but a case of chilling manipulation.
The Final Journey to Florida
On 10 October, Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old woman from Portsmouth, landed in Tallahassee, Florida. She was there to meet Dwain Hall, a 53-year-old American she had connected with on a fetish website. Friends of Sonia, who had a history of mental health struggles, immediately feared she had entered an extremely vulnerable situation.
Just three days later, when she failed to return to the UK as planned, alarms were raised. Her remains were soon discovered in a wooded area of Marion Oaks, northwest of Orlando.
A Homicide, Not a Pact
An official autopsy report has determined Sonia died from four stab wounds inflicted by a knife, each between four and seven inches deep. The report also noted a distinctive "dried, red-orange, V-shaped abrasion" on her body. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.
Investigators found evidence on Sonia's computer indicating she was suicidal and had travelled to America with the intention of being "sexually abused, tortured and possibly murdered". Florida police later arrested Dwain Hall on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping, partly after linking him to transactions made with Sonia's credit cards.
Hall, who collected Sonia from the airport and drove her to an Airbnb cabin in Reddick, admitted to violent tendencies and claimed Sonia was suicidal and wanted to die. However, psychologist and criminologist Alex Iszatt insists this was not a mutual suicide pact.
"Dwain Hall's role was never that of a participant; he didn't need to persuade Sonia; he just needed to validate her self-annihilating despair," Ms Iszatt explained. "Over two years, he mirrored her darkest beliefs, positioning himself as the sole solution to her pain."
Chilling Psychology and a Change of Heart
Ms Iszatt suggests Hall's behaviour displays traits of Antisocial Personality Disorder and malignant narcissism, noting his minimisation of violence—such as describing an encounter where he allegedly strangled Sonia as '"vanilla" sex—as a "profound distortion".
Tragically, evidence suggests Sonia may have realised her terrible mistake but felt trapped. Police obtained footage allegedly showing Hall filming a bruised Sonia, questioning her about why she was there and how she wanted to die. While she stated she wanted to be stabbed, detectives noted she appeared hesitant and visibly upset.
More damningly, messages sent by Sonia to a friend via Discord on 11 October reveal her terror. "I'm sorry he keeps taking my phone, he doesn't trust me with it," she wrote. "He made it clear there was no way out unless I shoot him. I was questioning it last night."
She described the previous night as "so bad" and confessed, "I can't kill anyone... I'm locked in and there is no signal in the middle of nowhere." Her final, heartbreaking messages spoke of being "so scared" and "so broken".
"Her inability to simply leave is not evidence of commitment, but a core characteristic of coercive control," Ms Iszatt stated. "By the time she was in that Airbnb... her freeze or flight response was to stay, and walking out was a physiological impossibility."
The Evidence and the Aftermath
Hall gave shifting accounts to police, at one point claiming Sonia promised to pay him $4,000 to help with tax debt and he grew angry when she arrived without the cash. He later withdrew £900 from her UK bank account. Investigators say he made her record disclaimer messages and write a letter to her family, which he thought was "funny".
After Sonia's death, Hall sent a package to a friend in Ohio. Inside, authorities found a seven-inch Tanto blade with Sonia's blood on it. A shovel from Hall's garage also bore traces of her DNA. A toxicology report found cannabinoids in her system and a blood alcohol concentration of 0.064%, a level that can impair judgement and alertness.
Hall, through his attorney Julia Williamson, has entered a written plea of not guilty and is maintaining his right to silence. He is expected in court next month. Ms Williamson expressed condolences to Sonia's friends and family, acknowledging the pain of this "tragic loss".
For Sonia Exelby, what began as a desperate online search for an end to her pain culminated in a nightmare of control and violence from which she could not escape. The official homicide ruling stands as a stark rebuttal to any notion of a consensual pact, painting a picture of a vulnerable woman allegedly manipulated and murdered by a man who fed on her despair.
