Scroll through true crime offerings on Netflix or Hulu and you’ll see it: our culture’s basic perception of the serial killer. Usually he’s a white man with a wife and kids, fooling everyone with his suburban mundanity.
But what makes a serial killer isn’t that external image. It’s the monster inside.
And the serial killer who was stalking North Jersey streets and dating apps in 2016 isn’t who you’re picturing.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 20, was a thin, bespectacled Black man. He had a girlfriend and a nice car. He was from a law enforcement family in Orange.
When police interviewed him, he simpered.
When he fled from the crime scene, no one gave chase.
It wasn’t until he was set up by a victim’s loved ones that things started to turn. Women like them — and the one survivor who escaped by outsmarting him — would ultimately take this serial killer down.
“Someone’s Hunting Us,” a new true crime podcast from NJ.com, tells the whole, unbelievable story. The eight-episode series is part investigation, part thriller.
The first four episodes are now available, including the first episode linked below. The remaining episodes will drop every Tuesday.
You can listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show to get notified when each new episode drops.
The award-winning team behind “Father Wants Us Dead” — called one of the best true crime podcasts of all time by Entertainment Weekly — chose to dive into this unbelievable story because it’s never gotten the attention it deserves, likely because the victims were Black and many were sex workers.
“Someone’s Hunting Us” is a deeply reported series, the result of more than a year of research, interviews, reporting and production.
Listeners will get to know each girl who disappeared, including Mawa Doumbia, a 15-year-old whose story has never been told. Each episode is tenser than that last, as Wheeler-Weaver slips through authorities’ fingers — that is, when police even bother to dig into these missing girls.
The reporters take listeners into the interrogation room with Khalil and detectives, with audio of that crucial moment. Thanks to hours of tape — and interviews with his closest friends — the podcast uncovers more about him and his likely motivations than has ever been revealed.
“Someone’s Hunting Us” is reported, produced and hosted by two veteran NJ.com journalists. Daysi Calavia-Robertson is an award-winning columnist whose work centers on the Garden State’s diverse communities. Rebecca Everett is the long-time crime reporter behind NJ.com’s two other true crime podcasts. “Father Wants Us Dead,” about family-killer John List, was one of Apple Podcasts’ top new shows of 2022, won two Webby Awards and was featured on “best of” lists by Variety, Cosmopolitan and The New York Times. “In the Shadow of Princeton,” a cold case story that initially was released on Wondery+, later won a Shorty audience award and was runner-up for a National Headliner Award.
“Someone’s Hunting Us” builds on that tradition of audio journalism — pairing gripping narrative tension with deeply documented, accountability‑driven reporting. That reporting includes dozens of interviews, many with sources who’ve never spoken publicly before.
Loved ones paint vivid portraits of the victims, allowing listeners to understand the lives at the center of this investigation. They include Robin West, 19, a Philly girl who visited Newark but never made it home; Joanne Brown, 33, a woman in recovery, and Sarah Butler, 20, a student from Montclair.
In addition to revealing surprising new details, the journalists ask key questions about why warnings were missed and whether it could all happen again if another killer tries to exploit the system that devalues victims like these.
Check out the trailer or dive right into episode 1 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow the show to get notified when new episodes drop every Tuesday.
