The message came through on Discord, her voice frantic in text. “I’m sorry, he keeps taking my phone. He doesn’t trust me with it. ” Sonia Exelby was in Florida, and she was terrified.
“He made it clear there was no way out unless I shoot him. I can’t kill anyone. I thought he’d do it quick. ”
Her friend in the UK read the words, cold dread settling in.
Sonia was supposed to be dead by now. That was the plan she had made, a plan her partner Stevie had barely managed to stop the first time. For fifteen years, Stevie and Sonia had built a life together in Portsmouth, England. She was the kind of person who found joy in small things—her cat Merrill, who she swore watched Father Ted with her, a SpongeBob-themed fish tank with a crayfish named Stelios, and the Epiphone guitar she used to dream about becoming a musician.
She posted about Eminem concerts and open mic nights, about university adventures climbing Kilimanjaro and skydiving. But behind that bright, lively spirit, Sonia had been drowning. She struggled with depression for years, and in 2024, she tried to arrange her own death, asking people online to help her. Someone caught wind of that plan and intervened, forcing her into treatment.
But this time, in October 2025, she had gone quiet online, a silence that frightened those who loved her far more than her sadness did. She flew to Gainesville, Florida, on October 10th, with a return flight booked for three days later. When she didn’t board that flight, the red flags went up. On October 16th, Stevie posted a desperate appeal to Facebook.
“My whole world is missing. Sonia is such a vulnerable person. We believe she has got herself into an extremely vulnerable situation. ” He begged people to share it.
“Me and Merrill just want you back home safe. ”
The police began investigating the strange charges on her card. Seven attempts were made within ten minutes; all but one was declined. A $1,200 payment went through to a roadside assistance business called Solver Wolf, owned by a man named Dwayne Hall.
When detectives first called Dwayne, he denied ever knowing Sonia. He claimed a woman had requested roadside help but, since her card kept declining, he never went. When they met him in person, he doubled down, insisting he had no idea who she was. But his story was riddled with holes, and the phone records showed the $1,200 payment had landed in his account.
A neighbor near the Airbnb where Sonia was staying had seen a black SUV with a roadside sticker, a vehicle that belonged to Dwayne. Investigators searched the property on October 15th. The place hadn’t been cleaned. Receipts in the trash dated October 10th showed purchases of paracord, fifty feet of rope, gun cleaner, and a shovel.
Surveillance footage placed Dwayne at the Walmart, and then at the Gainesville Regional Airport, at the exact moment Sonia’s flight landed. When they finally questioned him with the evidence, Dwayne’s story changed again. He claimed a high-profile client named Harold had hired him for a huge payout and made him sign an NDA. He said Harold owned the Airbnb and had him stay there while he worked on cars at a distant barn.
He claimed a silver car followed him and that he hid in the woods for an hour. When confronted with the fact that Sonia had rented the Airbnb under her own name, he suddenly admitted he had known her for almost two years. They had met on motherless. com, an adult site, where his username was “Darkwolf.
” They talked about bondage and, chillingly, her desire to have someone kill her. He admitted to filming her but claimed he deleted it because she wasn’t “behaving right. ” But investigators recovered the deleted video from his phone’s cache. It ran four minutes and sixteen seconds.
In the video, Sonia is alone in the frame, disheveled, bruised, with tears in her eyes, still wearing the clothes she had on at the airport. Dwayne’s voice comes from behind the camera. “Why are you here? ” he asks.
“Because I’m an awful person,” she replies, her voice small. “And what did you consent to here today? ”
“To be stabbed. ”
He asks how she’s been treated over the last two days.
“You’ve beaten me,” she says. “Is that what you wanted? ” he presses. “I guess, literally speaking.
” When he asks if she’s being forced, Sonia shakes her head and whispers, “No. ”
His voice is calm, methodical. “This is how you wanted to die, right? You wanted to be beaten and made to suffer because you’re such a piece of shit.
”
He makes her say it back, then responds, “Good, good. ”
That video sealed what the evidence already suggested. Dwayne had flown her there with the full intent to kill her. During his interviews, he admitted to purchasing the shovel, eating at Dunkin’ Donuts with her, and having intercourse with her.
He claimed she was the one who insisted on a cover story. He said he would tell her family that “she was happy, and that she got what she wanted. ” But an autopsy on October 18th showed Sonia died from four sharp force injuries. It was ruled a homicide.
Investigators searching the woods where Dwayne claimed to have hidden found a patch of disturbed soil. Cadaver dogs alerted, and excavation revealed Sonia’s remains. They pulled her belongings from a donation bin, her DNA mixed with his. And then they found the knife.
Dwayne had sent a secret package to a friend for safekeeping: a Cold Steel Tanto with an engraving reading, “Darkwolf, pointy end goes in the other guy. ”
Sonia’s blood was on the blade. Dwayne Hall now faces charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He awaits his trial, presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Her partner Stevie, instead of falling apart, is preparing to run a marathon in her memory on December 21st, raising money for Cats Protection, holding onto the warmth Sonia had for every living creature, even when she had none left for herself.
