Inset: Dwain C. Hall (Marion County Sheriff's Office). Background: The area in Florida where he allegedly tortured and killed a woman from the UK (Google Maps).
A 53-year-old man is accused of killing a 32-year-old woman who traveled from the United Kingdom to Florida to be murdered in a disturbing plot involving online fetishism, financial exploitation, and coercion.
Dwain C. Hall is facing multiple felony charges, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, and credit card fraud, in the slaying of Sonia Exelby last month, records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Hall is accused of killing Sonia Exelby, a resident of Portsmouth, England. Exelby, who had a documented history of mental health struggles, traveled to the United States on Oct. 10 after communicating with Hall on a fetish website where he used the screen name "alphasadist." While Hall initially claimed he was merely a "mentor" helping Exelby, investigators uncovered evidence suggesting she was held against her will, tortured, and stabbed to death.
The investigation began on Oct. 13, when UK authorities contacted the FDLE regarding Exelby, who had failed to board her return flight. Authorities noted she had previously attempted to travel to the U.S. to meet individuals online who would "kill her violently," though that attempt was thwarted in 2024.
During the recent investigation, authorities found evidence on her computer indicating Exelby wanted to be "sexually abused, tortured and murdered by unknown individuals living in the United States."
Exelby and Hall had communicated online for two years regarding bondage and suicide, investigators wrote. Hall admitted to investigators that they devised a plan for her to come to Florida, though the digital and physical evidence contradicts Hall's claims that the ensuing violence was consensual.
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On Oct. 10, just an hour before Exelby's flight landed at the Gainesville Regional Airport, surveillance footage captured Hall at a local Walmart. He purchased a shovel, 50 feet of rope, a paracord, and gun cleaner. Hall then picked Exelby up from the airport and drove her to an Airbnb in Reddick, Florida, which she had rented.
Financial records show that on Oct. 11, Hall attempted to charge Exelby's debit card seven times through his business, Solver Wolf's Roadside Assistance. After multiple declines, a transfer of $1,200 was successfully made to Hall's account.
Hall claimed Exelby wanted to die, but digital evidence recovered by police paints a chaotic scene inside the Airbnb.
On Oct. 11, Exelby sent a disjointed message to a friend on Discord, claiming Hall was "so bad" and kept taking her phone before stating, "He made it clear there was no way out unless I shoot him…I can't kill anyone."
"I'm locked in and there is no signal in the middle of nowhere," she wrote. "I thought he'd do it quick and not give my mind time to stew and realise this is the last thing I'll ever say to anyone if I don't take his offer of shooting him. He showed me about to use it and where to aim it."
She ended the message to her friend by saying the person holding her captive forced her to record "three disclaimer videos" and write a letter to her family "because he thought it was funny."
"I'm so so scared I'm so broken and in so much pain all I can do is lay here and doing what [he] wants makes him respect me enough not to do the things I really hate," she allegedly wrote. "I'm sorry I don't even know what I'm saying and I'm trying to be quick and My times up".
Investigators said they also recovered a deleted video from Hall's phone from Oct. 11, showing Exelby disheveled, with visible bruises on her face, neck, and breasts. In the footage, Hall interrogates Exelby, asking if she is "being forced or coerced." When she shakes her head no, Hall says, "You wanted to be beaten and made to suffer because you're such a piece of s—." He then orders her to repeat the phrase.
Investigators emphasized that throughout the video, Exelby appeared subdued and terrified.
Hall, who was already in custody on an unrelated fraud charge, was eventually connected to Exelby's disappearance. When questioned by detectives, he allegedly made multiple suspicious statements, including asking, "If you end a person's life, isn't that murder?"
When asked what, if anything, he would say to Exelby's family, Hall allegedly provided a chilling answer.
"Hall responds that he would tell them that the last time he saw her she was happy because she was going to get what she wanted," the affidavit says. "Hall claimed responsibility for Exelby being in a good place for the past few weeks because he helped her change her daily life."
Authorities later learned that Hall had sent a package to a man in Ohio, instructing him to "hold onto it and not tell anyone." During a search of that man's home, police recovered a knife that they said tested positive for blood.
"The blood belonged to Exelby," the affidavit states.
Hall is currently being held without bond. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.
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