When Black women and girls started disappearing in Newark, the police response was limited. So the victims’ loved ones took matters into their own hands to catch a serial killer.
In 2016, women of color in Newark, NJ began to disappear. The police response lacked urgency because some were sex workers and others were considered runaways. So friends of Mawa Doumbia set their own trap, using the missing 15-year-old’s social media to draw out her killer. Investigators eventually drew connections between a Jane Doe in a burned building, a murdered college student, and a prostitute who fled from an attacker who duct taped and handcuffed her. The evidence would point them to a young, mild mannered supermarket security guard who they accused of being a serial killer.
The podcast “Someone’s Hunting Us” from nj.com and The Star-Ledger recounts the search for Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, who was accused of murdering four girls and women, and nearly killing a fifth. Hosts Rebecca Everett and Daysi Calavia-Robertson also explore the law enforcement inequities when the victims are Black or do sex work — as well as talk to the victims’ loved ones about how they advanced the investigation when authorities would not.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SOMEONE'S HUNTING US" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.