Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Tried to Scratch His Face

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

In November of 2016, Tiffany Taylor is held captive and brutally assaulted in Essex County, New Jersey after agreeing to give a ride to a man in exchange for some much-needed cash. What she doesn't realize however, is that her passenger is a serial killer--who's killed twice before, and is out for blood. Tiffany recalls in her own words how she used her quick wit and drive to survive to manipulate her would-be killer into unwittingly granting her a chance to escape his deadly clutches. Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. 

An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. What about all the other creeps? I'm just very extra paranoid now, to be honest. And, um, it's creeps, all types of creeps out there. Like, I'm always to have that fear. Tiffany Taylor grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the 80s and 90s.

She was raised a Jehovah's Witness, but her neighborhood was rough. And at 18 years old, she was influenced away from her pious upbringing. Sex work, I never really got into personally. But what happened was I had bumped into this guy. And he made up this story about how he had a kid that had cancer. And he couldn't afford to take care of the bills from the hospital. And he had asked me, can I help him? And me being very gullible, being that I was so sheltered,

I believed him. And so my first time dancing at like a club or anything period was actually at a strip club. And I had brought my cousin with me to go along and dance with me. Even though I was gullible, I wasn't stupid at the same time. So I kind of was like holding all the cash

and I was telling him that when it's time to pay that bill, that I was gonna go with him and personally pay it. So I probably was dancing maybe for like two weeks and just holding the cash for me and my cousin or whatever. And I was hiding it because I was staying at that time at his place. I remember hearing this older guy, I guess that was like coaching him or whatever, hearing their conversation, him saying,

she's not supposed to be holding any money. You gotta make sure you get that money. Be her ass. That's when I remember him coming out the room and straight manhandled me and my cousin. The guy's older brother that was also staying there, I remember him coming out the room and throwing his brother across the room off of me and telling me to get out and run. And that's when I grabbed the cash that I had and took my cousin with me and I ran.

That's how I got introduced to the strip club world. I took things into my own hand after that. And it started with just me and my cousin. The next thing you know, I had met another girl and she had like six sisters and they were like all like back to back in age. And next thing you know, I had a crew of girls. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to people who've lived through the worst things imaginable

and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that happen after survival. I'm Kaitlyn VanMol. I started setting up dates for them and controlling the cash for the most part, but there was a family to me. Like I cared about them. I didn't like have them doing any drugs or anything like that or trying to control them with anything like that. We were having fun to be honest. We were having fun.

For this little bit of time I was doing this. They were like sisters to me, but I made sure I was always there whenever they had to do anything with anybody. Like I would be waiting in the bathroom or something like that, or, you know, holding the cash, putting it up, so nothing, you know? Trying to be a protector as best as I can.

Like, I just want to get that one thing clear. Being that I was raised a Jehovah Witness, I always had a conscience still, even though I was being blinded by fast money. So the whole me sleeping with men for money, that wasn't true. I never even said that, so I really don't even know where that came from,

to be honest. Tiffany didn't want to live like this forever. She had dreams of being an actor or a singer. So at 19, she decided to pursue these dreams at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Well, I majored in psychology slash music engineering because I sing and I write music. Psychology, I'm really into like body language and basically like, I like studying people and things like that of that nature. So I did psychology for a couple of years.

I got pregnant with my first daughter two years later and I stopped going to school and became a mom. I moved back to New Jersey because that's where, you know, all my family was and my child's father. I met him in Florida because he was going to school also. But he was from Jersey, too. So we both just came back to Jersey. Tiffany didn't have a job after having her baby and depended on her mother for help. There wasn't really money needed, really, for anything, because, like, I wasn't a drinker or anything like that,

or a heavy weed smoker or anything like that. And I was on Section 8, so that took care of the rent. And I had food stamps, so that took care of the food. Yeah, it wasn't really any need, as far as anything else that I needed for the baby and stuff like that. I had my mom's help. Though Tiffany didn't do sex work herself, she still knew a lot of people in that world. My ex-best friend had this guy that she was, you know, prostituting with. And she had introduced me to him and because like he would spend like, you know,

a lot of money, but it was a lot of money to her anyway. He would spend, so like she would try to, you know, be around him as much as possible. But she brought him to my house one time and I played him in some video games. And that's how he kind of like grew an obsession because he was like, I drove a fast car, it was this clutch, and he didn't know too many girls that knew how to do that or play video games or was into sports and stuff like that.

So when he saw me, he kind of like had this really big obsession. But I didn't want to like, you know, sleep with him or anything because for one thing, he was young. And, you know, he was saying he was 18, but that's just a little too close to minor for me. And I didn't want to sleep with anyone she slept with. But one day, the man offered Tiffany money in exchange for sex. She agreed to meet up with him, but she had different plans for their encounter. One day he had contacted me on his own without her. He offered a couple hundred dollars and I said, yeah, sure, I'll meet up with you. And I called her and I said, listen,

your friend called me asking me to meet up with him for some money. I said, I'm about to just take his money basically, but not without the green light from you and your permission. And when she said yes, it was okay. I said, okay, I'm going to make sure I come back and split the profit with you. So he had me meet him at this place. It looked abandoned when I walked in. I just remember going up some stairs

and this small bedroom with just a small bed and a lamp and a table. And I said, yeah, you gotta give me the money up front. I was more like a con artist, I guess, was a scammer more than anything, because this was something that I did a lot. So he gave me the money up front, and that's when I said,

oh, I forgot the condoms in the car. And he was like, okay. I said, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go get the condoms. And he was looking kind of unsure. So I said, oh, I'm coming right back. Matter of fact, I'll leave my bag here so you know I'm coming back. The bag was empty and old because, you know, it was all set up.

So I left my bag there, and I went downstairs and hopped in the car and drove off. My friend was supposed to cut him off after that, but she didn't. Tiffany's friend, continuing to have a relationship with this man would later put Tiffany in grave danger. On November 15th, 2016, Tiffany was now in her mid-30s and struggling to make ends meet. At that time, I was homeless, me and my mom. And we were staying at different hotels for a couple years, actually. For, I'd say, about two years, we were staying at hotels.

We had lost everything because my mom had ended up catching ovarian cancer, and she beat it, thank God. But she was pretty close to not being around anymore, and she ended up losing her Section A voucher, and losing, we lost everything, and had to start fresh. So we was homeless and we were staying at different hotels at the time. I was four months pregnant with my second child. For money at that time, being that I was pregnant, there wasn't much I could really do. But I had a friend that was really helping me out a lot. He was paying for my rooms a lot of days out of the week

and making sure I was good. He was like a guardian angel. He never came on to me or anything like that. And, you know, he's a lot older than me also, but he knew I was pregnant and homeless, and he was just a, he knew I was pregnant and homeless, and he was just a very generous guy. I had got a call actually from my ex-best friend, and she was telling me if I give her friend a ride, that he was going to help me out with a couple dollars

with gas. And I was always thinking about the next day, how I'm going to pay for the room and stuff like that. So I definitely jumped on the offer. So she gave me his number, and we started texting back and forth. Tiffany's friend didn't tell her who needed the ride. After Tiffany agreed to drive him, the man showed up at her hotel.

I don't know why I didn't think of it then, how he needed a ride and just popped up at the room. Like, how did you get to the room, you know? But I was just thinking about the money at the time. He had on gloves and, like, you know, like a ski mask, you know, that pulls over. But, you know, me living in the hood, that's what a lot of guys wear. Like, he kept saying how cold he was. It was the season for it, so it didn't look too suspect because that was, like, that's, like, he kept saying how cold he was. It was the season for it, so it didn't look too suspect because that was, like, that's, like, the style for guys in the wintertime.

The masked man got in her car, and the two of them headed out. He was saying that he had needed a ride to PA, so he was supposed to give me about $100 for gas or whatever. But he switched it up once he got into the car and said, you know what? I think I want to just get a room or something instead, but I don't have an ID. Do you have an ID? And I didn't have an ID either, but I'm like, you know, I've been staying at these hotels, so they kind of pretty much know me. I don't know, maybe I could talk to one of the people

and maybe get you a room without an ID. So I went to a nearby hotel. I left him in the car, I went inside, and I asked the woman that was at the desk if it was okay to get a room without an ID. But she was saying if she did do that, that I had to pay a lot of extra money. And I was thinking, well, that money

couldn't go in my pocket, so I was like, you know, no way. So I went back to the car and I told him, nah, they're not letting me do it, but I could still, you know, no way. So I went back to the car and I told him, nah, they're not letting me do it, but I could still, you know, take you where you gotta go. So I started to drive off. He then asked me, can I pull over down the side block? Cause he had to use the bathroom. So I pull over down the side block,

not too far from the hotel. And that's when it began. I'm thinking he might've hit me because I had pain in the back of my head and I was pretty dizzy, kind of. Blurried vision. I really can't, I don't know. But I know I went out and I remember can't, I don't know. But I know I went out.

And I remember waking up, how I woke up. And he was choking me out so hard I was spitting my teeth out from the pressure. Chips in my teeth was literally, I was spitting them out. The man in the ski mask was also raping her while he was choking her. I remember him talking. He kept a calm voice, and he said, it was a lot of weird things he was saying and whispering in my ear while he was raping me.

Like, I wish we was in a room, I would've demolished you, stuff like that. And I remember going out at least three times from him choking me out. I think he got off, off of seeing fear. The third time when I remember going out, I tried to like kind of reach behind me and like scratch his face

because I figured if I was at least scratching him, I would have something under my nails. And that's when he said, no, don't do that. And he took my hands and put it behind my back. And I see these shiny new handcuffs come out and he handcuffed me, my hands behind my back. Then after that, he pulls out duct tape and he wraps it around my head like a gift. But I was still able to breathe, you know, because like the way he wrapped it like this,

so like you know your nose kind of sticks out. So you still have, I still had that little bit of space here where I was able to breathe. Up to this point, the man still had the ski mask on, and Tiffany had no idea who her attacker was. That's when he revealed himself to me. He took off his mask. He turned around, and he said, you don't remember me? And I'm looking, and I'm looking.

And he was like, remember, I'm the guy you got for that money, and I'm your friend. He said, well, your so-called friend anyway, because that's'm your friend. He said, well, you're so-called friend anyway, because that's not your friend. She threw you under the bus. It's the exact words. And that's when I remembered exactly who he was. It was the man she robbed,

the man she met through her best friend, who had set up this ride. Once he took his mask off and told me who he was, I knew that his plan was to kill me, definitely. Because what person is gonna rape a girl, choke a girl out, handcuff them, duct tape them, and then show you and make sure you know who they are exactly, if they didn't plan on killing you. He then told her he was going to put her in the trunk.

But Tiffany had been conning men for years, and knew her best way out of this was to talk her way out. The duct tape had started lifting up from like here, from me sweating and crying. And once I was able to use my mouth, I definitely used it like it was a weapon. I told him that I had a, I begged him not to put me in the trunk first. I told him if I go in the trunk, I was gonna die because I had asthma or something like that, I said. So he said, okay, fine. As long as you follow everything I asked you to do,

you could just sit in the back seat. At this time, he's in the front seat now, trying to start up the car. And I think he didn't wanna kill me yet At this time, he's in the front seat now, trying to start up the car, and I think he didn't want to kill me yet because he still wanted to have fun. That's what I think. Tiffany knew she needed to change his plan, and fast.

Once he changed his mind from me asking him not to put me in the trunk and didn't put me in the trunk, he loosened up the cuffs. I kind of was going with that, and I kind of knew that maybe I could manipulate him and talk him and lead and kind of try to have him follow what I say instead. So I told him I had remembered that my phone wasn't with me. I said, you know, my phone with our text messages going back and forth, I left it in the room, right? I said, if I do pop up missing, they're going to go straight for that phone and know who you are.

And he started to panic. And he was saying, was saying oh you gotta go back and get that phone for me and because i tried to build like uh i tried to build like his trust i said um look if you take me back to the room and you let me go i said i lied about my friend i said it's a really old guy this is his car he's like 80 years old, he has a lot of money. Yeah, my friend was in his mid-50s, like definitely not 80, with no cane or nothing like that. I said, if you take me back, I'll retrieve the cell phone and I'll also talk him into paying you 2,000

or something like that if you promise to let me go. And I thought that was so stupid what I said, because you know, who takes that much out of an ATM? But he believed it. And he agreed and said, OK, I'm going to take you back to the room. At this point, I still have duct tape around my face. And I'm out of one cuff, because if he wouldn't have started

driving back to the room, I was just going to choke him out with the handcuffs while we were driving, pretty much, and start an accident. That was plan B, because I knew that if plan A didn't work, at least maybe I'd survive. But we're definitely going to stop right here. I wasn't leaving Elizabeth. I wasn't going past that hotel room.

If he would have kept going past the hotel room, that's what I was going to do. But it didn't come to that. He drove Tiffany to her hotel, thinking he was in complete control. What he didn't know was that Tiffany was double-jointed and could slip out of the handcuffs. But there was also the trouble of the duct tape around her head. He wanted me to go, he asked me to go up to the room,

get the cell phone real quick, and have the old guy come out, get in the car. He was gonna drive us to an ATM, have him get the money out, and then take us to like a dark road or something and let us walk off. That's what he wanted me to believe anyway. So I'm like, okay, sounds good.

And I'm like, but you're gonna take duct tape off because once my friend sees duct tape, he's gonna automatically flip out, you know? He said, oh yeah, yeah, I'm definitely gonna take that duct tape off. So basically when he pulled up to the hotel room, he got out the car, he came to the back seat, he took the duct tape off,

and he put my pink coat that I had over me to try to, like, hide the cuffs, kind of. Then he was, like, you know, right behind me, going upstairs to the room, and I was just hoping and praying that it didn't take too long and my friend didn't leave me. He's walking leave me. He's walking behind me, I kick on the door, my friend opens it, and I immediately run in

and slam the door right on him. Then he was banging at the window, my friend is witnessing all this, he's in shock with his mouth open. He's banging on the window, you lied, you lied, come back out, come back out. And I'm trying to explain to my friend what's happening and I think he was in a state of shock at that time

because he was really just staring at me with his mouth open and that's when I took the cuff off again, I couldn't get out that right one. I took that left one off again, I pulled the curtains back, and he saw that I was out of the cuffs, and he ran off. So it took for my friend to actually be the one to call 911. He called 911.

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option for you, fast. It's just one of the many ways you can save with Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com to try the Name Your Price tool for yourself and join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. While her friend called 911, Tiffany called her attacker. She promised him she wouldn't call the police if he brought back the keys to the car. Because I was trying to get the police

and him to kind of slam right into each other, you know? But that didn't work out as planned. So within an hour, the police finally showed up. They started questioning me, but they were, like, really, like, sounding, like, sarcastic with the questions. Like, so you let the guy duct tape you and asking me, where's the duct tape at now?

And it took them over an hour to even take the other handcuff off of me. Kept asking them to do it, and they kept saying they had to wait for, I guess, their boss or whatever to come to take the handcuff off. And when they finally did take the cuff off, they were like tossing it. Hey, these are the real deals right here.

Where'd you get these from? Like, and saying to me, if I retract my statement and say it never happened, they won't tow the car. They was just being real jerks about the whole thing. One of them said something about going and talking to the management or whatever at the hotel, and they said I was a troublemaker or something like that.

I'm like, I ain't never getting no trouble in the hotels or nothing like that. Tiffany had called her best friend that set this ride up and got her attacker's name, Khalil Wheeler Weaver, and gave that to the police. I had already gave them his name and his Facebook because what I did was, after I called the police, but before the police got there, I called the so-called best friend

and I was yelling at her saying, "'You know your friend tried to kill me just now.'" And I remember her chuckling, saying, why would he do something like that? Like nobody believed me at all. It was horrible. And I was yelling like, what's his name? Give me everything about him, like right now.

And she was like, Khalil, his name is Khalil. Khalil Willow Weaver. She said exactly like that. I'm like, is that his Facebook too? And I can't remember if she said a different name for the Facebook or if that was his actually, it was his name. But when I looked it up, it was his face in pictures.

So I was able to show the police that as well. But I do know they didn't believe me, honestly, because I'm staying at a hotel for one thing. I'm a black woman with dreadlocks for two, which is a statement all in itself. I'm not wearing any, you know, fake blonde hair and gray contacts and stuff like that. You know, like, they were all white police officers.

And that alone, because like, I don't have a record of prostituting. I've never been locked up for drugs or anything like that. So I think they probably thought it was maybe a prostitution thing that went bad and maybe I was mad or something and the guy ain't paid me or something like that. I don't know. They started checking me for warrants. It was horrible. It was really horrible. And it made me feel really bad and low because like it took a lot for me to even call them. And then they were wasting time when

they could have caught this guy. I gave them all information that I can, like first name, last name, Facebook pictures, where he was from, his age. Like, I really made it easy for them to find him. The police didn't even take me to get a rape kit done. I had to go get my own rape kit in the morning done. My mom took me. Tiffany didn't have many resources and was terrified her attacker would find her again. Yeah, I was, I went to a different part in Elizabeth and I stayed at some friend's house and just tried to be as low-key as possible. I thought he was going to come back and look for

me. And, you know, when I found out, you know, Sarah Butler was a Jersey City college student, I thought he was in Jersey City because he don't know nothing about Jersey City, I don't think. But I thought he was probably looking for me, knowing that I was from Jersey City, thinking I probably went back towards home or something

and came across her. And I don't know why I keep feeling like I got to blame myself for Sarah Butler, but it's really on my conscience. Sarah Butler went missing on November 22, 2016, seven days after Tiffany was attacked. She had borrowed her mom's van to go out and never came home. Her family reported her missing to the police, but they also took matters into their own hands. Sarah's sister, Bassania Daly, knew Sarah's social media passwords and saw she had set up a meeting on the 22nd

with someone called Lil Yacht Rock. Bassania and Sarah's best friend, Lamia Brown, then made a fake profile to set up their own meeting with Lil Yacht Rock. When he showed up to their meeting, he was greeted by police. He identified himself as Khalil Wheeler Weaver, and initially, police only questioned him as a witness. He admitted that Sarah picked him up on the 22nd, but that she had dropped him off with a friend shortly after. On December 1st, Sarah's body was found in the Eagle Rock Reservation. Though Khalil's friend had corroborated his story that they'd met up, police still checked both of their phone records

and found that the friends were not together that night. However, Khalil was near the Eagle Rock Reservation, where Sarah's body was found. He was arrested on December 6th. I got a call from my brother. He called my mom and called me and said, that guy Tiffany was talking about that happened to her, he killed another girl and they got him and locked him up.

I was so relieved and happy when I found out that he was in custody and he was arrested. Like, I was so happy, so happy. I was not in shock at all that he was charged with murder. After, like I said, what I went through with him, I knew it was way more to it than that. Because like I said, people don't start off out of nowhere strangling women to death,

reaping them and killing them. And he was very calm, you know? Like, he should have been nervous, scared, sweating. He acted as if he'd done this plenty of times before. Once he was charged with murdering Sarah Butler, police quickly connected him to the murders of two other women, Robin West and Joanne Brown. Joanne Brown went missing on October 15th, but her body wasn't found until December 5th.

A bodega receipt from October 15th was found on her, and Wheeler Weaver's phone records from that day show him going directly from that bodega to the abandoned house where her body was found. Robin West was a sex worker that was last seen on September 1st, 2016. She was with a friend on the street when she got picked up, and the friend wrote down the license plate of the car. Her body was found in the charred remains of a burned-down, abandoned house the same day she disappeared. Her friend gave the plate number to police, who traced it to Khalil Wheeler Weaver. At the time, he again was only questioned as a witness. But now he was connected to all three murders, and Tiffany knew she needed to speak up.

That actually happened because of my friend that's this guardian angel I keep speaking of. I know that he was a friend of the family of Sarah Butler and he talked to her dad and that's how I ended up being in contact with her dad and her dad told North prosecutors everything about me and I went to the court date with them. And that's how I met the prosecutors and stuff from Newark.

They asked me who I was, and I told them who I was and what happened to me. They immediately let me know that they wanted me to testify, and they had questions for me. The prosecutor was the one that finally listened to me, and my motivation was for the safety of me, my children, my family, the safety of anyone he could have gotten his hands on. He had to be put away. He had to be. I wanted to do whatever I could possibly do

to make sure that this guy did not come home. Wheeler-Weaver was charged with all three murders and the attempted murder of Tiffany Taylor. Tiffany testified at the trial. When I saw his face and testified, I felt like I saw a ghost. And I was scared. I was nervous. I was upset. I was crying.

Hurt. I believe my testimony was very important because I was the only one that was speaking about. And I was alive and speaking about what I went through. And I felt like I kind of knew what these girls went through that died. Khalil Wheeler Weaver was found guilty and sentenced to 160 years in prison. When he was found guilty, I was very relieved. It definitely felt like a burden was lifted off of my shoulders. To be honest, him not getting, like, a death penalty,

I feel like he still kind of got off easy because he could still dream about what he did to me and them. Even with her attacker in prison for the rest of his life, Tiffany continues to be emotionally affected by what happened to her. My mind, I'm nowhere near the person with the confidence that I had before. Night terrors, panic attacks, very paranoid, wanna be alone, but at the same time, don't wanna be alone. I definitely don't have the same self-esteem

that I had before. I don't even like attention at all. Like, I don't go out like I used to. Partying. Anything like that. So, uh, I'm hoping my self-esteem

does come back. But it's not there yet. But I'm working on it. I really miss the old me before that happened. But she also takes pride in the person she became, a woman who stood up to a serial killer. Yeah, I'm very proud of myself, also. Very proud of myself. I just wish, you know, that, I mean, I know I probably helped save lives

that could have died because of him, but I really wish I could have saved Zyra Butler's life. I feel proud, definitely, that I was able to do that and that I was strong enough to do that. With the pregnancy and everything, I'm very happy that I had my beautiful daughter. She survived as well, healthy. For all the women out there that have been through something like this, don't be scared to speak up so that these men won't think it's so easy to get away with

stuff like this. Be brave. Speak about it. Let it out. And if you do, people will start to listen after a while. If they not listening off the rip from beginning. Just keep trying. To speak to someone at the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, call 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673.

You can also live chat with someone at RAINN.org. That's R-A-I-N-N dot O-R-G. I Survived is hosted and produced by Caitlin VanMal and Law and Crime Network. Audio editing by Brad Mabee. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Sean Gottlieb, and Shelley Tatro. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, I Survived. For more I Survived, visit AETV.com. Copyright 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sometime in the early 80s, REO Speedwagon's airplane made an unannounced middle-of-the-night landing. This is my friend Kyle McLaughlin, the star of Twin Peaks. And he's telling me about how he discovered a real life Twin Peaks in rural North Carolina, not far from where he filmed Blue Velvet.

What was on the plane was copious amounts of drugs coming in from South America. Supposedly Pablo Escobar went looking for other spots, quiet, out of the way places to bring in his cocaine. My name is Joshua Davis, and I'm an investigative reporter. Kyle and I talk all the time about the strange things we come across, but nothing was quite as strange as what we found in Varnumtown, North Carolina. There's crooked cops, brother against brother. Everyone's got a story to tell,

but does the truth even exist? Welcome to Varnumtown. Varnumtown is available wherever you listen to podcasts.