UPDATE 7/29/15 @ 6:15 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A suspected serial killer shot to death July 18 in Charleston appears to have come in contact with more than a dozen police agencies during the last 20 years.
Charleston Police tell WSAZ that Neal Falls, 45, came in contact with police in 16 states for different reasons.
The list spans from coast to coast including:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Missouri
Montana
New Mexico
Nevada
Oregon
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
Police say in some of these states, Falls was stopped for different traffic-related offenses.
In others, it appears that he had been checked out by law enforcement for possible "suspicious activity."
Right now, it is unclear exactly what that activity was.
Falls was not arrested in any of those incidents that spanned the last 20 years.
Assistant Kanawha County Prosecutor Mary Claire Akers talked about the incident Wednesday.
Akers says in all her years, she has never seen anything like what she saw July 18.
Investigators say once they saw what was in Falls' car and saw what he had on him when he went to Heather's house, they knew this could possible be the work of a serial killer.
In the back of Falls' car, investigators found a range of items from axes to a sledgehammer, bulletproof vest, knives, and a Rubbermaid tub full of towels next to bleach and garbage bags.
"When I was first called to the scene, officers on scene told me I could fit in the Rubbermaid tub," said Mary Claire Akers. "So he clearly had plans to store something or carry something away from the apartment -- it was full of towels, next to bleach and garbage bags."
When Falls came to Heather's house, police say he had four sets of handcuffs and a gun in his pocket. Along with those items, he had a note with a list of six other women he had met on Backpage.com. WSAZ exclusively obtained that note which listed the women's names, phone numbers and ages.
"I don't think It was a coincidence that Mr. Falls had four sets of handcuffs," said Lt. Steve Cooper, Chief of Detectives with Charleston Police. "When you think of handcuffs, you think of wrists and even ankles. Four sets would cover all four limbs of a potential victim of a violent crime like that."
Investigators say they are trying to track Falls' travels before he ended up in Charleston. They say it's been extremely difficult because, along with that "kill kit," they found a sleeping bag and pillow in his car, indicating to police that he was living out of it.
Charleston Police say they also have been going around to hotels in the area to check and see if he stayed there at some point but so far, they have not had any luck.
The span of the investigation into Falls continues to expand as other law enforcement agencies continue to come forward about Falls and his possible involvement in unsolved homicides in multiple states.
"We're finding the more information that goes out, the more law enforcement agencies see similarities with possible cases or see similarities in cases where Mr. Falls has actually been," Cooper said. "So these are the cases we are most interested in. We're hoping that they'll be able to clear cases and bring closure to possibly other victims' families."
Keep checking WSAZ Mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest on this story.
UPDATE 7/28/15 @ 11 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The national scope of a suspected serial killer who was shot to death July 18 in Charleston continues to expand.
Neal Falls, 45, died on Charleston's West Side when he tried to attack the woman he met on an escort website, Backpage.com.
Authorities in Texas say Falls, who is suspected in as many as 10 murders throughout the country, got a speeding in Benbrook, Texas, less than two weeks before he was killed in Charleston. Benbrook is in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Benbrook Police Officer Sandy Eubanks said Falls received a speeding ticket on July 7. He was cited for driving 64 in a 45 mph zone.
Eubanks said police reached out to other law enforcement agencies to ask about any crimes Falls may have committed in North Texas, but so far investigators have found nothing to link him to any missing women.
The Texas Rangers are investigating.
Falls' other possible victims include a woman in Las Vegas, Nevada, whose body was dismembered.
Keep clicking on WSAZ Mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest on this story.
UPDATE 7/28/15 @ 6:43 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Charleston Police continue to work with agencies across the country who believe the man shot and killed after police say he tried to attack a woman could be connected to murders elsewhere.
Neal Falls, 45, was killed July 18 when he tried to attack the woman he met on an escort website, Backpage.com.
Police in Niagara Falls, New York, are now looking into the case, to see if Falls could be connected to the deaths of two escorts there. On June 16, Terri Lynn Bills, 46, was found dismembered inside a vacant home. Her death was similar to that of Loretta Joe Gates, who was killed three years earlier.
Captain Kelly Rizzo, Chief of Detectives with the Niagara Falls Police Department, told WGRZ he had reached out to the Charleston Police Department to look into the case.
“We’re working with several agencies across the country. We’re sharing information with them and working with them,” said Charleston Police Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper. “We’re still in the process of entering physical evidence into databases and criminal profiles into databases. It’s not something that happens at the snap of a finger. It takes a little bit of time. But, as the information gets more widespread, we hope it’ll be helpful to even more people.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department are also looking at Neal Falls, to see if he could be connected to the 2003 homicide of Misty Saens, 25, whose partial remains were found on the side of a road, wrapped in plastic and a sheet.
Falls was stopped by police in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2013, but he wasn’t charged with anything. Cooper tells WSAZ he has been in contact with police there, but doesn’t know of any specific cases and says he’s keeping them informed out of an “abundance of caution.”
“There are family members out there that, if Mr. Falls is responsible and it can be proven, they’ll get closure as a result of Mr. Falls’ death and our cooperative efforts with the other law enforcement agencies,” Cooper said.
Cooper also says he doesn’t believe Falls was in Charleston for long before his death, maybe only being in the area for a week or two.
“We have reason to believe he was staying in his car quite a bit,” Cooper said. “So, we don’t know of any specific spots that he was staying.”
Anyone who may have seen Neal Falls in the Charleston area before his death is asked to call the Charleston Police Department.
UPDATE 7/27/15 @ 11:45 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Charleston Police released new evidence Monday showing Neal Falls' possible plan to target six other women, most of them located in Kanawha County.
WSAZ talked with the woman who called 911 as the case, that has now captured international attention, unfolded right next door. She did not want to release her name, but shared her story from the day of the attack.
"(The victim) said, 'Could you help me please? Could you please call 911? I just shot a man back here.' "
That's what her neighbor, the escort who was attacked, yelled as she ran out of her home.
The man was she was yelling about was Neal Falls. He was shot and killed just around the corner from the caller's home.
"I mean, what if she wouldn't have shot him?" the woman said. "What if he would've just walked around the corner and seen me on my back porch or any of the other ladies that live out here?"
Police say Falls contacted the woman he attacked on an escort website, backpage.com, but new evidence released Monday shows that that woman may not have been his only target.
Police found a Post-it note in his pocket, along with four sets of handcuffs and a gun. It is a list of six women and their phone numbers, all of them found on the same website.
"It goes to his intent that this was not a chance meeting and it wasn't just one girl that he was interested in," Charleston Police Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper said. "Fortunately those girls are now safe because Mr. Falls is gone."
Most of the women are from Kanawha County, and one is from San Diego, California.
Police say all of them were around 19 to 30 years old, but Falls had only been in contact with one of them.
"Based on the items that he was carrying on him and in his vehicle, they were very sinister in nature," Cooper said. "I believe if Heather had not killed Mr. Falls, then he may have hurt someone else afterward."
Falls' DNA has been entered into a national database. Investigators say they will use that to try and see if Falls is connected to other crimes.
Police also say a task force from Chillicothe, Ohio, was in Charleston Monday to meet with investigators. No links were established with those cases and Falls.
However, they say there are connections between Falls and the deaths of four women in Las Vegas, Nevada.
UPDATE 7/27/15 @ 6:15 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- New, exclusive information was released on Monday by the Charleston Police Department concerning the man who was shot and killed by a lady he attacked on July 18.
Police say Neal Falls showed up at the home of a woman he met online and attacked her. The woman was able to get a hold of his gun, shot and killed him.
When police searched his car, they found items ranging from axes, a bulletproof vest, trash bags, to a sledgehammer and knives.
Monday, Charleston Police released a note found in Falls pocket the day of that attack. They say it appears he was planning to meet other women he had found on the same website, Backpage.com, where he met the woman who shot him.
The note was a post-it note. Police found it in Falls' pocket along with along with a gun and four sets of handcuffs.
This list includes the names of six women, five who are from West Virginia, and one is from San Diego, California. Also on the list was their ages and phone numbers.
Investigators say the majority of women on this note were from Kanawha County.
They say Falls found all six women on the same site where he met the victim from last week's incident, which offers escort services.
Police say they have alerted all of the women on the note, to tell them they could have possibly been one of Falls' targets.
Investigators say all of the women involved in this case have several things in common. They are all prostitutes, around the same age with similar looks.
Police are working with law enforcement from across the country, including agencies in Chillicothe, Ohio and Las Vegas, Nevada and hope that this information will help to bring closure to other unsolved cases.
"Our forwarding of this information to other law enforcement will bring closure to some victims families. We also are thankful that no one else is going to be hurt by Mr. Falls," said Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper. "Whatever happened in the apartment last week, ended whatever crime spree he may have been on and whatever his intentions were. There will be no more victims."
The Chillicothe task force, formed to investigate the disappearance and deaths of six women, were in Charleston Monday to meet with investigators. No links were established with those cases and Falls.
However, investigators say right now the cases in Las Vegas, Nevada dealing with the deaths of four women there seem more likely to be connected to Falls than the Chillicothe cases.
Investigators say so far, they have just scanned and emailed case files with police in Las Vegas, and are still looking into the fact that Falls could be connected with the murders of those four women.
UPDATE 7/27/15 @ 3:05 p.m.
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) - A detective says a man killed by a West Virginia woman who said he attacked her after they met through an online site had encounters with police in as many as 20 other states.
West Virginia authorities are trying to spread information to see if the 45-year-old Oregon man can be linked to unsolved deaths and disappearances in other areas. Detective Steve Cooper says the encounters included being stopped, investigated or interviewed
But authorities say so far, no history of major crime has surfaced involving Neal Falls.
Cooper says police found items including axes, knives, handcuffs and a shovel in his car. Police say the Charleston woman grabbed his handgun and fired it back over her shoulder as he choked her July 18.
Keep clicking on WSAZ Mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest on this story.
UPDATE 7/24/15 @ 9 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- More details are emerging about a man shot and killed at a home in Charleston this past weekend -- a case that police have ruled self-defense.
Police say there is more than one reason to believe that Neal Falls could be connected to four unsolved murders in the Las Vegas area of Nevada.
Investigators say several of the cases involve dismemberment of the victims and all four women were prostitutes. Three of them were later found dead, while one was never found.
Investigators say some of the women's body parts were found in trash bags and that Falls lived close to the women when the murders happened.
Falls, who was 45, was shot and killed Saturday when he tried to attack a woman he met online in Charleston.
When police searched his car, they found axes, a sledgehammer, knives, a gun, bulletproof vest, trash bags and bleach.
Charleston Police Lt. Steve Cooper says they have been in contact with Las Vegas Police and that he is sharing the department's case file with them to try and determine if there is a connection.
UPDATE 7/23/15 @ 10:30 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Charleston Police say there are many reasons to believe that Neal Falls, the man shot and killed in Charleston Saturday during what police are calling a justified homicide, could possibly be a suspect in an unsolved homicide in the western part of the country.
Falls, 45, from Springfield, Oregon, was shot and killed around 3 p.m. Saturday when he went to a home on Sixth Street in Charleston to meet a woman he met on Backpage.com, a website which offers escort services.
Police say Falls pointed a gun at the woman and threatened to kill her, then attacked her. Investigators say the woman shot and killed Falls in an act of self-defense.
Charleston Police say they have been in contact with a law enforcement agency in the western part of the US who has an unsolved cold case homicide.
Police say there are many reasons to suspect that Falls could be a suspect in that case.
Investigators say they are not releasing any specific details about the location or case as it is an ongoing investigation. However, police say they received information about Falls and that they should contact a police department out west about that case.
"There is more than one reason to believe he may be involved in that case," said Lt. Steve Cooper, Chief of Detectives with Charleston Police.
Cooper tells WSAZ that the unsolved case out west involves the dismemberment of the victim.
After Falls was shot, detectives discovered items ranging from axes, a sledgehammer, machetes, a gun, four sets of handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, bleach and trash bags in the trunk of his car.
Police say when Falls went to the woman's home, he had the gun and four sets of handcuffs in his pocket.
Keep checking WSAZ Mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest details about this story.
UPDATE 7/22/15 @ 6:30 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ & AP) -- Police are investigating whether there are other victims of an Oregon man killed after he attacked a woman in West Virginia.
Charleston Police identified the man on Wednesday as 45-year-old Neal Falls of Springfield, Oregon. Investigators say it doesn't appear Falls has a criminal past.
Police say investigators found several axes, a shovel, bleach, handcuffs, knives, a machete, sledgehammer, a bulletproof vest, four sets of handcuffs and other items in Falls' vehicle.
"These types of items are not something you run across very often," said Lt. Steve Cooper, Charleston Police Chief of Detectives. "Of course, we receive a lot of training over the years as investigators as to what to look for in the cases of sexual predators or potentially even serial killers, and a lot of those items were there."
Police also released pictures of the Subaru that Falls was driving to the woman's house on Sixth Street in Charleston Saturday.
Falls met the woman online on the website Backpage.com, which is a site where women offer escort services.
Investigators say just hours after the two met, Falls showed up at the woman's house, indicating to police that he was close by when they met online.
Police say when Falls showed up at the victim's house, he opened the door, slammed it shut, pointed a gun at the woman and told her "she was going to die."
Police say Falls beat and choked the woman. She grabbed Falls' handgun after he laid the weapon down and shot him once, killing him.
Investigators say the woman then ran outside and grabbed a neighbor who was able to call 911.
Here is some of the transcript of that 911 call:
Dispatcher: "Is she bleeding anywhere?"
Neighbor: "She looks like she has some marks around her neck and she does have a little bit of blood like scratches on her fingers and there is some blood on her."
911 Dispatcher: "Was she able to injure him?"
Victim: "*crying* I grabbed his gun and shot him."
Neighbor: "Yeah. She said she shot him. She says he's on the kitchen floor, her kitchen floor."
To hear audio from the 911 call, click on the link.
Charleston Police say they haven't seen a case like this in a long time, and the disturbing details of this attack and the items they found in Falls' car make them think this may not be his first victim.
"He made a deal with the victim to exchange money for her services as an escort," Cooper said. "He brought no money with him. What he brought with his was a firearm, four sets of handcuffs, and all of the items you have photos of from the trunk of his car. So he was a bad actor and clearly his intentions were dark."
Charleston Police confirm that Falls used to be a security guard, however, they say that still doesn't explain how he was able to obtain four sets of handcuffs and a bullet proof vest.
Charleston Police are investigating whether Falls is connected to other crimes around the country.
Investigators with the department say they have been in contact with a task force formed in Chillicothe, Ohio, formed to investigate the death and disappearance of six women there.
Charleston Police say they are sharing this information in hopes of getting the word out to other departments so they can check into an open cases they have.
The woman's name hasn't been released. Police say the shooting was self-defense.
Charleston Police say late Wednesday, Falls' sister reached out to them. Lt. Cooper says she told them that she hasn't had much contact with him recently. She told police she hasn't heard from her brother in a long time and she told them he basically fell off the grid.
UPDATE 7/18/15 @ 9:40 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Saturday was deja-vu for people at the intersection of Park Avenue and 6th street on Charleston's West Side.
"All of a sudden I heard this bang, bang. like you could hear the gunshots," said Tony Watts.
Just moments later, Watts saw a woman appear from the home in this back alley.
"Come out screaming and yelling and crying and she ran around the side," said Watts.
Charleston Police soon followed her back in and found a man dead.
While rumors swirled in the area, police sorted through the evidence and determined the woman acted in self-defense.
She and the man had met on a hookup website called "backpage," but he arrived for their date, he attacked her, holding a gun to her head and choking her.
"She was able to pick the weapon up and fire over her shoulder blindly," said Lt. Steve Cooper with the Charleston Police Department.
For neighbors, the lights and tape are an all-too-common sight.
This half block area has seen three shootings in the past 15 months; two of which have been deadly.
"Living here is like living in hell, I reckon," said Watts. "You got kids, like my wife has a daughter. You know, a stray bullet could have hit her and killed her."
While the crime scene here has been cleaned up, police say they're not done investigating, pointing to probable cause in the man's past.
"We want to retrace this man's steps based on what he did to this lady, and based on what we can see in plain sight in his vehicle," said Lt. Cooper.
No names have been released yet.
Police did get a warrant for the man's vehicle and are looking through the items inside.
They say the woman received pretty extensive injuries, but is expected to be alright.
UPDATE 7/18/15 @ 8:45 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A deadly shooting in Charleston is now believed to have been an act of self defense, according to police.
It happened Saturday afternoon in the 800 block of 6th street on the city's west side.
Police say a man with a gun on him attacked a woman. They say after strangling her, she grabbed his gun and shot him once. The man died at the scene.
Police say the man and woman met on "backpage," a dating web site.
The man who died is from Oregon. Police are tracking down his family to notify them.
The woman who pulled the trigger has been questioned, but no charges are being filed at this time.
Keep clicking on WSAZ mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest information.
ORIGINAL STORY 7/18/15 @ 4:30 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Police are on the scene of a homicide in Charleston.
Police say a man has been killed in the 800 block of 6th Street.
No further information is being released at this time.
WSAZ has a crew headed to the scene.
Keep clicking on WSAZ mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest information.
