Murder Mixtape 184: Heather Saul

Lets Go To West Virginia!!

Quickly, without Googling, what’s the capital of West Virginia?!?

Correct!  It’s Charleston.  For those of you who knew that, congratulations.  For everyone else, yes, there is also a Charleston in West Virginia, and it is in fact the capital of the state.  With a population of just over 48,000 people, Charleston is the state’s most populous city, followed closely by Huntington, WV at 46,000.  Nicknamed “Charlie West,” the city was initially established around salt and natural gas mining, but that eventually shifted to coal mining.  As of 2020, 13% of the coal produced in the US came from West Virginia, second only to Wyoming who produced 41%.  

Charleston is the city where Shoneys was started, initially as the Parkette Drive In, before being re-named to Shoneys after the owner ran a public contest to rename the business, which had expanded to a few different locations.  From there, their footprint grew from a franchise deal with Big Boy restaurants, and eventually grew to have around 1800 restaurants under its umbrella in 1998, spread across 34 states.  Tough times followed though, and the Shoney’s parent company declared bankruptcy in 2000.  Two years later, they were acquired by Lone Star Funds, a TX investment group.  In 2007, the Shoneys chain, now with only 272 locations, was sold again to the owner of Church’s Chicken, who has tried to modernize the chain and rebuild.  In 2014, they were down to 165 restaurants in 16 states.  

In 2005, Charleston started what they call FestivALL Charleston.  It is a city wide and multi-art festival that takes place over the course of several days. They have 200+ sponsors / partners, 100+ events at over 50 venues across the city.  Over the years, it has grown to include over 800 different artists, performers, and guest speakers.  It began as a 3 day festival and has grown into an arts organization that serves the community with year round events and programs. 

Charleston, and West Virginia in general, are like many states in the US, and other countries throughout the world in that they are facing down the effects of the opioid epidemic.  West Virginia often ranks as the number one state for overdose deaths.  The county that Charleston is in ranks as the 7th highest in the state.  Traditionally, many law enforcement organizations look to use punitive measures when it comes to people who have been arrested for drug use.  Some areas in the country though are trying to take more of a harm reducing approach.  One example is the legalization of naloxone, often referred to as Narcan.  When naloxone was first starting to be used, Narcan was the brand name that was widely available.  Over the years, other generic versions have been made available, but they are oftentimes referred to as Narcan as well. 

The shift from condemnation and criminalization has taken hold in some law enforcement communities too.  When former President Barack Obama visited Charleston for a forum on heroin use, the police chief said, “This is such an epidemic.  You cannot arrest your way out of this mess.”  Harm reduction is another focus that some have turned to, as they feel that the punishment for using or having these drugs forces the users into dangerous situations to obtain them and prevents them from seeking help, out of fear of the punishments that can follow.  

In particular, people’s addiction can make them do things that they wouldn’t normally do, or ever see themselves doing.  One of those things is sex work.  Many LEOs view sex work and sex workers in general as drug users by default.  They all tend to get put under the same umbrella.  This belief is widely regarded as a fact by the general public, based solely on how sex workers are portrayed in the news and media.  

In July of 2015, one such person was Heather Saul.  She was a drug user, and since the incident with Neal Falls, never tried to hide that fact.  When investigators talked to Heather after the incident, they brought up her drug use, which they knew about since they looked through her phone records.  She told them point blank “I’ve done drugs, yes, but I don’t have to have them, and I don’t owe anyone anything. If I owed a drug dealer money, I’d be dead. I would be dead. That would be it.”  After looking through all the information they had, investigators would determine that Falls’ attack on Heather wasn’t drug related.  

Heather was like many out there who turned to sex work for money to make ends meet.  She needed money for food and rent.  She would occasionally post ads to Backpage.  Backpage was started as a competitor to Craigslist, and many sex workers used is to advertise their services.  As of April 6th, 2018 Backpage has been taken offline, being seized by the FBI.  There have been several investigations about human trafficking involving sex work ads that were posted on the website.  Also in 2018, the Backpage CEO pled guilty to charges of conspiring to facilitate prostitution and money laundering.  

When Heather would post on the website and set up a meet, she would normally have the men come to her apartment.  A friend of hers would stay on the front porch, ready to step in if something bad happened.  

Heather lived in Charleston all of her life.  She said that she had been looking after herself in one way or another since she was 14 years old.  After she graduated high school, she enrolled into a community college but only stayed for a year.  She said that she didn’t really have any idea of what she wanted to do.  Heather said that she quit that first year because of the student loans she had to take out.  She said that having to take out that loan “gutted” her.  She worried about paying it back.  She would work odd jobs here and there.  She was a waitress for a while at various places and was a head cook for a bit.  

At one point, she had a place of her own, but as is often the case, things got tough financially, and Heather went back to live with her mother.  They moved into an apartment in a neighborhood referred to as The Flats in Charleston.  She said that it was fast and cheap.  She almost viewed it as just a stepping stone to getting back on her feet.  It was an area where the police would rarely come, and there had been shootings in the area before.  Heather turned to sex work while living there, to support herself and her mother.  She said that while doing it, she was miserable, but when all else failed, she would answer the phone.  

The day her phone rang and Neal Falls was on the other end, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach when the phone rang.  She knew why someone was calling that number.  When the phone rang, two of Heather’s friends were at her apartment, one was Harley, who would sit on the front porch as an extra set of eyes and ears when she would meet a client.  

Heather talked to Neal Falls for a bit on the phone and they set up a meet.  Heather said that Falls called her several times, probably 7 or 8, just trying to get directions to her apartment.  After the last call, she said that if he called again, she would just tell him not to come and cancel the whole thing.  But Falls didn’t call again, and around 3PM, his silver Subaru pulled up to her apartment.  Falls got out of his car and made his way to the door.  As he arrived, one of Heather’s friends left to go to a nearby grocery store to grab a soda.  When she did, Heather’s dog, Fancy, got loose and took off.  Harley ran after her, trying to find her and bring her back home to Heather.  So, that left no one at the apartment; just Heather and Falls.  Heather recalled that he was “real thick, like stocky.  And short.  He seemed short to me.”  

They went into Heather’s apartment, and Falls was asking if anyone else was there.  He seemed nervous about someone else being there, and he looked into the bedroom and checked to see if someone else was there.  As he did that heather walked towards her sofa and falls came up behind her.  He put a gun to her side and said, “Live or die?”

That was it.  In that instant, Heather was in a fight for her life.  Falls started to strangle Heather.  She said that it was unlike anything she had ever experienced.  Heather later said that she had experienced physical abuse before, but this was completely different.  He clamped down on her throat.  Heather said that she could tell from his upper body strength that he was experienced.  He knew how to keep her under control.  But she kept fighting back. 

Heather went hit him in the groin, which knocked him off of her briefly, but he quickly jumped back on her.  That’s when something inside of her just snapped.  Her fight or flight instinct kicked in.  She thought that if he was going to use the gun, he would have already, so she just started to try and scream and fight.  She scratched and hit him.  She remembers that he didn’t have any teeth.  By now they were moving towards the kitchen, where there was a door to the outside.  

Heather fell in the doorway leading from the living room to the kitchen, and Falls jumped on her, putting all his weight on her chest.  As they struggled on the floor, Falls told Heather to stop struggling and screaming.  Heather just begged him to let her breath, but he didn’t let up.  Heather noticed that there was a small rake leaning against the wall by the doorway.  It was a small, metal toothed rake that Heather would use in the yard to clean up after Fancy.  She grabbed the rake and instantly, Falls started to struggle to take it from her.  He got it away from her and used it to pull himself up, dragging Heather along with him.  There is a huge gash in the table from where he used the rake, and one of the metal forks was bent.  

As Falls was standing both of them up, he let his guard down.  Heather looked at the table and saw that Falls had sat the gun down to get the rake from her.  Without hesitation, she grabbed it, while Falls still had his arm around her throat.  She quickly aimed it over her shoulder and pulled the trigger.  It was the first time she had fired a gun. She said that if she pulled the trigger and nothing happened, she would be dead because she didn’t know anything about guns and wouldn’t have even been able to disengage the safety, even if she had plenty of time, which she didn’t. Luckily for Heather, the safety was not engaged, and there was a round in the chamber.

It was deafening, but instantly, she could breathe again.  It was over.  She looked back, and said it was just horrible.  Blood was flowing out as Falls slumped back against the door.  His belt got caught on the door handle, and his body just slumped over.  Heather rushed out of the apartment and found a neighbor who called 911.  She sat with the neighbor answering questions for the 911 operator until the police arrived about 4 minutes later.  The first officer arrived on scene and Heather told him that her attacker was still inside.  The officer went in and saw Falls, with a gunshot wound in his head.  He was officially declared dead at 3:59PM.  

Heather was taken to the police station where photos were taken of her hands, chin, and marks on her neck.  While there, the officers told her that she needed to go to the hospital, but Heather was hesitant.  She was black and blue, bruised all over.  A trip to the hospital would be another probably large bill she would have to pay eventually.  But she did go, and they did a CT scan and MRI.  They discovered that she had a dislocated shoulder and broken back from the struggle with Falls.  Heather just wanted to get home though.  After the entire ordeal, she was worried because Fancy was still missing.  She said that she was out searching for her, and eventually left some food out by the door hoping Fancy would return.  

Not much is known about Neal Falls’ life.  He was born in Oregon and was one of 10 children.  Falls grew up in various cities throughout Oregon, and during his younger years began to show an interest in firearms and the military.  He collected guns and military paraphernalia.  Those that knew him said that he wasn’t known as someone who would drink or take any types of drugs.  After high school, he started working various jobs, mostly low skilled labor positions.  

In 1992, he moved to Kansas where he lived with his father until his father died in 1995.  After that he returned to Oregon and became a private security guard, and his fingerprints were entered into the national database.  Falls relocated again in 2000, to Nevada and spent the next eight years working as a security guard at the Hoover Dam.  Around this time, Falls began to exhibit signs of “deviant behavior,” including abusing animals out in the desert regions of Arizona.  In his spare time, Falls kept the company of sex workers and in the mid-2000s took a trip to the Philippines to take part in their sex touris industry. 

In 2008, Falls was forced to quit his job as a security guard because he was sexually harassing a fellow worker.  For the next few years, he relocated several times to Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas.  Wherever he went though, it seemed like he was being pulled over constantly for traffic violations.  Some reports say it was between 20 and 30 times during that time, with the last one occurring in Texas, 11 days before his attack on Heather.  That was caught on the officer’s body cam.  The officer asked Falls where he lived and he said that he was basically homeless, just traveling to West Virginia.   

In January of 2015, a woman that Falls was dating told him that she was married and having an affair with him.  The same month, his mother passed away.  After these two events, Falls’ emotional state shifted and he became conflicted with himself and disorganized in his everyday life.  In April of 2015, he returned to Oregon to attend additional training classes as a security guard, and after those classes he went back to Texas then then to West Virginia.  

When investigators began to comb over the scene, they quickly came to the conclusion that Falls was there for one thing, to kill Heather Saul.  They found four sets of handcuffs in his pockets.  They then searched his Subaru and found: a machete, axes, knives, a shovel, a sledgehammer, bleach, plastic bags, bullet proof vest, clean socks and underwear, and a large plastic tote, big enough to fit a body.   They also found a piece of paper with the names and phone numbers of six other women who were also sex workers.  Investigators suspected that this could be a list of victims or potential victims.  5 were located across West Virginia and one was in San Diego.  All were found to be alive and well, fortunately.  

Investigators used Falls’ M.O. and the items they found and compared it to places that he was known to have lived.  Using that, they suspect Falls involvement in at least nine murders or disappearances involving sex workers.  When he lived in Nevada, four sex workers disappeared, three of whom were later found dismembered in California, Illinois, and Nevada.  All of the women advertised on internet ad sites like Heather Saul did.  Six more women were missing in Chillicothe, OH, which was only a two hour drive from Charleston.  Though there was no evidence that Falls was ever there, he is still considered a suspect in the case. 

Falls was also investigated as the I-70 Killer, a series of murders along interstate 70 through out the midwest.  Falls lived in Kansas at the time, but has been ruled out as the killer.  

Falls’ possible victims include:

• Jodi Brewer, 19 who disappeared from Las Vegas in August 2003. Her torso, wrapped in plastic, was found later that month near Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, California, south of the Nevada border.
• Lindsay Marie Harris, 21 when she disappeared from Henderson in May 2005. Her legs were found near Interstate 55 south of Springfield, Illinois, three weeks later.
• Misty Marie Saens, 25 when she disappeared from Las Vegas the same month as Brewer. Partial remains were found in the desert on a road leading to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas.
• Tiffany Sayre (26), Shasta Himelrich, Charlotte Trego (28), Tameka Lynch (30), and Wanda Lemons (38, missing) are the murdered and missing women from Chillicothe, OH that Falls is a possible suspect. 

After Falls was killed, the media descended upon Heather.  All she wanted though, was to be left alone.  There were online fundraisers setup by various people and organizations who claimed to be trying to help Heather.  Many of them though came with stipulations of things they wanted heather to do in order to get the money.  After everything though, Heather just wanted to try to put her life back together.  A few weeks after the attack, someone broke into her apartment and robbed her of the few things she had to begin with.  She suspects that they saw her name in the paper and thought she would have some money or cash from all the attention, but she didn’t. 

Many people believe that Falls was an active serial killer, and what Heather did that day saved lives.  Everything investigators found seems to point that way as well. 

The day after the attack, Heather left her home and started to go through her neighborhood looking for Fancy.  A neighbor approached and told her that they had found Fancy out the day before and took her in to keep her safe.  Heather was beyond relieved and the two went back home to start down the road to recovery.