Fifteen-year-old Mawa Doumbia left her family’s home in Newark, New Jersey, on the evening of October 7, 2016. Her father and sister never saw her again, and the case was initially treated as a runaway. On May 9, 2019, decomposed human remains were found face down on the second floor of a derelict carriage house on Main Street in Orange. An autopsy ruled the cause of death homicide by ligature strangulation, and on November 5, 2021, forensic analysis positively identified the remains as Mawa Doumbia.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Cold Case Unit later assembled extensive digital evidence that pointed to a suspect who was already incarcerated. Investigators say Khalil A. Wheeler-Weaver met Mawa online the day she disappeared, persuaded her to meet for sex, then took her to the vacant carriage house, strangled her, and concealed her body. At the time he was charged with Mawa’s murder in March 2022, Wheeler-Weaver was serving a long prison sentence for multiple 2016 attacks and killings and related offenses.

Does anyone who knew Mawa or who was in her Newark neighborhood in October 2016 have information that could help fill gaps in the timeline?