"He carried the big jug of bleach, we're assuming, to destroy evidence," The Huffington Post quoted Lieutenant Steve Cooper of the Charleston police saying. "We've swabbed everything and sent the swabs to the state lab." The unnamed woman said she shot the man after he tried to strangle her. Credit:WCHS-TV Falls was killed on Saturday when he went to the apartment of a woman he met through Backpage.com, an online portal used by men seeking prostitutes. When the woman opened the door, Falls said just three words – "Live or die" – then held a gun to her stomach, The Guardian reported. Police said that as he tried to strangle the woman, she grabbed his pistol and shot him to death. The shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide.

Falls did not have a criminal history, apart from some traffic offences, but police suspect he had attacked other women. Tools police said Neal Falls had in his car. Credit:Charleston Police Department "Based again on the nature of the attack and based on the items that this man had on his possession, it's hard to imagine this was only going to be a one time event for him," Cooper said. Authorities said Falls, of Springfield, Oregon, rented a room in Henderson, Nevada, from 2000 until 2008. Items police said Neal Falls had in his car when he answered the woman's ad. Credit:Charleston Police Department

During that time, four prostitutes went missing, CBS News reported. The dismembered bodies of three were found along highways. Police are also looking into whether Falls is linked to the disappearance of six women in Chillicothe, Ohio. Four of the women were found dead. A car police said belonged to Neal Falls. Credit:Charleston Police Department Some reportedly prostituted themselves to support heroin addictions. The woman who shot Falls has not been identified. She was taken to hospital with a range of injuries including broken vertebrae.

Neal Falls. Credit:Charleston Police Department She did talk to Charleston TV station WCHS-TV, saying she realised her attacker intended to kill her after he told her he was going to prison for a long time. "When he strangled me, he just wouldn't let me get any air and I grabbed my rake and when he laid the gun down to get the rake out of my hands, I shot him. I just grabbed the gun and shot behind me," she said. "You could tell he was saying the exact same thing, he had it down pat. He was saying, 'you're going to be quiet, I'm gonna call the orders.' He was saying everything, you could tell he was comfortable with what he was saying." She was now "just really scared of his family or somebody coming to get me".

Falls' sister told Charleston police they had grown up in an abusive household. Their mother died about eight months ago and he took it hard, cutting off contact and basically vanishing. Stuff.co.nz