Digital records helped show who killed 4-year-old Haley Weikle, prosecutors said.
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Phone records and internet searches helped prosecutors build the case against a West Virginia mother who pleaded guilty to killing her 4-year-old daughter after years of denying responsibility.
The digital trail became one of the clearest parts of the case against Rebakah Weikle, 33, who was sentenced April 30 to two consecutive life terms in the death of Haley Weikle. Weikle pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. Prosecutors said the records showed searches about stabbing injuries, lacerations and how people die from certain wounds before and after the child was killed at the family’s Forest Hill-area home in July 2022.
Summers County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Lefler said investigators began seeing important activity on Weikle’s phone in mid to late June 2022, weeks before Haley died. The searches were not always named to the child, Lefler said, but they dealt with ways to harm people and injuries to the upper body. He said those records took on new meaning after Weikle admitted she had grown resentful and jealous of Haley. The phone evidence helped prosecutors argue that the killing was not a sudden unexplained act, but one preceded by planning and thought.
The final evening described in court started with the rest of the family going to sleep. Rusty Weikle, Haley’s father, and the couple’s two sons had gone to bed. Prosecutors said Rebakah Weikle told Haley it was time for bed, retrieved a knife from the kitchen and followed the child into her bedroom. Lefler said Weikle covered the child’s mouth so Rusty Weikle would not hear. He said the fatal injury came quickly after Haley struggled. “She was then able to make the fatal laceration across Haley’s throat and took her life,” Lefler said in court.
The evidence did not stop with what happened before the killing, prosecutors said. Afterward, Weikle cleaned the scene, hid the knife and placed the clothing she had worn in a pile of clothes. She left Haley’s body in bed overnight, prosecutors said. Public accounts of the investigation also described more phone activity after the killing, including searches tied to throat wounds and fingerprints around 5 a.m. Those details helped investigators compare Weikle’s conduct with her statements and with the physical evidence gathered at the home.
The next morning brought the case into public view. Prosecutors said Weikle told Rusty Weikle that Haley was not awake, then said Haley was dead when he told her to wake the child. Rusty Weikle found his daughter and told Rebakah Weikle to call 911. Prosecutors said she entered the numbers but did not place the call. Rusty Weikle then took the phone and contacted emergency responders. Officers later responded to the Summers County home and opened an investigation that would take nearly four years to resolve in court.
For much of that time, investigators had to work through competing claims. Rebakah Weikle accused her husband of killing Haley to cover up alleged sexual abuse, prosecutors said. Lefler said those allegations were false, and Weikle admitted as part of her plea that she had made them up. The accusation first made the case harder to understand, he said, because it pointed investigators toward a possible motive that later proved untrue. Prosecutors said the phone records, physical evidence and Weikle’s own final admission showed she was solely responsible for Haley’s death.
Rusty Weikle also faced criminal charges, but prosecutors said his role was different. They said he did not kill Haley and did not know what had happened until he found her the next morning. He pleaded guilty to child neglect resulting in death and two counts of child neglect creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury. He was sentenced to home confinement and probation. Prosecutors said the neglect charges reflected missed warning signs in the home, not direct involvement in the murder.
The plea hearing gave the court a fuller record of how investigators reached their conclusion. Lefler said the case involved the Summers County Sheriff’s Department, Hinton Police Department, West Virginia State Police, West Virginia forensic specialists and other local groups that work with children and families. Digital analysts reviewed phone activity. Biological testing helped assess the scene. Interviewers worked through accounts from those connected to the family. The case was heard by Raleigh County Circuit Judge Michael Froble because of local conflict concerns in Summers County.
Judge Froble sentenced Weikle to 15 years to life for first-degree murder and 15 years to life for child abuse resulting in death, with the terms to run consecutively. The structure of the sentence means Weikle must serve at least 30 years before parole eligibility. Prosecutors said the court recognized she may die in prison. The plea agreement spared Haley’s relatives from a trial, but it also required Weikle to admit the false claims against her husband and accept responsibility for the killing.
For now, Weikle is serving her sentence in state custody. The next milestone in the case is decades away, when she can first seek parole after serving the minimum 30 years required by the consecutive life terms.
Author note: Last updated May 23, 2026.