Gay Man Thought to Have Died in 'Accident' Was Victim of Serial Killer

An investigation in the United Kingdom has ruled that a man who was originally believed to have died 'accidentally' was actually the victim of a serial killer.

In 2013, reports surfaced that Peter Fasoli, 58, was found by firefighters unresponsive in his home. Firefighters transported him to the hospital where he later died. At the time, and for the next four years, his family, and the public, were led to believe that the death was due to an 'accident in a sex game gone wrong.' Now, a series of hard drives discovered by Fasoli's nephew, shed new light onto the case and have prompted a new investigation.

The disks themselves contain a seven-hour long video of the murder in which Fasoli was stripped, gagged, handcuffed, and smothered with plastic wrap by Jason Marshall. Fasoli had reportedly connected with Marshall on the dating app Badoo, and the pair met at Fasoli's home in Northolt, west London for a hookup back in January 2013, according to the Daily Mail.

Marshall posed himself as an MI5 agent and was armed with a police belt, handcuffs and a pistol holder and told Fasoli he was under arrest for 'being a spy under the Espionage Act' during sexual role play.

"It starts off as a role play," Detective Inspector James Stephenson, who was called to investigate the reopened case, said at yesterday's inquest at West London Coroner's Court. "Marshall is playing a secret agent type character, wearing a police issue holster with what appears to be a firearm and handcuffs. He encourages Mr Fasoli to strip naked, and he agrees to be hog-tied by Marshall."

At some point during the role play, Fasoli withdrew consent and Marshall is seen on video trying to smother him with a pillow. Marshall eventually forced Fasoli to provide him with his pin number for his credit cards, before leaving the home to make a number of purchases while Fasoli remained restrained.

"It turned into a burglary," Stevenson said. "I don't believe he was aware that there was a camera in the address."

When Marshall returned he can be seen covering Fasoli's face with plastic wrap before the pair fell behind a sofa, where it is assumed Fasoli was killed.

While rifling through the home, Marshall knocked into something, causing the video to turn off, but the audio continued, and he can be heard pouring a fluid around the home, flushing what may have been plastic wrap down a toilet, and igniting a lighter

Marshall was sentenced to a minimum of 39 years in September 2018 for Fasoli's murder.

After Marshall killed Fasoli he stole over $1,000 from his home before setting it on fire and fleeing to Italy. There he killed a second man and attacked a third before he was caught.

During the new investigation at West London Coroner's Court, coroner Sean Cummings said that neither the police nor the London Fire Brigade were at fault for the original ruling, although he acknowledged that 'minor oversights' had been made. According to theDaily Mail, Cummings said at the hearing: "The family of Mr Fasoli have asked why this wasn't discovered earlier." Noting that Fasoli had been a non-smoker but matches had been discovered in his home, Cummings said it had been "a mistake perhaps" to not question if the fire had not been accidental.

Stevenson said there were no "classic tell-tale signs of a deliberate fire."

"When you have an arson, you usually have a number of places where a fire was started," he said. "In this case, there was no evidence of that, or of an accelerant being used. It must have burned off."

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