A raging Illinois teen has been accused of stabbing a pregnant mother to death and knifing her pet dog during a Facebook Marketplace meetup — then setting her home ablaze, according to authorities and reports.
Nedas Revuckas, 19, has been hit with a slew of charges for allegedly murdering 30-year-old Eliza Morales in her suburban Downers Grove apartment unit on Monday evening, according to police.
Revuckas responded to a Facebook Marketplace listing for a dark red 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck listed by Morales’s husband over the weekend and agreed to come to the home on Monday to exchange the license plates, prosecutors said in a court hearing Wednesday, according to NBC Chicago.
Surveillance video later captured Morales, who was five months pregnant with her second child, meeting the teen at the building around 5:30 p.m. and handing him a screwdriver.
Just a few moments later, Revuckas allegedly entered the building with a screwdriver in his hand, and video shows the door to the Morales’s unit opening and closing during a “what appears to be a struggle,” a proffer read in the courtroom.
The door handle was seen turning and moving from the inside, as if someone was trying to get out of the home, the outlet reported.
About 10 minutes later, a fire sparked, and smoke began billowing from the Morales’s unit.
By 6:09 p.m., police and firefighters responded to the apartment, discovering Morales unresponsive with roughly 70 stab wounds to her neck and head, according to police and results of an autopsy report obtained by the news station.
Morales’s 2-year-old child was not home during the incident, but her elderly pit bull mix, Zula, was stabbed between her eyes and managed to escape through a sliding door during the fire. She was later taken to an animal hospital for care.
Authorities went to Revuckus’s home in Westmont, which he shared with his girlfriend, and saw the pickup truck in the driveway.
After being taken in for questioning, the alleged teen killer confirmed he was at the building to purchase the truck but maintained he had left through the main doors.
He later “confessed to murdering Eliza” after cops said they found bloody clothing inside his home, the outlet reported.
“The defendant indicated he stabbed the victim 10 times. The defendant was upset about the condition of the dark red 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck that he had purchased and decided to take out his frustration on Eliza,” the proffer read to the courtroom, according to the station.
“The defendant got into a fight with Eliza. The defendant said that during the fight, Eliza mentioned that she was pregnant.”
Revuckas also confessed to starting the blaze in the kitchen using items he found in the pregnant mother’s apartment, prosecutors added.
Family members told WLS that Morales — who worked in the payroll department of a children’s hospital — was home alone, cooking dinner in the home when the violent assault began, and did not know who the teen was.
Morales’ husband, Gabriel, was working when he received the call that his wife and unborn baby had died, the outlet said.
“I’m gonna spend the rest of my life missing her,” Gabriel Morales told the outlet.
“I can get every second back with her and just continue try to live through her for my daughter. And continue to be strong for my family,” he said.
Revuckas faces first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, armed robbery, aggravated arson, and animal cruelty charges in connection with the tragic killing, according to court records.
He is slated to return to court on Thursday.
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