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An Illinois teenager was arrested for allegedly stabbing a pregnant mother to death and attacking her pet dog with a knife before setting the woman’s home on fire during a Facebook Marketplace meetup.
Nedas Revuckas, 19, is facing several charges, including first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, animal cruelty, armed robbery and arson, after allegedly stabbing Eliza Morales, 30, dozens of times in her Downers Grove apartment unit on Monday, according to Downers Grove police.
Revuckas responded to a Facebook Marketplace listing for a red 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck Morales’s husband posted on Saturday. Investigators said Revuckas visited the Morales’ home to view the truck and later left with it while it still had the Morales’ license plates, according to Fox 32.
He arranged to meet at the couple’s apartment building on Monday to return the plates and obtain a bill of sale, the outlet reported.
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Surveillance video later showed Revuckas meeting Morales, who was five months pregnant with her second child, at around 5:30 p.m.
Morales was seen at one point handing Revuckas a screwdriver. He entered the building with a screwdriver in his hand behind his back about five minutes later, and video shows the door to the Morales’s unit opening and closing during what investigators say appeared to be a struggle inside.
Police said the door handle turned from the inside, suggesting someone was attempting to escape.
A short time later, smoke was seen coming from beneath the apartment door.
Firefighters responded and found Morales near the apartment door. She was pronounced dead after being put in an ambulance.
Morales’ husband was at work during the encounter, and the couple’s two-year-old child was not home either.
But the couple’s elderly dog was inside the apartment and was stabbed between the eyes, authorities said. Revuckas also admitted to kicking the dog.
The dog managed to escape through a sliding door during the fire and was treated at a veterinary hospital.
Investigators later arrived at Revuckas’ home in Westmont, where he lives with his girlfriend, and found the pickup truck in the driveway. He was taken into custody late Monday night.
Revuckas told investigators he was at the Morales’ apartment to return the license plates and retrieve the bill of sale but claimed he left through the main entrance. However, surveillance footage does not show him exiting the building.
During a search warrant executed at his home on Tuesday, investigators found boots and clothing with what appeared to be blood.
He later confessed to killing Morales, telling investigators he stabbed her 10 times. He said he was angry about the condition of the truck he had purchased and took out his frustration on her. She had told him she was pregnant during the struggle inside the apartment, authorities said.
An autopsy conducted by the DuPage County Coroner found roughly 70 stab wounds on Morales, most inflicted by a knife. The coroner said there were defensive injuries and that most wounds were to Morales’ head and neck. The preliminary cause of death was multiple sharp-force injuries. Soot was also discovered in her airway.
The coroner also said the preliminary cause of death included intrauterine fetal demise caused by her injuries.
Vaginal bruising was reported, and a sexual assault kit was conducted, but Revuckas denied sexually assaulting the woman.
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Revuckas also admitted to starting the fire using items from the apartment and the kitchen stove. He told police he stacked household items on the stove and used chemicals and sanitizer as accelerants.
“I’m gonna spend the rest of my life missing her,” Morales’ husband, Gabriel, told WLS-TV. “I can get every second back with her and just continue trying to live through her for my daughter, and continue to be strong for my family.”
A GoFundMe set up for the family raised nearly $30,000 as of Thursday morning.
“The loss of a beloved wife, daughter, and mother — along with her unborn child has left pain that words cannot fully express,” the fundraiser set up by a family member reads.
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