Khaberni - The American authorities revealed shocking details about the murder of Eliza Morales, 30 years old and five months pregnant, at the hands of a 19-year-old teenager in her apartment in Downers Grove, Illinois. Prosecutors described the incident as resulting from a car sale deal on the "Facebook Marketplace" platform that turned into a bloody tragedy.
According to "Fox" network, Nidas Rivocas, the 19-year-old suspect from Westmont, confessed to stabbing the victim after getting upset over the condition of a 1994 Ford Ranger pickup he bought from the victim’s husband online.
Building surveillance cameras captured Morales meeting the suspect on Monday evening, where she handed him a screwdriver, then Rivocas returned to the building minutes later, carrying the screwdriver behind his back, and then entered the victim's apartment.
The cameras recorded what appeared to be a violent struggle at the apartment door before it quickly shut, followed by thick smoke leaking from the residential unit about 10 minutes later.
Emergency teams arrived at the site of the fire and found Morales unconscious near her apartment door, while an autopsy revealed 70 knife stabs focused mostly on the head and neck areas, although the suspect initially confessed to stabbing her only 10 times.
Police seized blood-stained clothes in the suspect’s home after executing a search warrant, and found a bag containing the victim’s ID cards and her husband's ATM card in a trash can at a store, one of the locations Rivocas mentioned for disposing of evidence.
Horrifically, Morales was not the only victim; the family’s dog, an elderly female pitbull named Zola, was stabbed between the eyes and miraculously survived after escaping through a sliding door during the fire. The animal was later taken to a veterinary hospital for treatment.
Investigators said that the suspect deliberately set the fire using household tools from the victim’s kitchen, employing chemicals and disinfectants as accelerants.
Rivocas confirmed that his anger over the condition of the truck drove him to commit the crime, even though Morales informed him during the struggle that she was pregnant.
As a result, the authorities charged him with multiple charges including first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, robbery, arson, and animal cruelty.
In another context, the Morales family stated that none of them knew the suspect before, and that the victim was in her home cooking dinner when she was attacked, while her two-year-old child was outside the house and her husband was at work.
The suspect faces his trial today before the court, in a case that has sparked widespread controversy about the risks of commercial transactions through social media platforms.
