Khaberni - U.S. authorities unveiled shocking details about the murder of Eliza Morales, who was 30 years old and five months pregnant, by a 19-year-old teenager in her Downers Grove, Illinois apartment, in a crime prosecutors described as stemming from a car sale deal through "Facebook Marketplace" that turned into a bloody tragedy.
According to "Fox" network, Nedas Rivokas, the 19-year-old suspect from Westmont, confessed to stabbing the victim after he was enraged by the condition of a 1994 Ford Ranger truck bought from the victim's husband online.
Surveillance cameras in the building captured Morales meeting the suspect on Monday evening, where she handed him a screwdriver, and Rivokas returned to the building minutes later carrying the screwdriver behind his back, then entered the victim's apartment.
The cameras recorded what appeared to be a violent struggle at the apartment door before it was swiftly shut, followed by the appearance of thick smoke seeping from the unit about 10 minutes later.
Emergency teams arrived at the fire site and found Morales unconscious near the door of her apartment, while an autopsy revealed 70 knife wounds, most concentrated in the head and neck areas, although the suspect initially confessed to stabbing her only 10 times.
The police found bloodstained clothing at the suspect's house after executing a search warrant, and found a bag containing the victim’s identity cards and her husband's ATM card in a trash bin at a store, one of the locations Rivokas mentioned for disposing of evidence.
Terrifyingly, Morales was not the only victim, as the family dog, an elderly female pitbull named Zola, survived a stab wound between her eyes after escaping through a sliding door during the fire and was later taken to a veterinary hospital for treatment.
The investigators mentioned that the suspect deliberately set the fire using household tools from the victim's kitchen, along with chemicals and disinfectants as accelerants.
Rivokas affirmed that his anger over the truck’s condition drove him to commit the crime, despite Morales telling him during the struggle that she was pregnant.
Consequently, he was charged by the authorities with multiple offenses including first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, robbery, arson, and animal cruelty.
In another context, the Morales family mentioned that none of them knew the suspect previously, and that the victim was cooking dinner at home when she was attacked, while her two-year-old child was outside the home and her husband at work.
The suspect faces trial today in a case that has sparked widespread controversy about the risks of business transactions on social media platforms.
