Pava LaPere’s suspected killer Jason Billingsley allegedly raped woman, set her and man on fire week before slay
A murder suspect reportedly raped and duct-taped another woman before setting two people on fire a week before allegedly killing a tech CEO in her Baltimore apartment.
Jason Billingsley, 32, was accused of raping a woman in an Edmondson Avenue home after he posed as a maintenance worker a week before allegedly murdering Pava LaPere, the Baltimore Banner reported.
He allegedly banged on the door of the home on Sept. 19. When no one answered, he kicked the door in and pointed a gun at the two people inside before handcuffing and duct-taping them, a source told The Banner.
The dangerous criminal, who is still at large, is believed to have raped the woman and slashed her neck before dousing her and a man in liquid and setting them on fire.
Both survived the near-death attack and were hospitalized along with a child who was also in the house, the outlet reported.
The pair had told authorities they had been tortured, a neighbor told the the Banner.
Billingsley was named as a suspect in that case last week.
A week later, on Monday, LaPere, the 26-year-old co-founder of startup EcoMap Technologies, was found dead on the rooftop of her West Franklin Street apartment. The CEO had blunt-force trauma wounds, cops said.
Baltimore Police announced Billingsley as a suspect in the CEO’s murder the following day.
It is believed that LaPere did not know her alleged attacker.
“I don’t even know how he met that girl, where he met that girl, or how he got into her apartment,” his mother, Scarlett Billingsley, told NBC News.
She said her son had shown her a gun Monday, but believes he was trying to sell it. She also claimed she has no idea where he is because “he’s not going to tell me.”
Police have called Billingsley “extremely dangerous” and advised the public to stay vigilant.
“He will kill and he will rape,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a press conference Tuesday.
Police have also urged Billingsley to “turn yourself in” as “every single police officer in Baltimore City, the State of Maryland, as well as the US Marshals are looking for you.”
“We will find you,” Worley vowed.
Billingsley’s mother has also publicly pleaded with him to do the same, worrying that authorities will kill him and he’ll meet the same fate as his older brother, who died by gun violence in 2013.
“I told him to turn himself in because they’re going to kill him,” Scarlett, 72, told NBC News. “I don’t want police to shoot him because they think he has a gun.”
She apologized to LaPere’s mother, saying she is “very sorry if he did it.” However, she refused to say if she believed her son committed the crime without evidence.
“I won’t know until I see some evidence if he did it. Where is the truth at — show me some evidence,” she told NBC News.
Billingsley has a long rap sheet against him, including several sex crimes.
Billingsley was jailed after a 2013 attack and in 2015 struck a deal to plead guilty to first-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to serve 14 years behind bars, with another 16 years as a suspended sentence.
He was let out on parole in October 2022 after serving nine years because he had amassed enough credit for good behavior to earn mandatory release, according to the Baltimore Banner.
The career criminal and “repeat violent offender” also had prior convictions in 2009 and 2011.
LaPere’s family broke their silence on social media Tuesday, with her father honoring the entrepreneur as an “inspiration.”
“She was driven, creative, hard-working, and relentless in her efforts, with her wonderful team at EcoMap Technologies,” he wrote on Facebook.
He said his daughter “made an impact in every endeavor she undertook and on every life she touched. She will be forever missed as a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and loyal friend.”
Another relative, Ashley Freeman, shared her own devastating tribute to LaPere on Facebook.
“You think it will never be your family, friend, or even co-worker. The harsh reality is we live in a horrifically sick world, where some people’s only goal is to harm the innocent lives [of] others,” Freeman wrote.
“Our family has been affected by a senseless act of violence that took the life of our beautiful, successful, and extremely intelligent Pava. She was on her way to changing the world, but someone took that from her.”
A vigil was being held for LePere by her company Wednesday at the Washington Monument in Baltimore.
