Jason Billingsley, the man suspected to be the killer of Pava LaPere was arrested at 11:10 p.m. in Bowie, Maryland after two days of being on the run, according to a since-deleted tweet by the US Marshals Service in Baltimore.
Fox 45 News also reports that their sources in the area believed that the police apprehended the wanted man without incident after following him to the Laurel-Bowie Road MARC train station. LaPere, who was reported missing on Monday and later discovered dead with blunt-force head trauma, has only one suspect: Billingsley.
On this year’s Forbes 30 under 30 list for social impact, the 26-year-old creator of EcoMap Technologies was recognized. She was found horribly battered and only half clothed on the rooftop of her affluent Baltimore apartment building.
For the 2013 violent rape and assault of a 25-year-old woman, Billingsley is currently on parole. A week or so before LaPere was discovered dead, the alleged killer, who is also a suspect in a horrifying attack on a man and woman, was cautioned by police to be on the lookout for him.
Billingsley is suspected of breaking into the couple’s home, handcuffing and duct-taping them while holding them at gunpoint, and then allegedly sexually assaulting the wife before slitting her neck. After that, he allegedly doused them with liquid before setting them ablaze and almost killing them. In the house, a 5-year-old child also inhaled smoke and was injured.
“This individual will kill and he will rape. He will do anything he can to cause harm,” acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley cautioned.
Billingsley served nine years of a 14-year sentence before being granted parole in October 2022 because he had accrued enough good conduct points to qualify for mandatory release, according to the Baltimore Banner.
As part of a plea agreement negotiated by the former district attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office, he had admitted guilt to first-degree sexual assault for the incident that occurred in 2013 and was given a sentence of 14 years in prison and another 16 years with a suspended sentence. The victim didn’t want to testify at the trial, so the judge at the time said he didn’t think the penalty was sufficient but permitted it.
