Elias Acevedo, a Cleveland man described as a neighbor of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, faces 293 counts for the alleged murders of two women, and the rape of several others, including two children.
Law enforcement officials re-examined cases of other missing women in Cleveland following the Ariel Castro kidnappings and obtained the videotaped confessions from Elias Acevedo for two murders committed 18 years ago.
Acevedo, 49, was also indicted Thursday with hundreds of other criminal charges, including rape, gross sexual imposition and kidnapping.
Among those counts are charges related to the alleged kidnapping and rape of two girls, who were aged 8 and 11 at the time, according to NewsNet5.
Acevedo is accused of murdering 30-year-old secretary Pamela Pemberton in 1994. Pemberton, a former neighbor of Acevedo’s, went missing after telling family she was going to meet a friend for drinks. Her body was found by a group of teenagers in a field shortly after the killing, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Acevedo, who lived on the same block as Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, was also charged with murdering an 18-year-old pregnant woman, Christina Adkins, less than three months after he allegedly killed Pemberton. Acevedo recently led authorities to a manhole where a body believed to be Adkins’s was found, the Plain Dealer reports.
The indictment against Acevedo says that both murders were committed during alleged rapes of the women.
Acevedo, who police say admitted to both killings, was arrested in June after authorities questioned Castro’s neighbors and found that Acevedo was a sex offender who had not reported his current address to the police, Reuters reports.
That month, Acevedo was charged with a 1993 rape he allegedly committed in the same area where Pemberton’s body was found the next year. DNA evidence linked him to the rape, police said.
Acevedo will appear in Cuyahoga County court on Monday morning.
Video: Ohio push to test old rape kits supplies lead that takes them to Elias Acevedo
