Nedas Revuckas was taken to a hospital after court documents revealed he admitted killing Eliza Morales because he was upset over a Facebook Marketplace transaction with her husband.
A teenager charged with killing a 30-year-old pregnant woman and setting her apartment on fire was hospitalized Thursday afternoon in critical condition with self-inflicted wounds.
WMAQ said 19-year-old Nedas Revuckas was found in his cell at the DuPage County Correctional Center at about 5 p.m. and transported to a hospital. The injuries came after Revuckas appeared in court and was denied bond for killing Eliza Morales on Monday.
Authorities were called to the scene of an apartment fire in Downers Grove Monday and found Eliza Morales dead with multiple stab wounds, as CrimeOnline reported. Revuckas was arrested and charged with first degree murder, robbery, homicide of an unborn child, arson, and animal cruelty.
Revuckas had initially been expected in court on Wednesday, but that hearing was postponed to allow more time for attorneys to go over the evidence, WLS reported. Court documents, however, revealed that Revuckas was angry over a Facebook Marketplace purchase with Morales’ husband.
According to WMAQ, the documents say that Revuckas bought a 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck from Gabriel Morales over the weekend. In an interview with police, he reportedly said he was upset with the condition of the truck and “and decided to take out his frustration on Eliza” when he arrived on Monday for the license plate exchange, the documents say.
Surveillance video from the apartment building shows Morales and Revuckas meeting late Monday afternoon. At one point, she hands him a screwdriver. H returns a few minutes later with the screwdriver in his hand.
The video shows the apartment door opening and closing and, briefly, “what appears to be a struggle” between the two before the door closes. Later, smoke is seen coming out of the apartment, the documents say.
Police and firefighters arrived shortly after 6 p.m. and found Morales suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was already dead. No one else was home at the time. Morales’ 2-year-old daughter was with her grandmother, and her husband was at work. Revuckas stabbed Morales’ elderly dog between the eyes, and the dog escaped through a sliding door. She was located and taken to a vet for care.
Authorities found Revuckas at the home he shares with his girlfriend in Westmont. The pickup truck was in the driveway.
According to the documents, Revuckas initially told detectives he was at the apartment to exchange the plates but said he left through the main doors, although surveillance video did not show him leaving. At another interview, after police told him they found bloody clothing in his home, he “confessed to murdering Eliza,” the documents say.
“The defendant indicated he stabbed the victim 10 times. The defendant was upset about the condition of the dark red 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck that he had purchased and decided to take out his frustration on Eliza,” the proffer read. “The defendant got into a fight with Eliza. The defendant said that during the fight, Eliza mentioned that she was pregnant.”
An autopsy revealed that Morales had 70 stab wounds, most of them on her head and neck.
“When detectives left the interview room and the defendant was alone in the room, the defendant at one point was crying,” the proffer read.
Revuckas reportedly told the officers where to find evidence he disposed of. They found clothing in a garbage can at a hardware store along with Morales’ work identification and her husband’s debit card.
In court Thursday morning, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin had said prosecutors will seek a life sentence, the Daily Herald reported.
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[Featured image: Nedas Revuckas/DuPage County Sheriff’s Office and Eliza Morales/handout]
