http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-10-18/news/sns-rt-usa-ohiomurders-20131018_1_ariel-castro-cleveland-kidnapper-kim-palmer-clevelandNeighbor of Cleveland kidnapper charged with murders from 1990sOctober 18, 2013
CLEVELAND, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Increased scrutiny of missing
person cases in a Cleveland neighborhood following the arrest of
kidnapper Ariel Castro led to charges against a neighbor for the
murders of two women in the 1990s, the FBI said on Friday.
Elias Acevedo, Sr., 49, was charged late Thursday with the
kidnapping, rape and murder of his 30-year-old neighbor, Pamela
Pemberton, found strangled in 1994, and another woman believed
to be Christina Adkins, a pregnant 18-year-old who disappeared
in 1995. He also is charged with the rape of two young girls.
"Because the public became more aware and investigators were
determined and relentless, people were re-interviewed and there
was an increased interest in these missing person cases," FBI
spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said.
Acevedo, who lived on the same block as Castro, was arrested
in June at his Seymour Avenue residence after police questioned
Castro's neighbors and discovered that Acevedo was a convicted
sex offender who had failed to report his current address.
Acevedo became a suspect in the Adkins and Pemberton murders
after the FBI re-examined the disappearance of other missing
women from the Seymour Avenue neighborhood in the aftermath of
Castro's arrest, according to a statement from the Cuyahoga
County prosecutor's office.
While incarcerated, Acevedo's DNA was linked to a 1993 rape
that occurred near the location where Pemberton's body was
found. The FBI then linked Acevedo to the 1995 disappearance of
Adkins, last seen in the vicinity of Seymour Avenue.
Acevedo has confessed to the murders, which means
authorities will not seek the death penalty, according to Joe
Frolik, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office.
Acevedo led authorities to a spot near a highway where he
had put Adkins' body in a manhole 18 years ago, according to the
FBI and prosecutors.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office is in the
process of positively identifying what are believed to be
Adkins' remains after her identification card was found nearby.
The indictment against Acevedo includes 115 kidnapping
charges and more than 173 charges of rape involving Adkins,
Pemberton and the repeated rapes over a period of months of two
girls, starting when they were 8 and 11 years old. He was also
charged in the 1993 rape of his brother's common-law wife.
Acevedo is scheduled to be arraigned in Cuyahoga County
Common Pleas court Monday. He has not yet been assigned a
lawyer, according to court documents.