Elias Acevedo served three years for a sexual battery charge in 2003. This year, his DNA was matched to a rape cold case. He was charged and arrested, and he’s been in custody since.
He is now charged with aggravated murder in the death of Pamela Pemberton, whose body was discovered in 1994. He’s also been charged with aggravated murder of a yet-unidentified body discovered last week in a utility vault near where Pemberton was found on Cleveland’s west side.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty says authorities believe the body may be that of Christina Adkins, who disappeared in 1995. He says the county medical examiner is working to confirm that.
“They have obtained a DNA sample and we expect a positive identification soon," McGinty said in a news conference streamed live on WKYC.com. "However an identification card belonging to Christina Adkins was found in the clothing adjacent to the remains.”
Acevedo is also accused of raping and kidnapping two more women, and gross sexual imposition against a third.
McGinty says authorities zeroed in on Acevedo after taking a closer look this year at cold cases in Ariel Castro’s neighborhood to be sure Castro wasn’t involved. Acevedo’s last listed address in the state sexual offender registry is just down the street from Castro’s former house, but McGinty says Castro has no connection to this case.
