Baltimore police are searching for a suspect in the slaying of a tech company executive who was found dead in her apartment Monday morning.
At a news conference Tuesday, police said they have issued an arrest warrant for 32-year-old Jason Dean Billingsley in connection with the death of Pave LaPere, the 26-year-old founder and CEO of EcoMap Technologies.
In a statement obtained by PEOPLE from the Baltimore Police Department, Billingsley is wanted for alleged first-degree murder.
“BPD’s Special Investigations Division is working to determine potential connections to Billingsley and other cases,” the statement added.
“This person will kill and rape,” Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley told a news conference. “He will do everything he can to harm.”
LaPere was found dead with signs of blunt force trauma in her Mount Vernon apartment building around 11:30 a.m. Monday, police said. The Johns Hopkins University graduate was reported missing before her death, according to authorities.
Police said they do not believe Billingsley knew the victim.
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Jason Dean Billingsley.
Baltimore Police Department
In a statement on Facebook, EcoMap Technologies wrote that LaPere “was not only the visionary force behind EcoMap, but also a deeply compassionate and dedicated leader.
“Her tireless commitment to our company, Baltimore, enhancing critical ecosystem work across the country, and building a deeply inclusive culture as a leader, friend and partner has set the standard for leadership, and her legacy will live on through the work we continue to do.”
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LaPere is featured on Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 list for social impact in 2023.
According to Forbesher clients have included the Aspen Institute, Meta, the WXR Fund and the T. Rowe Price Foundation.
“She embodied what it was to be a dreamer,” RareBreed Ventures director McKeever Conwell, who knew LaPere, told WJZ News. “What it was like to be an entrepreneur. She is the type of woman I would want to mentor my daughter.”
Billingsley was arrested in 2013, 2011 and 2009 on multiple charges including “sexual assault, second-degree assault charges and robbery,” according to a BPD news release.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Baltimore Police Department at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
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Source: HIS Education