Suspect in murder of Forbes ‘30 under 30’ tech CEO Pava LaPere busted at train station after 2-day manhunt

The convicted felon suspected of murdering tech CEO Pava LaPere in her Baltimore apartment was arrested Wednesday night, according to authorities and a report.

Jason Billingsley, 32, who was considered highly dangerous while on the run, was nabbed just after 11:10 p.m. in Bowie, Maryland, after two days on the lam, according to a since-deleted tweet by the US Marshals Service in Baltimore.

Sources also confirmed to local station Fox 45 News that investigators tracked the fugitive to the MARC train station on Laurel-Bowie Road, where they arrested him without incident. 

Billingsley was named the sole suspect in the murder of LaPere, who was reported missing Monday and later found dead with blunt-force trauma to her head.

The 26-year-old founder of EcoMap Technologies, who was named on this year’s Forbes 30 under 30 list for social impact, was discovered badly beaten and partially clothed on the rooftop of her upscale Baltimore apartment building. 

Billingsley is still on mandatory supervision for a violent rape and assault of a 25-year-old woman in 2013. 

Police warned the public to beware of the alleged killer — who is also a suspect in a horrific attack on a man and woman about a week before LaPere was found dead. 

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Billingsley is being eyed as the man who broke into the man and woman’s house, where he handcuffed and duct-taped them at gunpoint and then allegedly raped the woman before slashing her neck. 

He then allegedly doused them in liquid and set them on fire, nearly killing them. A 5-year-old child who was in the home also suffered smoke inhalation. 

“This individual will kill and he will rape. He will do anything he can to cause harm,” acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley cautioned.

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Billingsley was released from prison on mandatory supervision in October 2022 after serving nine years of his 14-year sentence because he had amassed enough credit for good behavior to earn release, according to the Baltimore Banner. 

He had pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault for the 2013 attack and was sentenced to 14 years behind bars and another 16 years as a suspended sentence as part of a plea deal struck by the office of former DA Marilyn Mosby. 

The judge at the time said he didn’t think the sentence was enough but allowed it as the victim didn’t want to testify at trial. 

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Billingsley did not know LaPere and it’s unclear how he got into her apartment building. 

The young CEO launched her own company, EcoMap Technologies, from her dorm room at Johns Hopkins University. The company seeks to make information on what’s happening in different ecosystems accessible to all.

“Pava has been an inspiration to so many people,” her father, Frank LePere, wrote on Facebook. 

“She was driven, creative, hard-working, and relentless in her efforts, with her wonderful team at EcoMap Technologies.”