A woman whomOhio Attorney General Dave Yost called a "serial killer"admitted on Dec. 19 to causing the fatal overdoses of four men who had met her for sex.
Rebecca Auborn, 36, from Columbus, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of felonious assault in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. She is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing Feb. 20.
Columbus police arrested and charged Auborn in 2023 in the four overdose deaths, which occurred at Northeast Side hotels in Columbus.
According to court records, Auborn met with the men for sexual encounters. During those encounters, she would give the men drugs and rob them. Four men died, but a fifth lived. The survivor helped lead police to Auborn, court records say.
Her meetings with the men took place athotels on the Northeast Side, particularly along Interstate 71, State Route 161, Cleveland Avenue, and East 17th Avenue. Thefatal overdoses occurred on Jan. 15, 2023, April 1, 2023, April 13, 2023, and April 17, 2023. The man who survived met Auborn on Dec. 13, 2022.
Court records say Auborn told detectives in one case she had mixed fentanyl in a man's crack pipe during the meeting. Auborn knew the man was overdosing but took his vehicle and debit card, according to court records.
Themen who died were identifiedas:
Joseph Crumpler, 30, of the Northeast Side, who died on Jan. 15, 2023.
Robert Snoke, 54, of Pataskala, who died on April 1, 2023.
Wayne Akin, 64, of the Northeast Side, who died on April 17, 2023. Court records say Akin got fentanyl from Auborn on April 13.
Guy Renda, 42, of the Southeast Side, who died on June 17, 2023.
Following Auborn's indictment, Yost labeled hera serial killerbecause she had multiple victims who died from a similar pattern of behavior over a period of time. There is no set definition of a serial killer among academics, law enforcement and psychologists, but most definitions agree that someone who kills at least three victims should be identified as such.
Auborn faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years for each of the four murder charges and a maximum of 11 to 16½ years in prison for the felonious assault charge.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Held Phipps will decide whether Auborn's prison sentences will run at the same time or consecutively.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached atbbruner@dispatch.comor on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch:Ohio 'serial killer' Rebecca Auborn admits to killing four men
