A routine Facebook Marketplace meeting in suburban Illinois ended in a level of violence that investigators describe as almost unimaginable. Prosecutors say a 30-year-old pregnant mother, Eliza Morales, was lured into what she believed was a simple vehicle sale, then brutally attacked inside her own home. She and her unborn baby did not survive, turning an everyday online transaction into a case that has shaken both Downers Grove and the wider community of people who rely on digital marketplaces.
What unfolded in that apartment, according to charging documents, was not a spontaneous argument but a sustained assault that left even seasoned law enforcement officials searching for words. As more details emerge in Court filings and surveillance records, the story has become a grim warning about how quickly a familiar platform can become the setting for lethal violence when a buyer arrives with a hidden agenda instead of cash.
The victim, the suspect, and a community in shock
Authorities have identified the victim as Eliza Morales, a 30-year-old pregnant mother whose life, and that of her unborn child, was cut short in the attack. Investigators say she had been expecting a buyer interested in a pickup truck her family had listed online, a plan that seemed ordinary enough for a weekday evening in Downers Grove until it turned into a fatal encounter. In the days since, neighbors and relatives have been left to process how a woman preparing to expand her family instead became the center of a homicide case that officials describe as an act of almost unfathomable cruelty, with Eliza Morales and her unborn baby both killed.
Prosecutors have charged 19-year-old Nedas Revuckas of Westmont as the suspect in the killing, portraying him as a teenager who arrived at the apartment under the guise of a buyer but instead carried out a calculated attack. Officials say the case has rattled DuPage County, where violent crime at this level is relatively rare and where residents are accustomed to treating online sales as a manageable risk rather than a potential death sentence. The combination of a young suspect, a pregnant victim, and the domestic setting of the crime has turned the case into a flashpoint for conversations about safety, trust, and the darker possibilities that can lurk behind a profile picture and a chat thread.
A Facebook Marketplace sale that never felt unusual
According to Court documents, the meeting that preceded the killing began as a straightforward attempt to sell a pickup truck through Facebook Marketplace. Investigators say Revuckas had arranged to see a Ford Ranger that Morales’ husband had listed, a detail that underscores how ordinary the setup appeared until the moment it turned violent. The husband’s decision to use a popular platform to move a used vehicle mirrors what countless families do every week, which is part of why the case has resonated so widely among people who rely on Facebook Marketplace for everything from furniture to family cars…