CHICAGO — While her husband was at work Monday evening, Eliza Morales planned to meet the 19-year-old who had purchased the couple’s pickup truck on Facebook Marketplace at her Downers Grove apartment.

In mere minutes, the transaction turned deadly. The teen brutally stabbed the 30-year-old pregnant mother around 70 times because he was “upset” about the truck’s condition, killing her and her unborn child before setting her home on fire, DuPage County prosecutors said in court.

Nedas Revuckas, of Westmont, appeared before Judge Joshua Dieden for an initial court appearance Thursday, wearing an orange jumpsuit and showing minimal emotion. Charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, armed robbery, arson and aggravated cruelty to animals, Revuckas was ordered detained while awaiting trial.

Revuckas is both “violent” and has “difficulty controlling his emotions,” which poses a danger to the community, Dieden said in ordering him detained. The accusations against him are “troubling, chilling and significant,” Dieden added.

“Rather than stop, he continued the merciless attack on (Morales),” Dieden said.

In a phone call with the Tribune, Morales’ mother-in-law, Angelica Silva, said she never imagined such a devastating crime could happen to someone so caring.

Morales was the kind of person who was “always trying to help someone,” Silva said. She cared deeply about children and human rights causes, and recently converted to Islam. She worked in the payroll department at Lurie Children’s Hospital, and dreamed of having at least two more kids one day. She and her husband were high school sweethearts, Silva added.

“She always said my kids are going to be smart, they’re going to read, they’re going to know,” Silva said. “She always was at the library with the baby, always trying to absorb knowledge.”

Morales was about five months’ pregnant. Silva was babysitting her daughter, who is 1½ years old, at the time of the attack. A GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $60,000 as of Thursday morning, was started to support the family.

“We were probably eating dinner while she was being murdered,” Silva said tearfully. “She was fighting for her life. The whole apartment you can tell she fought for her life. Her handprints of her getting up and falling are all over the walls.”

70 stab wounds

Assistant State’s Attorney Alyssa Rabulinski said in court Thursday that video surveillance showed Revuckas arriving at Morales’ apartment in the 2300 block of Ogden Avenue just before 5:30 p.m. Monday. He had arranged on Facebook with Morales’ husband to pick up the bill of sale and license plate for the pickup truck he first expressed interest in buying from the couple two days earlier.

The footage showed Morales interacting with Revuckas in the building’s vestibule and inside of the couple’s unit, Rabulinski said. Her husband wasn’t at home at the time.

By 5:49 p.m., Morales and Revuckas are shown in what appears to be a struggle, and the door to her apartment quickly closes. The handle on the door continued turning from the inside, indicating that someone — likely Morales — was attempting to escape, Rabulinski said.

About 20 minutes later, prosecutors said smoke was seen escaping from under the door. The Downers Grove Fire Department quickly arrived at the scene, finding Morales near the door. She was pronounced dead in the ambulance, Rabulinski said. Revuckas was arrested just before midnight.

An autopsy from the DuPage County coroner’s office found her cause of death to be “multiple sharp force injuries.” They estimated there were 70 stab wounds, most of which were from a knife to her head and neck. She also had defensive injuries and soot in her airways.

During the struggle, Rabulinski also alleged Revuckas stabbed the family’s elderly, red-nosed pit bull mix, named Zula, between the eyes. He also later admitted to kicking the dog, who escaped out of a sliding door during the fire, prosecutors said. The dog was under the care of an animal hospital.

“It is a horrific act of violence, and it’s not something that we typically see in DuPage County,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin said at a Thursday news conference. “It’s unconscionable, an unconscionable level of violence.”

Revuckas’ public defender argued in court that Revuckas is a young adult whose brain is still developing. He works full time as a painter and is in school for an electrical apprenticeship. He has no criminal history.

‘It just happened’

During a police interview, Revuckas confessed to murdering Morales, Rabulinski said. He said he had been “upset” about the condition of the pickup truck he purchased.

He told police he wanted to confront Morales’ husband, and that Morales “didn’t do anything wrong.” But he took out his frustration on her anyway, Rabulinski said.

Revuckas said in the interview that he didn’t plan on killing Morales, but that he lost control and “it just happened.”

During the fight, Morales told him she was pregnant, prosecutors said. But Revuckas said by that point, “she was basically dead to me.”

Revuckas also admitted to setting the fire. He stacked household items on a stovetop and used household chemicals and sanitizer as an accelerant, Rabulinski said.

“I thought maybe just erase it all,” Revuckas told detectives.

During a search of Revuckas’ home, officers found the bloody boots Revuckas wore at Morales’ apartment, which were shown on the surveillance video. Revuckas later took detectives to an Ace Hardware where he swapped out of his jacket and took off his bloody clothes, prosecutors said.

At the store, detectives found the plastic bag he threw out, which contained his bloody camouflage jacket, Morales’ work lanyard and her husband’s debit card. There were also two bloody gloves and pieces of what appeared to be Morales’ cellphone. In Revuckas’ truck, detectives saw blood on the driver‘s-side door and steering wheel as well as about $200 on the driver’s seat, some of which was bloody. Investigators said they have not yet located the knife.

Downers Grove police Chief Michael DeVries said at the Thursday news conference that he felt someone “looking over us” during their speedy investigation.

“I’m thankful that we have an outcome for Eliza, her family and her unborn child, and I’m hopeful that this provides a sense of peace for the family as they deal with this tragic situation,” he said.

Rabulinski relayed in court an interaction between a detective and Revuckas. The detective told Revuckas that while he showed no remorse at first, now “you know what you did was wrong. I’m not going to sugarcoat. It’s pretty bad,” .

“I know,” Revuckas responded.

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