NEED TO KNOW
- Rebecca Auborn pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of felonious assault on Dec. 19, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office
- Auborn was indicted in October 2023 and charged with four overdoses and robberies that occurred between January and June of that year
- One man survived an attempted overdose in December 2022
An Ohio “serial killer” pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of felonious assault on Friday, Dec. 19.
Rebecca Auborn of Columbus, Ohio, entered her plea in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, according to court records seen by PEOPLE. Auborn, 36, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20, 2026, according to a press release from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
“Today’s plea closes a tough case,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a press release. “An overwhelming amount of convincing evidence and an airtight investigation conducted by BCI and Columbus Police left no doubt that a conviction was forthcoming. When law enforcement works together, there’s hope for families to secure justice.”
Related Stories
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/tristan-cork-christmas-display-121625-1-278ae7f829dd4941b17420a949081f3c.jpg)
Auborn was meeting men for sex in northeast Columbus, Ohio, then dosing them with drugs with the intent to rob them, the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, established under Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, found.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Investigators were able to connect Auborn with four overdoses and robberies that occurred between January and June 2023. One man also survived an attempted overdose in connection with Auborn in December 2022, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/People_Onsite_ATF_Overlay_DesktopVersion_070125_qr_code11-6a9808bc1dfa4c2a9603155d7a5343d3.png)
Officials previously named the victims as Wayne Akin, 64; Robert Snoke, 54; Joseph Crumpler, 30; and Guy Renda Jr., 42, according to NBC News.
“I’ve spent two years preparing for the worst, and now it’s almost over. The grieving process can finally begin,” a family member of Akin’s told NBC News in a text.
In 2023, Yost described Auborn as a “serial killer.”
“For me, if you’ve got somebody that has a series of killings that are separated in time, they’re a serial killer,” Yost told The Dispatch at the time. “We have the same MO here. Could there be arguments about whether that fits? Pick your definition, and it fits, or it doesn’t.”
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Columbus Division of Police. The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office is prosecuting the case, per the D.A.’s press release.
Auborn was indicted on the charges in 2023 and faces up to 69 years to life in prison, NBC News reported.
Read the full article here


:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(684x354:686x356)/ohio-serial-killer-rebecca-auborn-122225-6b3add6031b3446da56ed5f171820ec7.jpg)