COLUMBUS – A Columbus woman who allegedly met men for sex and drugged them so she could rob them has been labelled a serial killer after four of those men suffered fatal overdoses.
Rebecca Auborn has been indicted in four murders between January and June of this year after and investigators believe there may be additional victims, according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Columbus Division of Police chief Elaine Bryant.
Investigators are concentrating their efforts on Auborn’s activities between December and August in a large section of the Northeast Side. (see map)
Anyone with information related to overdose deaths that occurred during those time periods and near those locations should contact the Columbus Division of Police homicide tip line at 614-645-2228.
Auborn, 33, faces four counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated robbery, five counts of felonious assault, five counts of corrupting another with drugs, one count of tampering with evidence and four counts of trafficking in drugs, all felonies Yost and Bryant announced Wednesday.
The indictment handed down Wednesday by a Franklin County grand jury stems from a joint investigation by homicide detectives from the Columbus Division of Police and special agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, formed under the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission in Yost’s office, received information that a woman was allegedly meeting men for sex in northeast Columbus, then dosing the “johns” with drugs in order to steal their possessions.
During their investigation, Columbus detectives and BCI agents connected Auborn to several overdoses and robberies: An attempted overdose on Dec. 13, where the victim survived, and fatal overdoses on Jan. 15, April 1 and 13 and June 17, authorities said.
Auborn had previously been charged with a number of drug-related and robbery offenses and has been in the Franklin County jail since September.