A sex worker from Ohio has been sentenced in what the state’s attorney general called a “serial murder” after killing four men.
Rebecca Auborn, 35, received four consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole after 60 years during a Thursday hearing where her victims’ loved ones spoke out.
“No matter how much torment this has caused, I could not ever bring myself to hate you and I never will,” Christyn Crockett, the daughter of victim Wayne Akin, told the court, per The Columbus Dispatch.
From December 2022 to June 2023, Auborn met men for sex in exchange for money across Columbus and then intentionally overdosed the victims with fentanyl to steal from them, according to Ohio prosecutors.
Four men overdosed as a result of Auborn’s actions: Joseph Crumpler, a 30-year-old from North Linden who died in January 2023; Robert Snoke, a 54-year-old from Pataskala who died in April 2023; Wayne Akin, a 64-year-old from the Northeast Side who died in April 2023 and Guy Renda, a 42-year-old from Belpre who died in June 2023.
Akin’s daughter has said it’s unclear whether her father was Auborn’s client, per NBC News.
Another man, 61-year-old Richard Bixler of Columbus, had survived Auborn’s attempted overdose.
Auborn was indicted in September 2023 and pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count of felonious assault last December.
“This sentence reflects the defendant’s disregard for life and the callousness not only to kill, but to do it repeatedly,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one – I pray that this measure of justice brings them closure and peace.”
Crumpler’s brother, Mark Crumpler, said of Auborn in court, “I hope at the end of the day hell denies her the peace my brother now has,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Auborn’s attorney, Mark Hunt, said his client had been abused since before she was a teenager.
He said she is a different person now, and “if she had not confessed to these, you guys aren’t getting justice at all,” per The Columbus Dispatch.
