Police searching for tech entrepreneur’s killer: ‘He will do anything he can to cause harm’

Authorities are looking for an armed and dangerous man who they believe killed Pava LaPere, a tech startup entrepreneur in Baltimore.

Acting According to Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley, police have an arrest warrant out for 32-year-old Jason Billingsley in connection with LaPere’s death. Worley described Billingsley as armed and dangerous, and advised Baltimore residents to avoid him if they see him. Billingsley, according to Worley, is a suspect in “at least one other case.”

“He will do anything he can to cause harm,” Worley explained. “This individual will kill, and he will rape.”

Officers discovered LaPere, 26, in an apartment in the 300 block of West Franklin Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood around 11:34 a.m. with signs of blunt-force trauma, and the state medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide Tuesday afternoon.

LaPere founded EcoMap Technologies while still a student at Johns Hopkins University, where she graduated in 2019. The company’s headquarters are also located in the 300 block of West Franklin Street.

“Pava was a very young, talented, devoted Baltimorean and someone I had the opportunity to get to know over the past few years, who would help anyone she could see,” said Mayor Brandon Scott.

According to online court records, Billingsley pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense in 2015 and received a 30-year prison sentence, with all but 14 years suspended.

LaPere was discovered hours after a missing person report was filed, according to Worley. He declined to comment on whether LaPere was discovered in her own home, citing the ongoing investigation. “It was a secure building, where someone had to allow the individual into the building,” Worley stated.

“The Johns Hopkins community deeply mourns the tragic loss of Pava LaPere, a 2019 graduate who made Baltimore her home and invested her talent in our city,” Hopkins spokesperson Jill Rosen said. Pava was well-known and well-liked in the Baltimore entrepreneurial community, and he will be sorely missed. In this difficult time, our hearts go out to her family.”

EcoMap Technologies has created data maps of over 12 business ecosystems, including one of Baltimore’s Black-owned businesses. According to a news release, the company announced in August that it had raised $8 million from venture capital firms.

“Her untiring commitment to our company, to Baltimore, to amplifying the critical work of ecosystems across the country, and to building a deeply inclusive culture as a leader, friend, and partner set a standard for leadership, and her legacy will live on through the work we continue to do,” EcoMap Technologies said in a press release. The public is invited to a vigil beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon. The company tweeted on Wednesday.

LaPere, who grew up in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to Baltimore, also founded Innov8MD, a non-profit that assists Hopkins student entrepreneurs. She served on the board of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Loyola University Maryland and was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists for social impact in 2023.

The news of LaPere’s death spread quickly throughout Baltimore’s technology industry, with many who had met or worked with her praising her impact on the community.

“Pava was a brilliant, creative, compassionate, and outstanding leader.” “She did more with the time she had in her 26 years on this planet than most people do in a lifetime,” Jamie McDonald, CEO of UpSurge Baltimore, said in a statement. “Pava made an indelible impression on our community.” Pava’s personal and professional contributions to the Baltimore ecosystem have made it stronger, more resilient, and courageous.”

In a Tuesday newsletter, Alanah Nichole Davis, the lead Baltimore reporter for technology news site technical.ly, said she met LaPere in May and conducted an on-camera interview with her a few months later to report on EcoMap’s plans for spending an influx of extra seed capital.

“I’ve spent the day watching bits of that interview while grieving in my own way between working,” wrote Davis. “What struck me was how Pava exuded warmth and joy over her work.”