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Rebecca Auborn Is Indicted in Four Columbus Overdose Deaths Ohio Calls Serial Killings

A Franklin County grand jury charged the Columbus woman with four murders. Officials say she met men for sex and drugged them to rob them. A fifth man survived.

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Rebecca Auborn, in jail clothing, seated in an Ohio courtroom beside a deputy

On October 25, 2023, a Franklin County grand jury indicted Rebecca Auborn in the overdose deaths of four men. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the charges that day and called the case what they believed it to be: serial killings. Auborn, 33, of Columbus, was accused of meeting men for sex and drugging them so she could rob them.

The indictment charged her with four counts of murder, four of involuntary manslaughter, five of aggravated robbery, five of felonious assault, five of corrupting another with drugs, four of trafficking in drugs and one of tampering with evidence, all felonies. Indictments contain only allegations, and Auborn was presumed innocent.

The case began with a tip. According to the attorney general's office, the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force learned that a woman was meeting men for sex in northeast Columbus and then dosing the "johns" with drugs to steal their belongings. Columbus homicide detectives, who lead the task force, and special agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation tied Auborn to a string of overdoses and robberies. The Columbus Dispatch reported that the meetings took place at hotels.

The release listed five men by number and date only. The first survived an overdose on December 13, 2022. The others did not. They died on January 15, April 1, April 13 and June 17, 2023. None of the men was named.

Auborn was already in the Franklin County jail. On September 11, as part of the same investigation, she had been charged with aggravated robbery, felonious assault, murder, corrupting another with drugs, trafficking in drugs and the illegal manufacture of drugs, charges the Dispatch tied to the January overdose death of a 30-year-old man in North Linden. The October indictment widened that case to all five men.

Yost aimed his warning at the men on the other side of those meetings. Buying sex in Ohio, he said, "ruins lives and could cost you yours." Chief Bryant credited the joint work with the state investigators and said her department was committed to justice for the victims and their families.

Investigators did not think the count was complete. They said there might be more victims and were concentrating on Auborn's movements between December 2022 and August 2023 in the area bounded by Interstate 71, State Route 161, Cleveland Avenue and East 17th Avenue, and they asked anyone with information about an overdose death there in that period to call the Columbus police homicide tip line.

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