Robert Gene Rembert, Jr. (born March 15, 1970) is an American

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who committed at least five murders in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, from 1997 to 2015. He was arrested due to DNA profiling, fully admitting his guilt at trial, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a chance for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

in 30 years. Authorities from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

suspect Rembert of killing many more women while he was traveling there for his job as a

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

. He is also suspected of killing more women in

and other local

cities and towns.

Early life

Robert Gene Rembert Jr. was born on March 15, 1970 in

to father Robert Gene Rembert Sr. and an unknown mother. Little else is known about Rembert's childhood.

1997 murder

On December 23, 1997, Rembert, a then 27-year-old who worked as a Cleveland bus driver, got into an argument with 24-year-old Dadren Lewis at a parking lot, which resulted in Lewis being shot. At trial, his lawyers managed to convince the judge that it was unintentional, and in 1998, Robert was found guilty of manslaughter and served 6 years in jail. Rembert was released in 2004 and after, he returned to Cleveland and found a job as a truck driver, frequently abusing alcohol and living on modest means. At the time of his arrest, he was having financial difficulties and problems with housing, due to which, shortly before his arrest, he had to live with relatives and friends.

2015 murders

On September 21, 2015, Rembert was pulled over by police at a truck service stop in Medina County outside Cleveland. He was driving an SUV that belonged to 26-year-old Morgan Nietzel, who had been found shot to death in her Cleveland home the previous day. The body of 52-year-old Jerry Rembert, Robert Rembert's cousin who was providing lodging for Robert, had also been found. After his arrest, Rembert admitted that on the previous evening, he had gotten into an argument with his cousin Jerry, during which he shot him and Nietzel, a mutual friend of the two. After he killed them, Rembert stole several items and Nietzel's car.

Exposure

During the subsequent investigation, a blood and saliva sample was taken from Rembert for testing. Based on results from a complete DNA profiling test, Rembert was linked to the murder of 31-year-old Kimberly Hall, who was found beaten and raped on June 10 of that year, and an older murder dating back to May 1997, when 47-year-old Rita May Payne was killed in Cleveland. Both women were prostitutes. Rembert accepted a plea bargain from the authorities, admitting to all the killings and providing details for each. He said that at the time of the Payne murder, he was working as a bus driver and killed the woman by luring her into a public service toilet at the Cleveland bus station. Despite the fact that bus drivers and station workers were investigated, Robert slipped by unnoticed. Due to his job as a truck driver, visiting many cities in Ohio and

, he was investigated in the murders of several other girls and women who were engaged in prostitution and were killed under similar circumstances. So far, no new charges have been brought against him.

Trial

On the basis of the plea bargain, Rembert was found guilty of four murders and on October 16, 2018, received a life imprisonment term with a chance of parole after 30 years. During the sentencing, he expressed remorse for what he had done and asked for forgiveness from the victims' relatives.

References