The 31-year-old man accused of raping and killing a Morrow teenager is also accused of killing a 61-year-old woman and committing a string of armed robberies across the south metro area, police said Thursday afternoon.
Artemio Hernandez was arrested last week by DeKalb County police as he tried to rob a Payless Shoe Source, police said. Since then, he's been linked to crimes in Henry and Clayton counties. On Tuesday, he confessed to killing 17-year-old Monica Ambriz, who took a break from work Oct. 16 and never returned, Clayton County police said.
Ambriz's body was found Oct. 26 in an abandoned building on Arrowhead Boulevard, about a mile from the El Progresso grocery store where she worked. Authorities have not said how she was killed.
Hernandez will face murder charges for allegedly killing Ambriz and a Forest Park woman, police said.
Four days before Ambriz went missing, Maria Gloria Galvan De Rivera was found dead in her home. Police believe robbery was the motive for killing the woman, who died from a combination of blunt force trauma, strangulation and stabbing, Forest Park police said.
Hernandez is also the suspect in several robberies. Those include:
- On Oct. 17, El Banco on Tara Boulevard was robbed at gunpoint by a man who jumped over the counter, police said. The suspect stated, "Don't move or I'll shoot you 15 times (expletive). Give me the money," police said.
- On Oct. 23, a North Henry Boulevard nail salon was robbed at gunpoint, police said. Two female employees were zip tied, and the male suspect tried to remove the pants from one victim and put his hand down the shirt of another, police said.
- On Oct 24, a male with the same description entered a nearby hair salon on the same road, produced a gun and demanded money, police said.
- On Oct. 25 at the Paleteria La De Michoacan, an ice cream shop on Jonesboro Road in Forest Park, a man jumped over a cooler and pulled a gun on a store employee and a child before stealing money.
- Oct 26, Hernandez was arrested in the Payless store near Chamblee during a robbery attempt. He was transported to the DeKalb County jail, where he is being held without bond.
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